Opinion ID: 405327
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: analysis of the unfair labor practices

Text: 19 We have little difficulty disposing of the challenges to the various unfair labor practices found by the Board. As noted earlier, see note 1 supra, our review of the record reveals that the Board's factual findings are supported by substantial evidence on the record as a whole and are therefore conclusive. 29 U.S.C. § 160(e), (f) (1976). Moreover, the Board's legal conclusions based on its factual findings are consistent with settled precedent. Accordingly, for the reasons set forth below, we affirm the Board's conclusions with respect to each of the unfair labor practice charges. 6 20
21 The Company does not dispute that coercive interrogation of employees concerning union activities, under circumstances like those involved in the three interrogations of Gerald Hall, violates section 8(a)(1) of the Act. E.g., Midwest Regional Joint Board, Amalgamated Clothing Workers v. NLRB, 564 F.2d 434, 443 (D.C.Cir.1977); Teamsters Local 633 v. NLRB, 509 F.2d 490, 493-95 (D.C.Cir.1974). Nor does the Company contest that the threatened discharge of an employee for union activities is an unfair labor practice prohibited by section 8(a)(1). E.g., NLRB v. Maywood Plant of Grede Plastics, 628 F.2d 1, 3 (D.C.Cir.1980) (per curiam). The Company contends, however, that the Board erred in finding that the interrogations and threatened discharge of Hall violated section 8(a)(1) because Hall is a supervisor and is therefore unprotected by the provisions of section 8(a)(1). 22 The Board adopted the A.L.J.'s finding that Hall was an employee, and not a supervisor, within the meaning of the Act. John Cuneo, Inc., 253 N.L.R.B. 1025, 1027, 1031-32 (1981); see 29 U.S.C. § 152(3), (11) (1976). The factual judgment of supervisory status, of course, lies ... squarely within the Board's ambit of expertise. Oil, Chemical & Atomic Workers v. NLRB, 445 F.2d 237, 241 (D.C.Cir.1971), cert. denied, 404 U.S. 1039, 92 S.Ct. 713, 30 L.Ed.2d 730 (1972). In the present case, we find the Board's judgment supported by substantial record evidence and fully consistent with applicable precedent. See, e.g., Oil, Chemical & Atomic Workers v. NLRB, 445 F.2d at 240-44; Amalgamated Clothing Workers v. NLRB, 420 F.2d 1296, 1300 (D.C.Cir.1969) (per curiam). We therefore decline to set aside the Board's determination that Gerald Hall was an employee within the meaning of the Act, see NLRB v. Hearst Publications, Inc., 322 U.S. 111, 130-31, 64 S.Ct. 851, 860-61, 88 L.Ed. 1170 (1944), and that the interrogations and threatened discharge were therefore unfair labor practices prohibited by section 8(a)(1). 7 23
24 The Company does not contest the Board's finding that it created an impression of surveillance of the employees' union activities when Supervisor Collins was directed to find out which employees had signed authorization cards and then interrogated one employee. The Board correctly concluded that creating an impression of surveillance violated section 8(a)(1). E.g., UAW v. NLRB, 455 F.2d 1357, 1367-68 (D.C.Cir.1971). 25 In addition, the Board concluded that the Company violated section 8(a)(1) on three separate occasions by taking pictures of its employees engaged in peaceful picketing. The Board concedes that an employer may validly photograph a picket line to substantiate picket line misconduct or to gather evidence for use in injunctive or unfair labor practice proceedings. See, e.g., NLRB v. Colonial Haven Nursing Home, Inc., 542 F.2d 691, 700-02 (7th Cir. 1976). The Board and the courts have long recognized, however, that picket line photography has the tendency to interfere with, restrain, or coerce employees engaged in protected concerted activity. See, e.g., Larand Leisurelies, Inc. v. NLRB, 523 F.2d 814, 819 (6th Cir. 1975); UAW v. NLRB, 455 F.2d at 1368; Flambeau Plastics Corp., 167 N.L.R.B. 735, 742-43 (1967), enforced, 401 F.2d 128 (7th Cir. 1968), cert. denied, 393 U.S. 1019, 89 S.Ct. 625, 21 L.Ed.2d 563 (1969). Accordingly, an employer must have a solid justification for its photography of employee picketing. NLRB v. Colonial Haven Nursing Home, Inc., 542 F.2d at 701. In this case we find no basis for setting aside the Board's finding that the Company lacked such justification for its photography and its conclusion that the Company's activity therefore violated section 8(a) (1). 8 26
27 The A.L.J. found that the employees who struck the Company on September 21 were aware of (the) unfair labor practices prior to the strike. John Cuneo, Inc., 253 N.L.R.B. at 1035. The A.L.J. therefore concluded that the strike which followed resulted both from the employer's refusal to bargain and from the pre-strike unfair labor practices. On this basis, the A.L.J. characterized the strike as an unfair labor practice strike from its inception. The Board rejected this characterization, stating: Board law holds that an unfair labor practice strike does not result merely because unfair labor practices precede the strike. Rather, there must be a causal connection between the two events which demonstrates that the strike is the direct outcome of the unfair labor practices. John Cuneo, Inc., 253 N.L.R.B. at 1026. The Board found nothing in the record to indicate that the employees were striking for any reason other than to gain recognition of the Union as their bargaining representative. 