Personnel Manager Brenda Criddle, who reviewed the applications, was in charge of the hiring of hourly employees for the Canton project. We agree with the petitioner. While we must give proper deference to the orders of the Board, this court will not simply act as its enforcement arm. It is our responsibility to examine carefully both the Board's findings and its reasoning, to assure that the Board has considered the factors which are relevant to its choice of remedy and has chosen a remedy that effectuates the purposes of the Act. Id. Given the special expertise of the Board in the field of labor relations, we will accept the Board's factual determinations and reasonable inferences derived from these factual determinations if they are supported by substantial evidence on the record considered as a whole.
Substantial evidence is more than a mere scintilla.
It means such evidence as a reasonable mind might accept as adequate to support a conclusion. In order for the Board to establish a prima facie case for discriminatory refusal to hire, the Board must prove that a substantial or motivating factor in the company's rejection of the applicant was the applicant's union affiliation. In doing so, the Board must establish that the employer harbored animus toward the applicant because of his or her union affiliation. This is the very essence of its merit shop policy. But we will not allow the Board to punish an employer simply because that employer is anti-union.