Court Opinion

ID: 9478409
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 06:48:26.378822+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:46:25.087517
License: Public Domain

HUTCHINSON, Circuit Judge,
concurring in part and dissenting in part.
Although the question is a close one, I agree with the Court that the Board’s decision that the interrogation of employee Kevin White violated section 8(a)(1) of the National Labor Relations Act, 29 U.S.C.A. § 158(a)(1) (West 1973), is supported by substantial evidence. Accordingly, I concur in that part of the Court’s opinion.
However, I cannot agree that the Company unlawfully interfered with the distribution of Union literature by White and Joseph Kilhullen. I do not believe that verbal instructions on two days to two employees to confine their distribution to the plant entrance constitutes “a prohibition comparable to that of a posted rule on the Company’s bulletin board.”1 Opinion of the Court, supra at 55. I fail to see how the facts adduced constitute “substantial evidence that the Falbos instituted and en*56forced an across-the-board rule against off-duty employees distributing union literature in the plant parking lot.” Id. at 54.
We have no evidence that the Falbos similarly prohibited any other employees under any other circumstances. We have no evidence that any other employees even knew of the Falbos’ instructions to White and Kilhullen. In the absence of that type of evidence, I am unable to conclude that the Falbos’ instructions to White and Kil-hullen amount to a “rule” within the meaning of the Board’s decision in Tri-County Medical Center, Inc., 222 N.L.R.B. 1089 (1976). We have nothing to indicate that the Falbos’ instructions were anything more than ad hoc responses to a tense situation.
I would analyze this situation under our decision in Graham Architectural Products Corp. v. NLRB, 697 F.2d 534 (3d Cir.1983), which I find controlling.2 The facts before us are similar to those in Graham. In both cases the employees distributing literature were told they could do so at the plant entrance, but not on company property. No evidence exists in either case that the employees were “ ‘effectively precluded from engaging in lawful solicitation activity.’ ” Id. at 542 (quoting Phillips Industrial Components, Inc., 216 N.L.R.B. 885, 885 (1975)). No evidence exists in either case that the employees were intimidated by the incident. The only difference is that the instruction to change location was given on two days in the case before us and stated only once in Graham. This distinction alone should not lead to a different result than in Graham, especially since the Falbos agreed that White and Kilhullen could distribute literature at the entrances to the plant and parking lot.
In conclusion, I believe the Company’s actions alleged to have interfered with the distribution of Union literature were in the same category as those we held in Graham “did not rise to the level of a violation of the Act.” Graham, 697 F.2d at 542. Accordingly, I would deny enforcement of the Board’s order with respect to this unfair labor practice charge.

. I find it unnecessary to decide whether the status of White and Kilhullen on workmen’s compensation leave makes them "off-duty” or "inactive” employees. The other three leaflet-ters — Carlacci, Ward, and Burton — were not employees of the Company with a right to distribute on Company property. The presence of the three with no employment connection in the group further strengthens the Company's position and highlights the difficulty in inferring a rule prohibited by Tri-County Medical Center, Inc., 222 N.L.R.B. 1089 (1976). That case involved only off-duty employees.

. I agree with the Court that the Board’s TriCounty decision and our Graham decision do not conflict. The Court correctly observes that Graham did not involve a company rule against distribution. This may explain our failure to discuss or cite Tri-County in Graham. A “rule” sufficient to invoke Tri-County would, by definition, go beyond the “trivial and isolated” conduct which Graham held amounted to only "slight interference.”