Opinion ID: 1562805
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Discrimination in Reinstatement.

Text: Next, the respondent contends that the finding of the Board that four employees were denied reinstatement because of their union activities was not supported by evidence. The respondent claims that it was justified in not reinstating the four employees and was not guilty of a violation of Section 8 (3) of the Act. It asserts for these reasons that the Board erred in ordering the reinstatement of the employees and the granting to them of back pay from the date of refusal to reinstate. It is our opinion that the Order of the Board in this regard should be enforced. On July 12, at the respondent's instance, a preliminary injunction was issued by the Superior Court prohibiting all strike activity and picketing on the theory that the strike was illegal as an attempt to obtain an arbitration provision. After notifying its employees that they might return to work without discrimination, the respondent opened its plant on July 14, and 249 employees returned to work. The strike was not called off, however, and on July 15, a large group of Union members picketed about 200 feet from the respondent's plant, among whom were the four employees here involved. Many persons, including these four employees, yelled scab and rat at the employees in the plant, and shortly after noon some police officers arrested the four employees and charged them with a breach of the peace. The four employees were Roy Stevens, Clifford Gallant, Michael Sullivan and Mary Sullivan. The first three were officers of the Union. Stevens was also a member of the bargaining committee which had met with the respondent. Mary Sullivan was a sister of Michael Sullivan. Later in the afternoon the strike was called off and the members of the Union sought to return to work. All of them were reinstated with the exception of the four mentioned above. The evidence showed that the respondent had knowledge that most if not all of those reinstated had violated the injunction and shouted opprobrious epithets also. These four employees were informed by the respondent that they would not be reinstated until they had cleared themselves of the charges against them. At their trial for breach of the peace, Mr. Clark, the respondent's attorney, prosecuted them. At the close of the evidence the judge placed their cases on file, which according to the stipulation between the parties at the hearing before the trial examiner means that there was no record in the case which could be used to impeach a witness and that at any time the complaint could be taken out of the file and the defendants found either guilty or not guilty. This stipulation was the basis for the finding of the Board that the four members were neither acquitted nor convicted. [7] The respondent, however, refused to reinstate them on the ground that they had not cleared their names of the charges. The three men reapplied for reinstatement and were refused, but Mary Sullivan, knowing of the respondent's position from her brother, Michael Sullivan, did not reapply. The respondent admitted that had she done so, she would have been refused. The respondent insists that its sole reason for refusing to reinstate these employees was their failure to clear themselves of the charges against them. We have already alluded to the fact that the respondent never purported to discharge the body of employees for engaging in the strike  a strike which may have been tortious under special doctrines of local law. When the strike was over, and all the employees were taken back except these four, the refusal to let them resume their jobs was in substance a discharge at that time. The Board was warranted in finding that the respondent in thus discharging these employees was not motivated by a purpose of vindicating public justice on account of trivial breaches of the peace of which these four employees  as well as many others  may have been guilty, and in finding, rather, that the breaches of the peace served only as a pretext, and that the respondent visited the penalty of discharge upon outstanding Union leaders as part and parcel of a studied policy of breaking up the Union. Such action was a violation of Section 8 (3). See National Labor Relations Board v. Mackay Radio & Telegraph Co., supra, 304 U.S. at pages 346, 347, 58 S.Ct. at page 911, 82 L.Ed. 1381. National Labor Relations Board v. Fansteel Corp., 1939, 306 U.S. 240, 59 S.Ct. 490, 83 L.Ed. 627, 123 A.L.R. 599, is not applicable to bar a Board order reinstating employees guilty of minor breaches of peace on the picket line. Republic Steel Corp. v. National Labor Relations Board, 3 Cir., 107 F.2d 472, at page 479, certiorari denied on this point, 1940, 309 U.S. 684, 60 S.Ct. 806, 84 L.Ed. 1027; National Labor Relations Board v. Stackpole Carbon Co., 3 Cir., 1939, 105 F.2d 167, 176. See National Labor Relations Board v. Colten, 6 Cir., 1939, 105 F.2d 179, 183. Paragraphs 1 (a) and 2 (b) and (c) of the Board's Order must be enforced with one modification. Pursuant to the decision of the Supreme Court in Republic Steel Corp. v. National Labor Relations Board, 1940, 311 U.S. 7, 61 S.Ct. 77, 85 L.Ed. ___, we will order stricken that portion of paragraph 2 (c) reading deducting, however, from the amount otherwise due each of the said employees moneys received by him during said period for work performed on any Federal, State, county, municipal or work-relief projects, and pay over the amount so deducted to the fiscal agency of the Federal, State, county, municipal or other government or governments which supplied the funds for said work-relief projects.