Trustees of the UIU Health & Welfare Fund v. New York Flame Proofing Co.

WINTER, Circuit Judge:

This case raises the question of whether an employer is bound by a multiemployer collective bargaining agreement. We hold that an employer creates actual and thereafter apparent authority in a multiemployer organization to bind the employer when that employer: (1) joins an organization whose principal or sole activity is to negotiate collective bargaining agreements on behalf of its members, and (2) knows of a universally observed custom that such members are bound by those agreements.

The employer consists of defendants-appellees New York Flame Proofing Co., Inc., and…