Collyer Insulated Wire

Since 1937, Collyer Insulated Wire (Collyer) (defendant) had engaged in productive collective bargaining with its employees’ union. During collective-bargaining agreement (CBA) negotiations in 1969, Collyer sought to implement pay increases for skilled maintenance workers in an effort to retain skilled employees. The union rejected Collyer’s proposal, but the parties agreed to further negotiate a possible skill-factor wage increase after the execution of the CBA. Collyer and the union met three more times after executing the CBA, but they could not agree on a wage increase. The union claimed that it had agreed only to further negotiate wage increases on a plantwide basis in accordance with a job-evaluation system. However, Collier thought that the union might accept wage increases for skilled maintenance workers if those increases were justified under the job-evaluation system. Accordingly, Collyer announced a 20-cent-per-hour pay increase for skilled maintenance employees. Although the CBA provided for arbitration of “any controversy” between Collyer and the union, the union filed an unfair-labor-practice charge against Collyer with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) instead of filing a grievance. Collyer asserted that the union needed to follow the CBA’s grievance-arbitration provisions, but the trial examiner rejected Collyer’s argument and concluded that Collyer had violated § 8(a)(5) of the National Labor Relations Act by instituting the pay increase without the union’s agreement. In reviewing the trial examiner’s decision, the NLRB considered Collyer’s argument that the dispute should have been arbitrated pursuant to the CBA.