Court Opinion

ID: 9452224
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 17:33:10.000911+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:33:07.000628
License: Public Domain

KILEY, Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
I respectfully dissent.
The majority opinion rests upon the grounds that the Board relied strongly upon the prior unfair practices proceeding as showing a context of anti-union bias, when there was no evidence of anti-union conduct since those proceedings ended; that the Board erroneously relied upon non-enforcement of a no-solicitation rule without considering the evidence of a “shift” to enforcement, and that the Trial Examiner found there was ample evidence that petitioner tried with general success to root out gambling pools and other solicitation; that the Board was improperly influenced by the petitioner’s leniency toward a fellow employee who was guilty of soliciting; that the Board had not the benefit of Harlan’s demeanor as a witness, which had a significant impact on the Examiner; that the Board’s decision rested upon determinations of credibility without due weight given the Examiner’s findings; and that the Board’s order is not substantially supported by the record as a whole.
The Examiner did not reach his conclusion in favor of petitioner “despite his finding of a ‘strong Union animus,’ ” 1 as petitioner’s brief states. He assumed the animus and decided Harlan’s testimony itself showed cause for his discharge. He was unable to find “relevant union animus of the quality necessary” to characterize the discharges as pretexts. The Board disagreed. So do I.
The Board pointed out that the Examiner’s decision was made before the Board unanimously sustained a Trial Examiner’s earlier decision that petitioner had unlawfully laid off Harlan in April of 1963 for solicitation of union recognition cards, and that it had unlawfully interrogated Maxwell about his union activity and threatened him with the loss of his job.2 The Board was entitled to look to the earlier proceeding to “shed light” upon the character of petitioner’s conduct here, even though the evidence of the charges in that earlier case preceded by more than six months the filing of the present complaint.
*43The Board’s decision in the earlier proceeding found that petitioner’s no-solicitation rule was discriminatorily enforced to prohibit solicitation only of union cards. It is true that after Harlan’s then unlawful “layoff” for soliciting cards he was shown a copy of a written rule against solicitation in general. But on the entire testimony, including that of manager Wininger, regarding enforcement of the rule, the Board in the case before us was not precluded from inferring that the sudden and strict enforcement after Harlan’s return to work and resulting in his discharge raised substantial doubt as to petitioner’s motives, in view of the enforcement as to his fellow workers. A reading of the testimony, in my opinion, does not justify the Trial Examiner’s finding that there was ample testimony that petitioner was largely successful in its attempts to root out solicitation.
I fail to see what importance the Board had to attach to the Trial Examiner’s appraisal of Harlan’s demeanor as a witness in determining whether he was unlawfully discharged for “solicitation” of cigarette sales. The facts are admitted.
Harlan was fired for trying to sell cigarettes damaged by fire. There is merely a hearsay suggestion that there was a taint of illegality about this. He had testified in August of 1963 against petitioner and in support of the complaint arising from his “layoff” for union activity in April. He was fired October 4, 1963, for having discussed sales of the cigarettes with several fellow employees and with two of his superiors on September 28. Harlan testified that neither of the latter two told him he was not supposed to solicit the sales. One of these testified at the hearing but did not deny Harlan’s testimony. The other was not called. About this time a fellow employee drove a truck with melons and vegetables to petitioner’s plant. In the morning he was told to stop soliciting sales of melons. Despite the warning he solicited again in the afternoon. He was disciplined with only a warning notice. This incident was a proper consideration in the Board’s decision as to petitioner’s “shift” in enforcement of its no-solicitation rule.
The Board’s decision did not disagree with or overturn any credibility determinations of the Examiner. The Board drew inferences from undisputed testimony of witnesses for both the General Counsel and petitioner, and its decision has substantial support on the record as a whole. Harlan had received three written warnings: one in June of 1963 for leaving his work area at non-break time; one in July for smoking in the restroom not closest to his work station; and one on September 18 for taking a net seven or eight minutes in excess of the time permitted workers during a relief break. These warnings and his subsequent conduct in solicitation of cigarette sales took place in the climate of anti-union bias expressed in petitioner’s conduct in April.
Maxwell worked for petitioner for about five years before his discharge in December of 1963. In his first year he was informed that the company did not want employees to come to work with an alcoholic smell on their breath. During his five years a superior noticed alcohol on his breath two or three times a week. He did not tell Maxwell it was company policy to discharge anyone for drinking off-the-job, but only for drinking on-the-job or disorderly conduct resulting from drinking. This witness said Maxwell was a good worker and “very courteous.” Petitioner’s manager Wininger smelled alcohol on Maxwell’s breath for the first time in October of 1963, and told him he would not tolerate Maxwell’s drinking even beer at lunch since that made him “undesirable” to the women workers. He did not notice the smell again until the evening of Maxwell’s discharge when he “smelled a vile odor of whiskey” about Maxwell, who had stopped at Wininger’s door for a moment before leaving for the day. Wininger then called Roller, who testified he asked Maxwell into his office and de*44tected a strong odor of whiskey.3 Maxwell admitted to a beer on his lunch hour. The discharge followed. Petitioner reemployed Maxwell about two weeks before the hearing of the charges before us.
The Board had an ample basis for concluding that these discharges, in light of the previous union activity of Harlan and Maxwell and their testimony against petitioner in the earlier hearing, were unlawful and in violation of sections 8(a) (3) and (4). I would enforce the order.

. Brief and Argument for Petitioner, p. 33.

. The Wm. H. Block Company, 150 N.L. R.B. 341 (1964).

. No contention is made that anyone ever saw Maxwell drink at the Service Building, as opposed to having had a drink with lunch at a nearby tavern.