By Kevin Brown and Hollis Peterson ( April 18, 2018, 11:43 AM EDT) -- In an unpublished judgment in T-Mobile v. National Labor Relations Board, the D.C. Circuit recently affirmed the NLRB's 2001 holding in Levitz Furniture Co[1], confirming that an employer with objective proof that a union has lost majority support has only two choices — withdraw recognition completely or continue to bargain while awaiting the final results of a board election. Not wanting to risk the potential remedies associated with an unlawful withdrawal charge and facing interminable delays due to the union's filing of a blocking charge, T-Mobile created a third option for itself — bargaining on "imminent issues" only and refusing to bargain over a successor contract, while awaiting resolution of an employee-filed decertification petition. But in a 2-1 decision, the D.C. Circuit held that a "middle-ground" approach — including good-faith negotiation of limited issues — violates the National Labor Relations Act.[2]...