Opinion ID: 782952
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Incidents Involving Patrick Lamirande

Text: 4 On December 15, 1998, Teamsters member Patrick Lamirande, a production operator at the Baldwinsville brewery, allegedly obstructed an independent contractor doing work for Busch (the Contractor Incident). At approximately 11:15 the following morning, Mark Burlingame and Art Lux, members of the brewery's management, approached Lamirande and began questioning him about the incident. Lamirande promptly requested the presence and assistance of Dan Finn, a shop steward in Lamirande's department, who was already aware of the facts underlying the Contractor Incident. 6 Assuming Finn was at lunch, Burlingame declined this request, calling instead for Fred Vogel, another shop steward in Lamirande's department. Vogel arrived at the site of Lamirande's questioning within fifteen minutes, and after speaking privately with Lamirande, Vogel renewed the request for Finn's presence. Burlingame denied this request, stating that Lamirande should respond to the allegations immediately. Lamirande declined to discuss the matter without Finn, and Burlingame sent him home for the day. 5 The next morning, December 17, 1998, Lamirande was directed to Burlingame's office for a meeting with management. Upon reporting to the office, he met with Vogel, Burlingame, Lux, Howard Ormsby (a Teamsters business agent), and Ken Silva (a brewery assistant manager). Ormsby, speaking on Lamirande's behalf, requested that Finn be allowed to attend the meeting and represent Lamirande, but Silva insisted that Finn's presence was unnecessary. Lamirande was questioned without Finn, and Burlingame thereafter informed Lamirande that he would be disciplined for the Contractor Incident. As a result of these events, the Teamsters filed a charge with the Board, alleging that Busch had committed two unfair labor practices in refusing Lamirande's requests (on December 16 and 17) to be represented by Finn. 6 In assessing the Teamsters's allegations, the ALJ ruled that, under the Supreme Court's seminal decision in NLRB v. J. Weingarten, Inc., 420 U.S. 251, 95 S.Ct. 959, 43 L.Ed.2d 171 (1975), and pursuant to the Board's related precedents, an employee has the right to specify the representative he or she wants, and the employer is obligated to supply that representative absent some extenuating circumstances. ALJ Decision at 6. Pursuant to this principle, the ALJ concluded that, although Finn may have been eating lunch when Burlingame initially wanted to question Lamirande, Finn was nevertheless available as a representative. Id. Finn had previously circumscribed his lunch breaks in order to represent employees. In any event, Finn would have completed his lunch break within fifteen minutes of Lamirande's initial request. By its Order, the Board agreed with the ALJ's ruling that Busch had committed two unfair labor practices in denying Lamirande's requests to be represented by a particular shop steward. Order at 1.