Opinion ID: 368345
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Sinclair's Discharge.

Text: 16 The remaining unfair labor practice charges before us concern Michael Sinclair, another union activist discharged a few months after the strike. 17 In November 1976, the Company refused to pay Sinclair for eleven hours' funeral leave taken when his grandfather had died. On January 18, 1977, the Union filed an unfair labor practice charge that, Inter alia, referred to the denial of Sinclair's funeral leave request. Later that month, Sinclair submitted to the Board an affidavit in support of the Union's charge. 18 In early February 1977, Company vice president Saunders visited Sinclair's store and suggested that Sinclair should discuss his problems with him rather than taking them to the Union representative. About a week later, Sinclair was discharged, allegedly for being discourteous to a customer. 19 The Board determined that the Company violated sections 8(a)(3), (4), 9 and (1) of the Act by discharging Sinclair because of his union activities and his funeral leave complaint, and violated section 8(a)(1) by encouraging Sinclair to deal directly with the Company concerning grievances instead of going through the Union. 20 The Company's discharge of Sinclair rests on far less substantial grounds than the discharges of Smith and Atchison. Sinclair's good work record with the Company, the weak quality of the evidence of his discourteous conduct, the Company's superficial investigation of that incident, and the Company's abiding desire to weed out the strikers furnish an ample basis for an inference that the Company seized upon the discourtesy incident as a pretext to conceal its anti-union motive. Because Sinclair's funeral leave complaint provided part of the motivation for his discharge, we uphold the Board's determination that the Company violated not only section 8(a)(3) of the Act, but also section 8(a)(4). 21 In addition, substantial evidence supports the Board's finding of a section 8(a)(1) violation. The test is whether the employer engaged in conduct which reasonably tends to interfere with, restrain, or coerce employees in the free exercise of their rights under section 7. Russell Stover Candies, Inc. v. NLRB, 551 F.2d 204, 208 (8th Cir. 1977). Saunders' suggestion that Sinclair present his problems to him rather than to the Union meets this test. 22 Accordingly, we enforce the Board's order in full.