28 We agree with the Board's characterization of the strikers' initial purpose as recognition. A lawful strike for union recognition is an economic strike, unless unfair labor practices committed by the employer are a contributing cause of the strike. Mere awareness of unfair labor practices is insufficient to establish this causal connection. E.g., NLRB v. Pope Maintenance Corp., 573 F.2d 898, 906 (5th Cir. 1978); NLRB v. Colonial Haven Nursing Home, Inc., 542 F.2d 691, 704 (7th Cir. 1976). The Board fairly read the record here when it concluded that the employees' purpose in striking the Company was only to gain recognition for the Union and not to redress the unfair labor practices that had occurred before September 21, 1977. 9 29 For our present purposes, the rights of the strikers to reinstatement after their unconditional offer to return to work on November 14 were therefore the rights of economic strikers. 10 As economic strikers, the employees were not entitled to immediate reinstatement if they had been permanently replaced by substitute workers hired during the strike. E.g., NLRB v. Mackay Radio & Telegraph Co., 304 U.S. 333, 345-46, 58 S.Ct. 904, 910-11, 82 L.Ed. 1381 (1938). On the other hand, the strikers were entitled to reinstatement to any vacancies existing when they made their unconditional offers to return or to any vacancies resulting from a subsequent departure of permanent replacements or from an expansion of the Company's operations. E.g., NLRB v. Fleetwood Trailer Co., 389 U.S. 375, 380-81, 88 S.Ct. 543, 546-47, 19 L.Ed.2d 614 (1967); Retail, Wholesale & Department Store Union v. NLRB, 466 F.2d 380, 387-88 (D.C.Cir.1972); Laidlaw Corp., 171 N.L.R.B. 1366, 1368-70 (1968), enforced, 414 F.2d 99 (7th Cir. 1969), cert. denied, 397 U.S. 920, 90 S.Ct. 928, 25 L.Ed.2d 100 (1970). The employer bears the burden of showing that the economic strikers were permanently replaced and that no jobs subsequently became available, or that other legitimate business reasons existed for denying reinstatement. NLRB v. Fleetwood Trailer Co., 389 U.S. at 378, 88 S.Ct. at 545; NLRB v. Great Dane Trailers, Inc., 388 U.S. 26, 34-35, 87 S.Ct. 1792, 1797-1798, 18 L.Ed.2d 1027 (1967); Laidlaw Corp., 171 N.L.R.B. at 1369. 30 The Board found that the Company failed to carry its burden regarding the reinstatement of the striking employees in this case. By its own admission, the Company's evidence was incomplete and did not even indicate the total number of bargaining unit employees on the payroll on and after November 14. Moreover, the Company's own records indicate that new shop employees were hired on November 25 and on January 17, and that two replacement employees quit on November 30. Despite these four proven vacancies, the evidence reveals that no striking employee was reinstated until February 1. 11 Thus, in addition to the Company's failure to prove that the economic strikers had been permanently replaced and that no vacancies existed on November 14, the unrefuted evidence also indicates that the Company did not promptly offer reinstatement to striking employees as jobs became available after November 14. 12
31 When the first two striking employees were finally reinstated in February 1978, President Splawn told them that they should not talk about the Union on the job. It is well settled that the right of employees to self-organize and bargain collectively ... necessarily encompasses the right effectively to communicate with one another regarding self-organization at the jobsite. Beth Israel Hospital v. NLRB, 437 U.S. 483, 491, 98 S.Ct. 2463, 2468, 57 L.Ed.2d 370 (1978). Accordingly, absent a showing of special circumstances by the employer, restrictions on union solicitation during nonworking time are invalid. E.g., id. at 492-93, 98 S.Ct. at 2469-70; Republic Aviation Corp. v. NLRB, 324 U.S. 793, 65 S.Ct. 982, 89 L.Ed. 1372 (1945). The restriction in this case was not limited to working time and was otherwise inadequately justified by the Company. President Splawn's only explanation-that he wanted to keep peace in the work place-was vague and conclusory, and the rule apparently applied only to pro-union discussions. Given the discriminatory application of the rule and other evidence of the Company's anti-union bias, we have no difficulty upholding the Board conclusion that the no-union-talk rule was adopted for the purpose of discouraging union activity and interfered with employee rights in violation of section 8(a)(1). See United Steelworkers v. NLRB, 393 F.2d 661, 663 (D.C.Cir.1968). 32
33 In addition to the no-union-talk rule, the Company promulgated a new disciplinary system for tardiness when the first two striking employees returned in February 1978. Even though the Company previously had no established policy with respect to employee tardiness, the returning strikers were warned that they would be discharged if they were late for work three times. The Board found, and we have no reason to question, that the Company instituted the progressive discipline system for employee tardiness in order to discourage union membership. The Board thus properly concluded that the implementation of the new work rule violated sections 8(a)(1) and 8(a)(3). E.g., International Union of Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers v. NLRB, 440 F.2d 298 (D.C.Cir.1970) (per curiam). In addition, substantial evidence on the record supports the Board's finding that the new work rule was discriminatorily applied against union supporters in violation of sections 8(a)(1) and 8(a)(3). See, e.g., McGraw-Edison Co. v. NLRB, 533 F.2d 1266 (D.C.Cir.1976).