Opinion ID: 386036
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Robert Montgomery.

Text: 11 The Board found § 8(a)(3) violations in two verbal warnings issued to employee Robert Montgomery on September 15 and October 20, 1976. We cannot conclude that substantial evidence supports the Board's conclusion. Because the General Counsel did not even address these warnings in his complaint, testimony regarding them is almost nonexistent. At one point, Montgomery testified that he did not recall the October 20 warning. The warnings dealt with intentional acts, the dropping of wires to prevent shutdown of a loom, which Montgomery admitted doing on several occasions. 12 Montgomery received written warnings on September 1 and October 1, 1976, for pressuring other employees to sign union cards. The Board found that the warnings violated § 8(a)(3) not because Montgomery's conduct was protected, but because his punishment was disproportionately harsh when compared to the company's treatment of similar conduct by James Wimmer, a known anti-union employee. The Board's conclusion properly recognizes that (w)hile the company had the right to enforce reasonable rules to maintain discipline during working hours, it may not distort those rules to club a union which is attempting to organize the employees. NLRB v. Overnite Transportation Co., 308 F.2d 284, 290 (4th Cir. 1962) (citations omitted). Discrimination is apparent when Montgomery's discipline is compared to Wimmer's. On two occasions, Montgomery made harassing but hardly genuinely threatening remarks to fellow employees. On both occasions he received immediate written warnings with no opportunity to speak in his own defense. Wimmer threatened Montgomery twice, once in the presence of a company supervisor, and physically assaulted him. The company initially issued only verbal warnings to Wimmer. Only when Montgomery filed assault charges with the local sheriff after the second incident did the company respond with a written warning to Wimmer. The company argues that the difference in treatment can be explained by supervisor Altice's belief that Wimmer's assault was provoked by Montgomery. However, Altice never offered such an explanation when he testified before the administrative law judge. Thus, the record provides ample support for the Board's finding that the warnings were discriminatory. 13 The Board found a final § 8(a)(3) violation in the discharge of Montgomery by plant manager Cruze on April 1, 1977. The company argues that it never discharged Montgomery, but that he voluntarily quit and that company policy prohibited his rehiring after his job had been posted as vacant. Because of inconsistencies in Cruze's testimony, the administrative law judge credited Montgomery's version of the events of April 1. Montgomery testified that he asked Cruze for a temporary layoff because he was nervous and afraid following Wimmer's assault. Cruze suggested that he visit the doctor. When Montgomery returned after a brief absence, Cruze presented him with hastily prepared termination papers and informed him that he had quit. Despite Montgomery's protests to the contrary Cruze stood firm, even when Montgomery returned to work with tools in hand on the next work day. Cruze's haste in ridding the company of a known union activist less than a week after he had been involved in an altercation with an anti-union employee provides ample basis for the Board's inference of discrimination, especially in light of the company's previous discriminatory treatment of Montgomery. The company's only explanation for the termination, that Montgomery voluntarily quit, is based on discredited testimony. 4 III. 14 § 8(a)(4) Violation. 15 Although the Board found that Montgomery's discharge violated § 8(a)(3) of the Act, it declined to find a violation of § 8(a)(4). That section provides: 16 It shall be an unfair labor practice for an employer ... to discharge or otherwise discriminate against an employee because he has filed charges or given testimony under this (Act). 17 29 U.S.C. § 158(a)(4) (1976). We hold that, once the Board discredited the company's explanation that Montgomery voluntarily quit his job, the evidence required a finding that Montgomery's discharge violated § 8(a)(4) as well as § 8(a)(3). 18 Montgomery participated in the investigation of charges filed on September 13, and 27, 1976, which alleged unfair labor practices in issuing disciplinary warnings to Montgomery. In his testimony, supervisor Altice volunteered that he was aware of Montgomery's participation in Board investigations at the time he issued the October 1 written warning. In fact, the record suggests that Montgomery made a regular practice of reporting alleged unfair labor practices to his supervisors and threatening to file charges. Only a week before his discharge, Montgomery told Altice that he intended to file charges if the company continued to countenance his harassment at the hands of Wimmer. On April 1, 1977, the day plant manager Cruze terminated Montgomery's employment, the company received the General Counsel's complaint alleging, inter alia, discrimination against Montgomery. 19 To explain Montgomery's termination, the company claimed that he was not discharged but that he left work voluntarily. The administrative law judge discredited that explanation and found that Montgomery was discharged as a result of union activity. Montgomery's complaints to the Board, threats of further complaints, and participation in Board investigations are inextricably bound to his other union activities. We find no rational basis for believing that the company reacted to one form of activity and not to the other. In keeping with the long judicial tradition of liberally applying § 8(a)(4) to prevent the Board's channels of information from being dried up by employer intimidation of prospective complainants and witnesses, NLRB v. Scrivener, 405 U.S. 117, 122, 92 S.Ct. 798, 801, 31 L.Ed.2d 79 (1972), we direct the Board to modify its order to find that Montgomery's discharge violated § 8(a)(4) of the Act.