Opinion ID: 748840
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Threatened Discharge of Hal DeTray

Text: 4 In September of 1993, VVM was installing a heating and air-conditioning system in an existing high school and its new addition in Pioneer, Ohio. This jobsite was within the territorial jurisdiction of Plumbers Local 50, 1 an Ohio-based union. However, VVM employed at the Pioneer jobsite not only members of Plumbers Local 50 but also members of Plumbers Local 166, 2 an Indiana-based union. On September 2, 1993, Bill Flowers, the business agent for Plumbers Local 50, visited the site and found that only one of three employees on the job that day was a member of Plumbers Local 50. That employee was Hal DeTray. The other two employees, Arden Reust and Bill Haines, were members of Plumbers Local 166. Flowers questioned Haines' right to work on the site and warned him that he should not come back the next day. He also ordered DeTray to inform him if any member of Local 166 worked on the Pioneer job. 5 Following Flowers' departure from the site, Reust, the foreman, called James Van Vlerah, the vice-president and 49% shareholder of VVM, to inform him of the incident. According to Reust, Van Vlerah told him to tell DeTray to keep his mouth shut or he would be fired. Van Vlerah Mech., Inc., No. 25-CA-22810, 1996 WL 41274, at  4 (N.L.R.B. Jan. 31, 1996). In addition, Reust claimed that Van Vlerah expressed his intention to go nonunion if he continued to have difficulty with the unions. Id. After this conversation with Van Vlerah, Reust informed DeTray and Haines of Van Vlerah's remarks. Van Vlerah, however, denies that he ever threatened DeTray's employment. 6