Court Opinion

ID: 9465750
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 00:54:35.875143+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:39:20.938170
License: Public Domain

ALVIN B. RUBIN, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
In this case we review an order of the National Labor Relations Board solely to determine whether it is supported by substantial evidence. Universal Camera Corp. v. NLRB, 1951, 340 U.S. 474, 71 S.Ct. 456, 95 L.Ed. 456. The majority concludes that the Board’s decision was not properly supported. My brethren say that the question is close, and I agree, but I am persuaded that the record contains substantial evidence to support the Board’s decision.
As the majority notes, it is a familiar principle that, absent a showing of anti-union animus, an employer may discharge an employee “for good cause, or bad cause, or no cause at all.” E. g., Mueller Brass Co. v. NLRB, 5 Cir. 1977, 544 F.2d 815, 819, quoting NLRB v. McGahey, 5 Cir. 1956, 233 F.2d 406, 413. I agree with the majority’s finding that Michelle Hill’s conduct was a just cause for her discharge. However, even if it is assumed that the threats were real, as the Administrative Law Judge found, I cannot agree with the conclusion that this was the sole reason for her dismissal, or that substantial evidence does not exist to support the Board’s finding that there was a causal connection between the anti-union feelings of the supervisors and Hill’s discharge. See NLRB v. Florida Steel Corp., 5 Cir. 1978, 586 F.2d 436, 448; NLRB v. O. A. Fuller Super Markets, Inc., 5 Cir. 1967, 374 F.2d 197, 200.
At least one of the supervisors, Stentz, knew that Hill was a union member, and a prime union activist at the plant. Stentz and Hill had previous encounters concerning her union activities. In one instance less than two weeks before she was dismissed, Stentz told Hill not to copy names of employees from record cards. Another time, Hill asked Stentz for financial statements at a meeting attended by outside consultants. Stentz testified that he felt that this incident showed that Hill questioned his honesty or had misjudged him.
The supervisors fired Hill almost immediately after two employees complained that Hill had threatened them. Stentz did not investigate by questioning other witnesses who were present when Hill threatened one of the complaining employees. He did not seek an explanation from Hill about either threat. The supervisor who actually filed Hill did not tell her who her accusers were, or specifically why she was being discharged.
The threats and the dismissal took place at a time when the union was in the midst of an organizing campaign that was hotly opposed by the company. If the atmosphere in the plant had been less tumultuous, it is difficult to believe that the company would have disciplined an employee so summarily or that the discipline would have been so severe. On the basis of this record, the Board’s conclusion that the supervisors seized upon a chance to eliminate a prime union activist from the rank and file is sufficiently supported. Therefore, I must respectfully dissent.