Opinion ID: 769851
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Layoff of Johnson, Cloud, and Fields

Text: 28 Bryan Cloud started on March 7, 1997 as an electrician assistant. He was hired by Arnold Kath, a family friend who was the electrical engineering manager at the Company. Electrician Ron Fields was hired on June 18, and electrician John Johnson was hired July 28, 1997. The third electrician, Thomas Searcy, had been at the shop the longest. On November 4, 1997, Johnson and Cloud were laid off. Fields was laid off on December 2, 1997, but was recalled in February when Searcy quit. Neither Johnson nor Cloud was recalled. We find that substantial evidence supports the Board's determination that the layoff of these employees was motivated by anti-union animus. 29 Cloud and Fields stated that, at the September company meeting, Boraski said that business was good and that it was a good time to buy a car. Cloud, Fields, and Johnson attended the second union meeting on October 31 and signed union authorization cards. 30 The Company first challenges that it knew of these employees' protected activity. The ALJ credited Fields's testimony that ill-will existed between Searcy and the others, because Searcy had been suspended for shoving Cloud, and that after the November 4 company meeting Searcy asked Fields and Johnson, with Cloud present, if they had attended meetings. Fields told him that they had and that they had signed union cards. Searcy allegedly stated that it was not a good ideaand headed towards Plant 2, where the management offices were located. From this testimony, the ALJ inferred that Searcy told management of these employees's union activities. 31 The Company also argues that it needed to layoff electricians due to a seasonal, cyclical downturn, therefore, the employees were not laid off because of retaliation. As of November 4, these employees were consistently working full weeks and overtime. Kath and Boraski downplayed the work done before the layoffs as indirect, busy work. As the ALJ stated, I am satisfied that Respondent would not have paid overtime to electricians for 'busy work.' Joint Appendix (J.A.) at 22. 32 Cloud stated that after the company meeting on November 4, when Boraski stated that he was not bringing jobs into the shop because he would not succumb to threats, Cloud approached Kath, worried about his job. Cloud testified that Kath told him that he had plenty of work for them. Further, Cloud testified that when he was laid off later that day, Kath did not mention a downturn in work. Instead, Kath told him that Boraski said that he would not bring more work into the shop until the threats stopped. Kath stated, according to Cloud, that both sides were butting their heads, both sides are flexing their muscles right now. . . . Let's let everything cool down, and I'll have you back in here in two weeks. The ALJ relied on this testimony to determine that Cloud and Johnson were not fired because of a downturn in production, but rather because the two were on the wrong side in the confrontation. 33 Further, there was some evidence that other employees stated that the electricians were needed and that the Company took other measures to complete its electrical work by having supervisors do work in the shop, having other employees help out, and hiring a retired former electrical supervisor as a contractor to manage the installation of a project for the Company. 34 The Company suggests that layoffs were almost a yearly occurrence. However, Kath, who stated that layoffs had occurred in the past, also said that the most recent he could remember was four years earlier. Boraski stated that the fall of 1996, the year before the organizing campaign, was terrible for the department, however he conceded that employees in the department were kept on the payroll and not laid off. See ITT Automotive, 188 F.3d at 388 (stating that an employer's deviation from past practices supports an inference of anti-union animus). 35 The deference given to the ALJ's credibility findings and other factual findings leads us to find that substantial evidence exists to support the Board's determination that these three were laid off in violation of Sections 8(a)(1) and 8(a)(3). 36