Opinion ID: 258292
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: charlotte terminal

Text: 43 The union renewed its organizational activities in the Charlotte terminal in June, 1958. As at Greenville and Columbia, the company's opposition to the union is amply established. There was testimony to the effect that Terminal Manager Vigue warned every new employee about the risks he would assume in joining the union. Further, in July, Vigue told the assembled drivers that a union would not be tolerated. General Manager Price gave the Charlotte drivers one of his 'routine' anti-union speeches in October or November. Earlier, in July, Price had interrogated Driver Harold Clegg to test his suspicions that Clegg was actively working for the union and threatened him with discharge should it be found that he was a union member. 44 The examiner found that the company between October 23 and December 1 discriminatorily discharged seven Charlotte employees, all of whom had joined the union early in October. The company attempted to justify all of these discharges, except one, as part of a general reduction of the payroll in order to cut labor costs to match the seasonal decrease in freight handled in November and December. In fact, thirty employees went off the payroll at the Charlotte terminal in the months of Cotober, November, and December. Of these twenty-four were discharged or laid off. It is noteworthy, however, that of the seven pickup and delivery drivers discharged during this period, six were employees found by the examiner to have been discriminatorily discharged. 45 With this background, it is necessary to examine more particularly the individual cases. Clegg 46 We fail to find substantial evidence to support the examiner's conclusion that the company discriminatorily discharged Harley Clegg, the father of Harold Clegg who is mentioned above as having been interrogated by Price. The company's asserted reason for discharging the elder Clegg has evidentiary support. Clegg spent part of his time doing essentially janitorial duties and part of his time working on the dock. After his discharge on October 23 for 'lack of work,' nobody was hired to do the maintenance work he had formerly done. While just before his discharge part-time dockhands were hired, these men worked only at peak hours, for two or three hours in the early evening when there was need on the dock for a short period of an increased number of workers, but no need to add to the number of full-time workers. 47 The meagre evidence to support a finding that Clegg was discharged because of union membership is not only disputed, but unconvincing. As Olegg was leaving the terminal after being laid off, he spied Price and hailed him. Price had in the past been kind to him, permitting him to be employed while on parole from a life sentence imposed after four felony convictions. Clegg told Price that he had been laid off, and Price, although sympathetic, said that some lay-offs were necessary and that the least important jobs were going first. Clegg then asked whether the union had something to do with his being fired. According to his version, Price replied that Clegg had been talking union since he first started working for the company, and the company would not stand for it. This is not enough to show that Clegg was discriminatorily discharged by Terminal Manager Vigue. Moreover the statement attirbuted to Price contains an inherent inconsistency. Given the union's unceasing organizational activities, and the company's continuous opposition, it does not seem reasonably inferable that the company would have tolerated Clegg if it knew that he was a union activist for the five years that he worked for Overnite. And Price testified that his answer to Clegg's question was that he was not concerned with the union's present membership drive, since the union had been active in the Charlotte terminal for fifteen years. Moreover, there is no other evidence that the company knew Harley Clegg to be a union member. The examiner's finding that the company must have known this because his son was an active union member, has little support in the circumstances of this case. The son had voluntarily quit the company two months before the elder Clegg joined the union, and, according to the examiner's findings, Harley Clegg did not join until about 15 or 20 days before his discharge. McNeil, Walter McClure, and John McClure 48 The company discharged three drivers, McNeil, Walter McClure, and John McClure between October 24 and 27. The examiner found that they were let out 'because of their union membership and activities and/or because Respondent attributed such activities to them' and that therefore their discharges violated sections 8(a)(3) and 8(a)(1). We find no substantial evidence on the record as a whole to support this conclusion. 49 As we have seen, the record supports the company's economic justifications for laying off some men from late in October through December. It is true that the company was hiring new drivers as late as the first week in October, but the freight was particularly heavy then. In January, when business picked up after the November-December slack period, Walter McClure was recalled and even granted a raise, and there is evidence that Marks at about the same time attempted to contact John McClure to offer him a job. As to laying off these drivers and not other, possibly non-union, drivers, there is sufficient evidence of nondiscriminatory reasons for the selection of at least two of them. McNeil was not a particularly good worker as evidenced by the company's failing to give him a pay raise when most other drivers got one, and later, when he protested, giving him 3cents per hour, the minimum raise, as compared to 8cents received by some other employees. John McClure had not been cooperative in accepting his share of overtime work in the beginning of October when the freight was heavy. And, while there is no testimony as to why Walter McClure was selected for lay-off, it is noteworthy that he had been working only since September 1. 