{"id":18363,"date":"2012-01-06T19:02:45","date_gmt":"2012-01-07T00:02:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/?p=18363"},"modified":"2012-01-06T19:02:45","modified_gmt":"2012-01-07T00:02:45","slug":"kiewit-power-constructors-co-gets-jimmered","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/2012\/01\/kiewit-power-constructors-co-gets-jimmered\/","title":{"rendered":"Kiewit Power Constructors Co. Gets ‘Jimmered’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Case Background<\/span>: Kiewit Power Constructors Co. contested a National Labor Relations Board decision to reinstate two fired electricians for threatening workplace violence.\u00a0 Kiewit Power had warned\u00a0the electricians\u00a0that their breaks were too long, and that they may need to take them in a different location.\u00a0 The electricians responded by saying things would “get ugly” if they were disciplined and the supervisor “better bring [his] boxing gloves.”\u00a0 In reinstating the electricians, the NLRB found\u00a0 the statements “were merely figures of speech made in the course of a protected labor dispute.” \u00a0 Kiewit appealed the decision and case landed in front of the D.C. Circuit this past Spring.<\/p>\n

Outcome<\/span>: Kiewit got “jimmered” by the D.C. Circuit in an opinion authored by the Hon. Thomas B. Griffith this past fall.\u00a0 In relevant part:<\/p>\n

To state the obvious, no one thought that Judd and Bond were literally challenging their supervisor to a boxing match. Once we acknowledge that the employees were speaking in metaphor, the NLRB\u2019s interpretation is not unreasonable. It is not at all uncommon to speak of verbal sparring, knock-down arguments, shots below the belt, taking the gloves off, or to use other pugilistic argot without meaning actual fisticuffs. What these words stand for, of course, is a matter of context. Compare, e.g., [Link<\/a>] (last visited July 6, 2011) (the Capitals\u2019 Alex Ovechkin literally dropping gloves to fight the Rangers\u2019 Brandon Dubinsky), with [Link<\/a>] (last visited July 6, 2011) (describing Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin as promising that the \u201cgloves are coming off\u201d in the 2008 election), and Jonathan Weisman, Obama\u2019s Gloves Are Off \u2014 And May Need to Stay Off<\/em><\/a>, WASH. POST, Apr. 23, 2008, at A1.\u00a0 Indeed, such metaphors are part and parcel of competitive spirit. See [Link<\/a>] (describing college basketball phenom Jimmer Fredette as \u201cdestroy[ing]\u201d an opponent with his combination of longrange proficiency and acrobatic drives).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

~\u00a0Kiewit Power Constructors Co. v. NLRB<\/a>, 10th Cir., pg. 10 (Aug. 3, 2011)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Case Background: Kiewit Power Constructors Co. contested a National Labor Relations Board decision to reinstate two fired electricians for threatening workplace violence.\u00a0 Kiewit Power had warned\u00a0the electricians\u00a0that their breaks were too long, and that they may need to take them in a different location.\u00a0 The electricians responded by saying things would “get ugly” if they were disciplined and the supervisor “better bring [his] boxing gloves.”\u00a0 In reinstating the electricians, the NLRB found\u00a0 the statements “were merely figures of speech made in the course of a protected labor dispute.” \u00a0 Kiewit appealed the decision and case landed in front of the D.C. Circuit this past Spring. Outcome: Kiewit got “jimmered” by the D.C. Circuit in an opinion authored by the Hon. Thomas B. Griffith this past fall.\u00a0 In relevant part: To state the obvious, no one thought that Judd and Bond were literally challenging their supervisor to a boxing match. Once we acknowledge that the employees were speaking in metaphor, the NLRB\u2019s interpretation is not unreasonable. It is not at all uncommon to speak of verbal sparring, knock-down arguments, shots below the belt, taking the gloves off, or to use other pugilistic argot without meaning actual fisticuffs. What these words stand […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-corn"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18363"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18363\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18366,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18363\/revisions\/18366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}