Opinion ID: 3210755
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Interrogating Employees

Text: An employer violates § 8(a)(1) of the NLRA “by interrogating employees about their union sympathies, when doing so suggests to the employees that the employer may retaliate because of those sympathies.” Hedstrom, 629 F.2d at 314. The Board believed several accounts from Somerset employees about management interrogating them before the election. Konjoh asked Claudio how other employees would vote and asked her to vote “no” and give management a chance to improve conditions. CareOne official Jessica 29 Arroyo asked CNA Avian Jarbo whether Somerset was “going to get a ‘no’ vote” from her. (J.A. 30.) Konjoh asked Stubbs what she thought of the Union and stated that, although Stubbs had a union at another job, “we don’t want one here.” (J.A. 30.) Illis, the highest-ranking management official at the facility, asked Tyler “where are you in terms of voting?” (J.A. 30 (editorial marks omitted).) She further asked whether Tyler knew how her coworkers were voting, and whether Tyler could convince them to vote no. Throughout the course of those sorts of questions, “[n]o assurances were made to the employees” that they would not face retaliation for failure to cooperate with management. (J.A. 31.) Though Somerset contests the characterization of the questioning as coercive, when employee testimony about the interrogations conflicted with that of Somerset managers, the ALJ and the Board credited the version given by the employees, explaining that they “testified in a straightforward, confident, consistent manner.” (J.A. 30.) The Board’s credibility determinations are entitled to “great deference.” Atlantic Limousine, Inc. v. NLRB, 243 F.3d 711, 718 (3d Cir. 2001). In light of the testimony credited by the Board, substantial evidence supports its conclusion that management officials at Somerset questioned employees in a manner unlawfully coercive under § 8(a)(1) of the NLRA.