Opinion ID: 194521
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: facts

Text: The record supports the Board's finding of the following facts. The Company owns a dairy business that operates four plants, including one in Florence, New Jersey. In the summer of 1990, the United Food and Commercial Workers, Local 1360, United Food and Commercial Worker's International, AFL-CIO (the Union) began organizing in this plant. Two employees, 1 The Board's order is reported at Cumberland Farms, Inc., 307 N.L.R.B. 231 (1992). John Mariano and John Bartosh, distributed union authorization cards to the employees. Shortly after they began the membership drive, their immediate supervisor, Company foreman John Messner, questioned them on several occasions regarding their actions and progress.2 Thomas Sweeney, the Company's Human Resources Director, also questioned Mariano about his union activities in the presence of Bartosh.3 Mariano and Bartosh admitted involvement with the drive. On August 3, 1990, six days after Mariano and Bartosh began distributing Union authorization cards, the Company issued a letter to the employees urging them not to sign. At 5:30 p.m. of the same day, Emanuel Cavaco, the Company's Manager of Dairy Operations, Robert Wood, the Florence plant manager, Sweeney, and plant engineer Allen Canney met with Mariano in a conference room and stated that they had received complaints about his distribution of union authorization cards. Mariano responded that he distributed them during non-working time. Cavaco contended, however, that given the number of complaints received, he must have engaged in these activities during working hours as well. The meeting became more confrontational when Cavaco 2 On one occasion, Messner said, I heard you guys are giving out union cards. I'm all for the union; how's the guys responding? Are you getting a lot signed? On another occasion, he said: How are you guys doing? Have you got a lot of cards signed? How's the guys responding? I'm all for the union. 3 Sweeney asked, Hey, John, . . . anything new I should know about around here, like the union? -3- accused Mariano of violating a Company no-solicitation rule. After further questioning Cavaco stated, John, we took you out of the cooler; we put you in with the maintenance to learn something, and this is how you repay us. Do you have anything to say for yourself? When Mariano said no, Cavaco suspended him indefinitely. Wood and Canney then escorted Mariano off the property and denied him access to his locker. Upon reaching the gate Wood said, John, didn't we just speak [about a salary increase] a . . . week before this - and then you pull something like this? Do you have anything to say? Mariano left with the impression that the Company would further investigate. However, a week later, although no further inquiry was made, Mariano received a letter from the Company terminating him due to a comprehensive investigation concerning the no-solicitation policies. On the day that Mariano was suspended, Cavaco, Sweeney, and Wood subjected Bartosh to a similar interrogation regarding alleged complaints against him for violation of the nosolicitation rule. Bartosh flatly denied these charges. Cavaco reminded Bartosh that the Company treated him favorably by moving him to the maintenance department and that he therefore owed them. Bartosh was then escorted off the Company premises after he locked his tools. When Bartosh returned to the plant to retrieve his tools, Wood fired him for having solicited on company property. On August 16, various non-employee union organizers, -4- including Mariano and Bartosh, distributed union handbills on the public highway near the Company's plant entrance. Although the organizers were on public property, three Company security officers told one of them that they were on Company property and would be arrested if they did not leave. When they arrived, the Florence police officers indicated that the handbillers were not violating the law.