Opinion ID: 4563210
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Sysco’s Discharge of George Brewster

Text: Sysco challenges on two grounds the finding that it fired George Brewster for engaging in union activity. Sysco first maintains that the Board lacked substantial evidence establishing that Sysco knew about Brewster’s union support. It goes on to press the point that good cause justified firing Brewster. In February 2015, Jim Brown, Brewster’s supervisor, checked on Brewster as he made a delivery to a restaurant. Noticing that Brewster left the truck with its keys in the ignition, Brown hid the keys under the driver’s seat and left. As it happens, the next driver that Brown observed that day also left his truck’s keys in the ignition. But Brown responded differently; instead of -4- Case Nos. 19-2371/2421 , Sysco Grand Rapids, LLC v. NLRB hiding the keys and leaving without a word, Brown handed the keys to the driver and counseled him not to do it again. Meanwhile, Brewster discovered his keys missing and sent Brown an angry text demanding that Brown bring them back. Brewster called another Sysco manager and threatened to take a sick day unless Brown returned the keys. On the same phone call, Brewster complained about Brown’s actions, employing several expletives and noting that the customer agreed with him. The manager asked how the customer knew about the situation, and Brewster admitted that he told the customer about the circumstances causing his truck to remain in the customer’s parking lot. Brown’s own manager quickly reprimanded Brown for hiding the keys. The next day, Sysco managers met and decided to recommend firing Brewster to Sysco’s president. The managers held a meeting with Brewster and asked about the keys incident. Sysco then fired Brewster without providing or documenting a reason. Though its vice president of operations testified that he did not consider leaving keys in the truck’s ignition to constitute a basis for termination, Sysco maintains that Brewster’s reaction to the incident (using profanity, complaining about the incident to a customer, and threatening to take a sick day) justified firing Brewster. The Board found the episode “an obvious attempt to lure Brewster into acting out” and concluded that Brewster’s union activity “was a motivating factor” in discharging him. Sysco’s knowledge of Brewster’s union activity. In finding that Sysco knew about Brewster’s union support, the Board considered Sysco’s records of employees’ union activities. Sysco challenges that conclusion here by noting that the Board grounds its conclusion on “hearsay speculation contained in attorney-client privileged documents.” Even assuming the validity of this argument, ample alternative evidence shows that Brewster openly engaged in union activity. For example, Brewster signed a union authorization card -5- Case Nos. 19-2371/2421 , Sysco Grand Rapids, LLC v. NLRB and encouraged others to do so, discussed the union with Sysco’s vice president, and spoke up in support of the union at a mandatory company meeting. Just cause for discharge. Sysco supports its firing as justified by Brewster: “(1) threatening to abandon his route and making fraudulent use of a sick day; (2) criticizing the Company’s handling of his policy infractions to a customer;” and (3) “engaging in insubordinate behavior and profane language.” (Blue Br. at 40.) Sysco attempts to meet its burden to show that these infractions rather than union animus spurred its firing by noting the weak rationale of the ALJ. According to Sysco, the “ALJ appeared content to merely offer only vague statements about his perception of the Company’s normal practices, and unsupported characterizations of the incident involving Brewster’s keys.” This argument contradicts the record; review of the ALJ’s order reveals detailed fact finding about Sysco’s disciplinary practices and an exhaustive 2,500 -word account of the Brewster keys incident. Sysco also maintains that the ALJ inappropriately compared Brewster’s termination to less severe disciplinary action taken against other workers. Although neither the Board nor the Union counter this argument in their briefs, the Brewster situation would be distinguished by Sysco’s specifically and intentionally targeting him. Finally, Sysco maintains that it would have fired Brewster for his use of profanity, his union support notwithstanding. Given, however, that Sysco accedes to the Board’s finding that hiding Brewster’s keys was “an obvious attempt to lure Brewster into acting out,” and given that employers generally may not use an employee’s outburst resulting from an employer-caused problem as grounds for discharge, see Paradise Post, 297 NLRB 876, 895 (1990), Brewster’s reaction to the keys incident can’t justify his termination. -6- Case Nos. 19-2371/2421 , Sysco Grand Rapids, LLC v. NLRB Ultimately, “[s]imply showing that the evidence supports an alternative story is not enough. [The petitioner] must show that the Board’s story is unreasonable.” NLRB v. Galicks, Inc., 671 F.3d 602, 608 (6th Cir. 2012). In the absence of Sysco showing that the Board unreasonably found that anti-union animus prompted this firing, we uphold the Board’s decision. Sysco’s arguments offer this court a different take on the circumstances of Brewster’s firing. They don’t, however, persuade the court that the Board’s evaluation was unreasonable.