Court Opinion

ID: 9439222
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 06:25:45.716847+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:26:13.947659
License: Public Domain

KAREN LeCRAFT HENDERSON, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
I would grant the petition for review for the reasons expressed so convincingly by the dissenting member of the National Labor Relations Board. John Ramirez repeatedly pestered the same employees while they were trying to perform their jobs, as many as four times in a single day and once almost to the point of a physical fight. This was not protected activity but harassment.. His fellow employees were under no duty, as the majorities of this panel and of the Board seem to think, to inform Ramirez he was disturbing their work. That should have been, and surely was, as obvious to him as it was to them. As the dissenting Board member noted, Ramirez’s discharge did not violate section 8(a)(1) or (3) of the National Labor Relations Act because the employer “was lawfully responding to multiple complaints from multiple employees regarding Ramirez’ repeated harassment of them during worktime about the Union.” Frazier Indus. Co., 328 N.L.R.B. No. 89, slip op. at 59 (1999) (footnote omitted). Further, “even assuming that the General Counsel has established a prima facie showing that Ramirez’ protected conduct was a motivating factor in his discharge, the Respondent has met its burden of showing that the discharge would have occurred even in the absence of protected activity.” Id. (citing Wright Line, 251 N.L.R.B. 1083 (1980), enf'd., 662 F.2d 899 (1st Cir.1981), cert. denied, 455 U.S. 989, 102 S.Ct. 1612, 71 L.Ed.2d 848 (1982)). Accordingly I dissent.