Appeals Panel Clears Mining Firm for Declaring Union Impasse

A federal appeals court determined the NLRB’s legal analysis was “irrational” in finding that a sand and stone mining company engaged in bad faith bargaining by telling its workers’ union that it would stop contributing to the union pension plan.

RiverStone Group Inc. hadn’t put forth what’s known as the “best, last, and final” offer and continued to bargain with the union, so couldn’t be found to have prematurely declared an impasse and violated the law, the US Appeals Court for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled Friday.

The National Labor Relations Board held in 2023 that the company ...