50 The examiner's conclusion that these discharges were discriminatory could be accepted despite the asserted economic justifications if there were proof that the men were laid off because they belonged to the union. However, there is no direct evidence in the record that the company knew or had reason to suspect that they had joined the union less than a month before they were discharged. And the only circumstantial evidence bearing on this point is that both Walter and John McClure were questioned when they were hired about their attitudes toward the union. Both replied that they were not members. While this evidence tends to show the company's general hostility toward the union-- a fact sufficiently established without this further evidence-- it is no proof that the company knew or suspected them of joining the union while in Overnite's employ. Unlike the cases recounted earlier in this opinion, there is no evidence as to these men of interrogation after they began work, or of surveillance. Standing alone, proof of a company's general anti-union policy will ordinarily not suffice to support a conclusion that a particular employee was discriminatorily discharged absent direct or circumstantial evidence that the company knew or had reason to suspect him of union membership. See N.L.R.B. v. J. Mitchko, Inc., 284 F.2d 573, 575 (3d Cir. 1960); N.L.R.B. v. Cosco Prods. Co., 280 F.2d 905, 909 (5th Cir. 1960); N.L.R.B. v. Sebastopol Apple Growers Union, 269 F.2d 705, 713 (9th Cir. 1959). No such showing can be found in the record as to these three men. Hutchinson 51 Driver Hutchinson was discharged on October 31. As before noted, the company had established that economic conditions necessitated some layoffs. Hutchinson was selected for layoff, Marks asserted at the hearing, because he was doing poor work. The only evidence supporting this assertion is that two weeks before his discharge, Hutchinson received a raise on only 3cents per hour. This evidence is equivocal, for while some drivers were given as much as 8cents, others were not given any raise. Furthermore, in direct contradiction, Hutchinson testified that a week before he was discharged, Marks complimented his work. 52 Not only is the company's reason for the discharge doubtful, but, unlike the cases of McNeil, Walter McClure, and John McClure, there is as to Hutchinson ample specific evidence that the company was keeping a close watch on him with respect to his attitude toward the union. Hutchinson testified that a week before he was discharged, Marks, after praising his work, sternly warned him that the company would not tolerate the union and could make reasons for discharging a union man. Hutchinson had denied that he was a member but admitted to Marks that he had been contacted on behalf of the union by other drivers. The examiner did not credit Marks' denials of this conversation, and we have no basis on which to upset the examiner's finding of credibility. Hutchinson testified further that immediately after leaving Marks' office, Supervisor Lail told him that Marks and Price were satisfied that he did not belong to the union. And on October 26, five days before his discharge, Lail told him that Price was considering him as a possible supervisor, but did not know exactly what were his feelings about the union. Hutchinson also testified that he joined the union a week before his discharge. After joining, he discussed the union with other employees, sometimes on the company's premises, although never during working hours. From this evidence of the close attention that was paid to Hutchinson's attitude toward the union, plus the evidence that Hutchinson openly discussed the union with employees, the examiner had a substantial basis for his inference that the company learned of Hutchinson's union membership and laid him off for that reason. Stamey 53 The stated reason for the layoff of the driver Stamey on November 28 was that his run was being discontinued. The evidence is undisputed that Stamey and another driver covered essentially the same territory and that, due to the reduction in freight, the two runs were consolidated and have never since been separated. Neverthelss, we find substantial evidence for the examiner's conclusion that Stamey, and not the other driver, was picked to be laid off, because of Stamey's union membership. 54 He joined the union a few days before his lay-off. On November 28, he was called into Marks' office. According to Stamey's testimony, Marks first questioned him about his having failed to mention on his job application, filled out over a year before, a particular prior employer, Associated Transport, which had a union shop. Then Marks inquired whether he knew Ed Hargett, a former employee of Associated Transport, and now president of a Teamsters Union local. When Stamey admitted that they were good friends, Marks became angry and told him that he was fired, that even though he did a good job the company did not like anyone connected with the union, that they were discontinuing his run anyway, and 'that there were two reasons why a man would be discharged from Overnite    by either having an accident or for union activities, and I hadn't had any accidents.' The examiner could conclude that Marks interrogated Stamey to find out whether he was active in the union to assist him in deciding whom to let out in effecting necessary reductions in the work force. 55 The company relies on Marks' testimony that the questioned Stamey about the omissions on his application several months before he was laid off, and that he had never spoken to Stamey about union activities. Moreover, the company points to the undisputed evidence that it knew when it hired Stamey that he had earlier worked for the Carolina Motor Express Company, a unionized company. Nonetheless, the examiner could disbelieve Marks' testimony and credit Stamey's with respect to the time and subject of the conversation between them, and the fact that the company knew of Stamey's union adherence when with a prior employer does not prove that it did not lay him off for his union membership while in Overnite's employ. We find that the examiner's conclusion was 'justified by a fair estimate of the worth of the testimony of (the) witnesses.' Universal Camera Corp. v. N.L.R.B., 340 U.S. 474, 490, 71 S.Ct. 456, 465, 95 L.Ed. 456 (1951). Wayne McClure 56 The case of Wayne McClure is another in which the examiner's resolution of conflicting testimony, and consequently his conclusion, must be permitted to stand. McClure, a driver since April, was questioned on October 30 by Marks as to whether he had broken company rules by taking two hours for lunch without radioing the dispatcher and leaving his truck unattended and out of his sight. According to McClure's testimony, Marks twice asked whether McClure had signed a union card, and was twice told no. Marks denied that part of the conversation. McClure was discharged on December 1, according to the discharge sheet, for unsatisfactory work and for having left his truck unattended, and not because work was lacking. However, there is scant evidence in the record as to how his work was unsatisfactory, and the examiner might well discredit the truck incident as the genuine reason for discharge, despite inconsistencies in McClure's testimony, since the incident occurred a month earlier and no action was then taken. In light of the examiner's finding that McClure was interrogated about his union membership, the examiner could reasonably conclude that Marks knew or suspected that McClure was a union member and discharged him for that reason. 57 The Board's petition for enforcement will be granted in part and denied in part in accordance with this opinion.