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🗞️ Tanker Company Ordered to the Bargaining Table After Two-Year Standoff with Maritime Officers Union

The NLRB ruled Alaska Tanker Company violated federal labor law by refusing to bargain with a certified maritime officers union for over two years, ordering the company to begin good-faith negotiations immediately.

onthelaborfront

onthelaborfront

— 3 min read
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🗞️ Tanker Company Ordered to the Bargaining Table After Two-Year Standoff with Maritime Officers Union

For more than two years, licensed deck officers aboard Alaska Tanker Company's fleet of crude oil tankers had a union but no seat at the bargaining table. That standoff ended on May 19, 2026, when the National Labor Relations Board issued a unanimous decision finding that the company had violated federal labor law and ordering it to begin good-faith negotiations without further delay.

The case traces its origins to a mail-ballot election held between September 2023 and January 2024, in which licensed deck officers — Chief Mates, Floating Chief Mates, Second Mates, and Third Mates — voted to be represented by the International Organization of Masters, Mates & Pilots (MM&P), a maritime labor union founded in 1887. The NLRB's Regional Director certified the union on January 26, 2024.

Alaska Tanker Company, a Beaverton, Oregon-based subsidiary of OSG Ship Management, Inc., moved quickly to contest the result. The union first requested recognition by email and letter on January 31, 2024. The following day, the company informed the union it was contesting the Regional Director's unit determination and intended to seek review. On March 5, 2024, the company formally advised the union it would not recognize or bargain while that request for review remained pending, and it maintained that position throughout.

The Board denied the company's request for review on March 18, 2026, and the General Counsel filed a Motion for Summary Judgment on March 25, 2026. The Board granted the motion in full. Writing for a three-member panel, Chairman James R. Murphy and Members David M. Prouty and Scott A. Mayer found that every representation issue the company raised had already been, or could have been, litigated in the underlying election proceeding. The company offered no newly discovered evidence and identified no special circumstances warranting reconsideration.

The company also advanced a set of constitutional arguments, including separation-of-powers challenges to the Board's structure, objections to NLRB adjudication of private rights outside an Article III court, and an invocation of the Major Questions Doctrine. The Board declined to consider those arguments, finding them to be unsupported bare assertions without explanation or evidence.

Alaska Tanker Company operates four Alaska-class crude oil tanker vessels carrying North Slope crude from Alaska to refineries along the West Coast. The company employs roughly 200 people and has been a wholly owned subsidiary of Overseas Shipholding Group since 2020, following OSG's acquisition of equity interests previously held by BP and Keystone Shipping.

Under the Board's order, the certification period, during which the union is entitled to a full year of good-faith bargaining free from decertification challenges, will not begin to run until the company actually commences bargaining with the union, a remedy the Board has applied in cases where employers have withheld recognition following a valid certification.

Key Points

  • Following a mail-ballot election conducted between September 19, 2023 and January 18, 2024, MM&P was certified as the exclusive bargaining representative of Alaska Tanker Company's licensed deck officers on January 26, 2024.
  • The certified bargaining unit covers Chief Mates, Floating Chief Mates, Second Mates, and Third Mates, excluding Captains, deck cadets, non-licensed deck officers, and supervisors.
  • The company refused to recognize or bargain with the union beginning March 5, 2024, contending the election had been conducted in an inappropriate unit.
  • The NLRB unanimously granted summary judgment on May 19, 2026, finding no new evidence or special circumstances to justify revisiting the representation proceeding.
  • Constitutional challenges to the NLRB's structure, including separation-of-powers and Major Questions Doctrine arguments, were dismissed for lack of substantiation.
  • The company is ordered to cease its refusal to bargain, post notices at its Beaverton, Oregon facility and aboard all vessels for 60 consecutive days, and file a compliance certification within 21 days of service by the Region.
  • The union's full one-year certification period will begin only when the company commences good-faith bargaining, not from the original certification date.

Primary Source Author: Chairman James R. Murphy, with Members David M. Prouty and Scott A. Mayer

Primary Source: Alaska Tanker Company, LLC, a subsidiary of OSG Ship Management, Inc., 374 NLRB No. 112 (May 19, 2026)

Primary Source Link: https://www.nlrb.gov/case/19-CA-336972

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