Court Opinion

ID: 9450333
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 16:42:17.023827+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:32:14.952782
License: Public Domain

SCHNACKENBERG, Circuit Judge
(concurring in part and dissenting in part).
I concur with Judge Duffy that that part of the Board’s order based upon Grant’s request for copies of employees’ affidavits should not be enforced.
However, on the record before us, I dissent from the court’s finding that there was substantial evidence to support the Board’s finding that Mrs. Gullo was discharged because of her union activities, in violation of § 8(a) (1) and (3) of the Act.
In explanation of my dissent, I point out that the mere fact that an employee is engaged in union activity does not render invalid a just cause for discharge. Miller Electric Manufacturing Co. v. N. L. R. B., 7 Cir., 265 F.2d 225 (1959). To the same effect is Portable Electric Tools, *450Inc. v. N. L. R. B., 7 Cir., 309 F.2d 423 (1962).
The burden was on the Board to prove affirmatively, by substantial evidence, that Mrs. Gullo’s discharge was due to union activities. Indiana Metal Products Corp. v. N. L. R. B., 7 Cir., 202 F.2d 613, 616 (1953).
As Judge Duffy points out, there is here no previous history of anti union bias on the part of Grant. We said in N. L. R. B. v. Kaye, 7 Cir., 272 F.2d 112, 114 (1959):
“ * * -» jn this connection, it is pertinent to note that there is no proof of any anti-union bias or activity on the part of respondent. It has been held, and we think properly, that inferences contrary to direct testimony are not ordinarily sufficient to support a finding. See N. L. R. B. v. Fox Mfg. Co., 5 Cir., 238 F.2d 211, 214, and cases therein cited and discussed. See aso N. L. R. B. v. Pittsburgh Steamship Co., 340 U.S. 498, 502, 71 S.Ct. 453, 95 L.Ed. 479. Moreover, it seems unreal to attribute to respondent a discriminatory and therefore unlawful motive in the discharge of Hentz when a non-discriminatory and therefore lawful reason existed. See Miller Electric Mfg. Co. v. N. L. R. B., 7 Cir., 265 F.2d 225, 226. The indulgence of such an assumption casts a serious reflection not only upon the intelligence of respondent’s managing official but upon his common sense. This there is no occasion to do.”
The inference that Mrs. Gullo was discharged because of anti union activity is also negatived by the fact that she testified that she had specific difficulties in the performance of her job, that a couple were quite blatant, one of them was in keeping up the book in which she was supposed to mark what was in stock and what was ordered and other information. When she was discharged by store manager Nelson, he told her that' he did so because he was not satisfied with her work. He specifically mentioned, inter alia, the upkeep of her checking list book.
Nelson testified that he did not know of her union activities when he discharged her and there is no direct evidence which contradicts him. We have said that inference piled on inference is not a substitute for evidence. Indiana Metal Products Corp. v. N. L. R. B., supra, 202 F.2d 616. The fact that Mrs. Gullo “was subject to discharge for legal cause and the fact that” she “was engaged in union activity was a coincidence which did not render the just cause invalid.” Miller Electric Manufacturing Co. v. N. L. R. B., supra.