## Facts

- Harlem Globetrotters, Inc. (Harlem) employed professional basketball players represented for collective bargaining by the United Basketball Players Association (the union).
- The parties’ collective-bargaining agreement expired in August 1986, and they began negotiating a successor agreement.
- During negotiations, the union proposed contract terms requiring Harlem to make payments directly to the union in specified circumstances, including:
  - payments when players participated in certain public-relations and marketing activities, and
  - payments tied to Harlem entering television/network agreements.
- The union also demanded an annual season-end bonus paid to the union, which the union stated it would later distribute to players.
- Harlem rejected these demands, taking the position that direct employer-to-union payments were prohibited by § 302 of the Labor Management Relations Act (LMRA) absent a statutory exception.
- Bargaining reached an impasse, and the union struck in support of its payment demands.
- Separately, Harlem requested information from the union concerning:
  - payments certain players may have received from an emergency and scholarship fund, and
  - whether the union retained any portion of those funds rather than disbursing them to players.
- The union refused to provide the requested financial information.
- Harlem filed unfair labor practice charges alleging the union failed to bargain in good faith under NLRA § 8(b)(3) by insisting to impasse and striking over unlawful payment demands and by withholding information needed for bargaining.

## Issues

1. Whether the union violated NLRA § 8(b)(3) by insisting to impasse and striking to obtain contract provisions requiring Harlem to make direct payments to the union that would be unlawful under LMRA § 302.
2. Whether the union violated NLRA § 8(b)(3) by refusing to provide Harlem with requested information about disbursements from, and retention of monies in, an emergency and scholarship fund.

## Decision

- The NLRB held the union violated NLRA § 8(b)(3) by bargaining to impasse and striking in support of demands that would require Harlem to make employer-to-union payments barred by LMRA § 302.
- The NLRB held the union also violated NLRA § 8(b)(3) by refusing to furnish Harlem the requested financial information regarding the emergency and scholarship fund.
- The Board ordered remedial relief customary for § 8(b)(3) violations, including requiring the union to cease the unlawful conduct and to provide the requested information.

## Legal Principles

- A union violates NLRA § 8(b)(3) when it insists to impasse on a contract proposal that would require the employer to commit an unlawful act.
- LMRA § 302 generally prohibits an employer from paying money or other things of value to a labor organization that represents the employer’s employees, subject to limited statutory exceptions.
- A union cannot lawfully apply strike pressure to force acceptance of a proposal that would require § 302-prohibited employer-to-union payments, even if the union claims it would later pass the money through to employees.
- Good-faith bargaining under NLRA § 8(b)(3) includes an obligation to supply information that is reasonably necessary for the other party to carry out its bargaining responsibilities when the requested information bears on subjects raised in bargaining.
- A union’s refusal to provide requested financial information about a union-administered fund can constitute bad-faith bargaining where the information relates to the parties’ negotiations and the employer’s ability to evaluate the union’s monetary demands.

## Conclusion

The NLRB concluded that the union failed to bargain in good faith by pressing to impasse and striking over payment proposals structured as direct employer-to-union transfers prohibited by LMRA § 302, and by refusing to provide Harlem with requested information about emergency and scholarship fund disbursements and possible union retention of those monies.


United Basketball Players Association and Harlem Globetrotters, 294 NLRB 1191 857 (1989)