3rd Cir. Upholds Contractor’s Union Pact Citing Evergreen Clause

A New Jersey contractor remains bound by the evergreen provision in a collective bargaining pact with a sheet metal workers union because the company never gave notice of reopening negotiations on a new agreement, the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruled.

A majority of the three-judge panel on Friday affirmed the lower court’s ruling, but declined to consider the “novel question” whether the one-employee unit rule applies to certain union agreements in the construction industry. The contractor had attempted to rebuff the union grievances using the labor law principle, which allows businesses to repudiate CBAs when they ...