Section 29(8)
LABOR DISPUTE, Hourly employees, Production workers, Same establishment, Separate union contracts, Single facility, Skilled trades, Salaried technicians
CITE AS: Dixon (Kelvinator, Inc), 1980 BR 68643 (B79 08055).
Appeal pending: No
Claimant: Roger Dixon
Employer: Kelvinator, Inc.
Docket No: B79 08055 68643
BOARD OF REVIEW HOLDING: Where an employer has only one facility, and a strike by skilled trades and production workers results in the unemployment of salaried technicians covered by a separate union contract, the technicians are employed at the same establishment as the strikers.
FACTS: The Referee stated: "The facts show that the employer has one establishment in Michigan. The claimants in this case are technical salaried people and worked at the same place where the labor dispute occurred. Their unemployment in this case is clearly and concededly due to the strike by skilled trades and industrial workers who were employed at the one and only plant of this employer. The claimants were not involved in this strike, did not refuse to cross picket lines and there is no question that their unemployment was involuntary."
DECISION: The claimants are disqualified because of a labor dispute.
RATIONALE: The Board adopted the decision of the Referee, who
held; "[T]here is no question that the involuntary unemployment of the claimants was a category of involuntary unemployment which the legislature has specifically excluded from eligibility for unemployment compensation benefits. There was only one establishment in this case. All of the claimants-employees are employed at that establishment. Were we to engage in fancy linguistic footwork to conclude otherwise, we would be defeating, not advancing, the declared legislative policy. That policy is not only to relieve from involuntary unemployment, but to do so in a manner calculated to avoid any encouragement of work stoppages arising out of labor disputes."
11/90
3, 14:NA