Opinion ID: 769851
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Permanent layoff of Collins and Roberts

Text: 24 Ed Collins responded to an advertisement in the Sandusky Register newspaper for a welder/fabricator position and was hired December 23, 1996. He was first assigned to manufacturing, then was moved to oven panel production in Plant 1. In April 1997, he became lead man for oven panel production. James Roberts was hired June 9, 1997 after responding to a Sandusky Register ad. Before coming to the Company, he had worked at Sandusky Cabinets for 15 years. He started as a shear operator, then moved to oven panel fabrication. Both Collins and Roberts attended the first union meeting on October 29, signed union authorization cards, and took union literature. Collins left the literature on his work table and discussed the union with other employees. Roberts put the handouts in his lunch box, but testified that he talked to, at least, Harvey and Johnson regarding the meeting the night before. On November 3, both men were told by supervisor Mike Belch not to make any more panels that day. At the end of the day, they were permanently laid off. The Company had never permanently laid off an employee before. 25 The Company alleges that Collins and Roberts were fired due to the Company's decision to stop production of oven panelsbecause of the cost of producing the panels. The Company began producing the panels in 1994. At the hearing before the ALJ, the Company did not present any cost-related figures and Boraski stated that he did not know the cost per panel of production. Nonetheless, the Company states that a target daily production was twelve to fifteen panels; and that panel production had declined to an unprofitable level by October 1997, so that in November, the Company decided to abandon oven panel production. The ALJ found that the record did not establish that the Company monitored declining levels of production, and did not discuss the need to make more panels with Collins or Roberts. To arrive at its decision, the ALJ relied on testimony from Collins and Roberts that they were not told that they needed to make more panels, and testimony that oven panel production was dependent on other employees' parts production. 26 General Fabrications also alleges that both Collins and Roberts were hired as laborers and were not qualified to be welder/fabricators given their lack of welding skills and, therefore, could not have been given other work instead of being laid off. The ALJ noted that both men were paid similarly to welder/fabricators at the Company and that they were paid more than laborers. Both men had some prior welding experience: Roberts's file contained a recommendation letter from Sandusky Cabinets that he worked on its welding line, and Collins's file contained three certifications of welding training. The oven panel position required some welding, although the Company stated that it was not the same type of welding needed for other positions at the facility. Further, at least some oven panels were built after the two were terminated. Finally, ads similar to those Collins and Roberts had responded to were placed by the Company in the Sandusky Register from November 1 to November 4, after their layoffs. 27 Given the evidence of anti-union animus, these employees' qualifications, and the Company's inability to support its assertion that the layoffs resulted from unprofitable panel production, see W.L. Bolin Co., 70 F.3d at 874, we find that substantial evidence exists to uphold the Board's determination that the Company fired Collins and Roberts because of anti-union animus, in violation of Section 8(a)(3), and that the Company failed to make its affirmative defense that it would have taken the same action absent protected activity.