Opinion ID: 795770
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Evidence of St. Vincent's Motive

Text: 52 After carefully reviewing the record as a whole, we conclude that substantial evidence does not support the Board's finding that the General Counsel failed to show that anti-union animus was a motivating factor in St. Vincent's decision to subcontract out the RC department. As discussed below, in the face of strong circumstantial evidence of anti-union animus, the ALJ improperly credited evidence of post-subcontracting improvements in the RC department as a basis for dismissing the General Counsel's case. 53 Circumstantial evidence of anti-union animus is compelling in this case. First, there is ample evidence that St. Vincent knew about the union activity in the hospital in general, and in the RC department in particular. The head of human resources for the hospital specifically directed hospital managers to monitor all Union activity. Several RC department managers also testified that they identified themselves to Union organizers on various occasions during the second half of 1999 and asked to see Union fliers. Finally, several hospital managers, including the hospital president, testified that they were aware of the impending Union election when the subcontracting decision was made. The testimony of St. Vincent's managers regarding their awareness of the Union's campaign is consistent with the clear evidence that the Union was openly and actively soliciting support in the hospital throughout the second half of 1999. 54 Second, the inference of anti-union animus raised by the timing of St. Vincent's decision to subcontract is stunningly obvious. See NLRB v. Rubin, 424 F.2d 748, 750 (2d Cir.1970). As the ALJ found, [f]rom [St. Vincent's] standpoint the timing of the action could scarcely be imagined as worse. 55 St. Vincent subcontracted out the department on February 5, 2000, less than a month after the Union filed its petition for an election with the Board, and less than two weeks before the scheduled election. The effect of St. Vincent's decision to outsource operation of the RC department, of course, was the disenfranchisement of twenty-five percent of the employees (ninety-five percent of whom had already expressed their desire to join the Union) who were otherwise eligible to vote in the representation election. 56 Courts have consistently treated an employer's adverse employment action occurring between the filing of a petition for a representation election with the Board and the ensuing election as raising a powerful inference of anti-union animus. See, e.g., E.C. Waste, Inc., 359 F.3d at 43 ([T]he probative value of the timing of the Company's action — firing [an employee] in the critical interval between the time that the Union filed its petition for recognition and the planned representation election — is obvious.); Joy Recovery Tech. Corp., 134 F.3d at 1314 (concluding that [i]n this case, timing is everything, where [t]he closing of the department comes on the heels of the union's organizational activity, including filing a petition for a representation election); Power, Inc., 40 F.3d at 418 (The timing of the layoff, just two weeks before the scheduled union election, gives further credence to the charge of anti-union animus.); NLRB v. Rain-Ware, Inc., 732 F.2d 1349, 1354 (7th Cir. 1984) (concluding that [t]he timing of the layoffs and warehouse closing provides the strongest support for connecting anti-union sentiment with the layoffs, where the layoffs and warehouse closing closely followed a demand for union recognition). Because St. Vincent subcontracted out its entire RC department less than two weeks before the scheduled union election, the timing of its decision raises an unmistakable inference of anti-union animus. 57 The timing of the decision to subcontract out the work of the RC department is also suspicious because the management problems in the RC department existed for more than a decade before St. Vincent decided to subcontract out the work of the department. See Reno Hilton Resorts, 196 F.3d at 1283 (concluding that [t]he timing of the decision to contract out is suspect where it came on the heels of heavy union activity and the employer knew of the purported rationale for its subcontracting decision long before it implemented that decision); see also Joy Recovery Tech. Corp., 134 F.3d at 1314-15 (concluding that the timing of the employer's subcontracting decision based on financial concerns was suspicious where it came on the heels of the union's organizational activity and employer had maintained the department unprofitably for a significant period of time). Even in mid-1999, only a few months before the Union announced that it was close to seeking a representation election, the ALJ found that St. Vincent was in no hurry to remedy the RC department management problems. Indeed, Parente testified that the decision to subcontract was not caused by an emergency in patient care in the RC department. Thus, there was no obvious precipitating event for the subcontracting decision other than the looming union election. In essence, St. Vincent appears to have tolerated its in-house management problems up until the very moment that the Union sought to represent the technical staff at the hospital. 58 The Board attempts to diminish the strong inference of anti-union animus raised by the timing of St. Vincent's actions. It notes that St. Vincent managers mentioned subcontracting out the work of the RC department in a July 1999 meeting, months before the union election was scheduled. 14 Even so, this is the same month that the Union began its organizing drive at the hospital, thereby creating the inference that Union activity triggered the subcontracting discussion. As discussed earlier, it is undisputed that St. Vincent managers were aware of the Union's activities and that those activities were markedly heightened in July 1999. Thus, the mere fact that St. Vincent managers mentioned subcontracting in July 1999 does little to defeat the inference of anti-union animus. Moreover, the issue was not brought up again until November 18, 1999, eight days after the union circulated its November 10, 1999 flier announcing the imminent union election. This sequence of events strengthens, rather than diminishes, the inference of anti-union animus. 59 After making substantial findings in support of the General Counsel, the ALJ focused part of his analysis on the testimony of St. Vincent's witnesses establishing that after the subcontracting took effect, productivity in the RC department generally improved. Having credited this testimony, the ALJ concluded that the General Counsel failed to carry its burden of persuasion under Wright Line. 60 Whether an employer's decision was ultimately good or bad, however, has no relevance in a Section 8(a)(3) case such as this, where the critical issue is the employer's motive. In determining whether an employment decision violates Section 8(a)(3), the crucial factor is not whether the business reasons cited by [the employer] were good or bad, but whether they were honestly invoked and were, in fact, the cause of the change. NLRB v. Savoy Laundry, 327 F.2d 370, 371 (2d Cir.1964). The ALJ therefore erred in relying on evidence of the RC department's improved conditions to conclude that St. Vincent was not motivated by anti-union animus in its decision to subcontract out the department. 61 In short, the highly suspect timing of St. Vincent's decision to subcontract out the RC department, when coupled with St. Vincent's knowledge of union activity, strongly favored the General Counsel's case. Contrary to the ALJ, we conclude that the probative value of this evidence is not diminished in any way by the evidence of improved conditions in the RC department after the subcontracting took effect. 62 However, we turn to the remaining evidence in the record to determine whether the Board's conclusions were supported by substantial evidence on the record as a whole.