Huck Store Fixture Co. v. N.L.R.B.

• Decision Date: 21 April 2003
• Docket Number: No. 01-2418.,No. 01-2857.,01-2418.,01-2857.
• Citation: 327 F.3d 528
• Parties: HUCK STORE FIXTURE COMPANY, Petitioner/Cross-Respondent, v. NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, Respondent/Cross-Petitioner.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

327 F.3d 528

HUCK STORE FIXTURE COMPANY, Petitioner/Cross-Respondent, v. NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, Respondent/Cross-Petitioner.

No. 01-2418.

No. 01-2857.

United States Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit.

Argued May 31, 2002.

Decided April 21, 2003.

Appeal from the Court of Appeals, Coffey, Circuit Judge.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

John J. Gazzoli, Jr., Lewis, Rice & Fingersh, St. Louis, MO, William B. Bernstein (argued), National Labor Relations Board, Washington, D.C., Ralph R. Tremain, National Labor Relations Board, St. Louis, MO, for Petitioner.

William B. Bernstein (argued), National Labor Relations Board, Washington, D.C., Ralph R. Tremain (argued), National Labor Relations Board, St. Louis, MO, John J. Gazzoli, Lewis, Rice & Fingersh, St. Louis, MO, for Respondent.

Before WOOD, JR., COFFEY, and ROVNER, Circuit Judges.

COFFEY, Circuit Judge.

Huck Store Fixture Company ("Huck Store" or "Company") seeks review of the order (the "Order") of the National Labor Relation Board ("NLRB" or "Board") requiring the Company to reinstate 33 employees who were laid off or discharged between March 4, 1997 and March 11, 1997. In its Order, the NLRB found that Huck Store had committed multiple violations of the National Labor Relations Act, 29 U.S.C. §§ 157, 158(a)(1) ("NLRA" or "Act"). The NLRB filed a cross-application for enforcement of its Order. We order the enforcement of the decision of the NLRB.

I. BACKGROUND

Huck Store manufactures and sells fixtures used in retail stores. Gene Prock, the President of Huck Store, began operating the Company in November 1995. In the first six months of 1996, demand for the Company's products exploded, due primarily to a number of large orders placed by Border's Book Stores. To meet the increased demand, the Company increased its workforce from 15 to 185 production workers. Some of the workers were hired directly by Huck Store; others remained employees of temporary staffing service, Snelling Personnel Services, and worked for Huck Store on a temporary basis.¹

In mid-January 1997, after assembling Huck Store's workers and managers for a meeting, Prock informed his employees that new orders for Huck Store products had been placed that year, and that "business had built up quicker than he had anticipated." (Tr. at 117) He stated that the outlook for the year was "good" and that there "wasn't much to worry about." Id.

Thereafter, senior management scheduled meetings with the Company's four major customers to confirm anticipated business for 1997; on February 4, 18, and 19, 1997, senior managers met with the Company's major customers to confirm their orders for the year. Although management learned that orders from one customer would be reduced somewhat, overall, the Company's business outlook for the year was not significantly altered. (Tr. at 1315.)

Meanwhile, Huck Store's workers began to engage in unionization activities. On January 20 and 30, 1997, the Mid-Central Illinois District Council of Carpenters (the "Union") held informational meetings attended by Huck Store employees. During a third meeting, held on February 6, 1997, organizers circulated union authorization cards, which were signed by the attending employees. An organizational committee comprised of seven Huck Store workers was also formed at the meeting.

On February 13, 1997, having learned of the workers' steps toward unionization, Prock gathered his employees, "jump[ed] up on a work bench [waving] a Union authorization card in his right hand ... [and] said, himself and management was [sic] aware of this and they strongly opposed [it] and if anybody would like to ask for their cards back and tear them up they could have them." (Tr. at 54) (testimony of Cecil Steffin, employee of Huck Store). Prock went on to opine that he had treated the workers "fairly and with open door policy." Id.

After Prock's public denouncement of the Union, and in spite of the fact that Prock purportedly told Huck Store supervisors not to interrogate workers regarding Union activities, a number of such instances did occur. For example, the day after management became cognizant of union activities at the Company, Supervisor James Winking approached an employee, Jerry Schieferdecker, and asked what the employees thought of the Union. When Schieferdecker responded that it was time something was done about workers' rates of pay, Winking stated ominously that, if confronted with the Union, Huck Store would close its doors.² Four days later, on February 19, Winking threatened another employee, James Gallagher, that if the Union organized, Huck Store would move its plant "out of town." (Tr. at 562.)

Another time, Supervisor Ronald Mock asked employee Thomas Boone whether he had attended the Union meetings. Boone replied that he had, but refused to answer Mock's inquiries about who had attended the meeting. Similarly, Supervisor Roger Trimpe asked employees James Mooneyham and Jeremy Fruit whether they were going to attend the next Union meeting, warning them that if they did, he would recognize their car and would have to fire them. When Fruit commented that such actions sounded illegal, Trimpe replied that Fruit could not be fired for his union activity, but that he could be fired because of poor job performance.

Supervisor Paul Lowe confronted employee Richard Budde and asked why he (Budde) was attempting to organize the Union, and inquired as to whether Budde felt guilty about the possibility that employees would lose their jobs because of what he was doing. As their conversation continued, Lowe became agitated and stated that if Budde did not like working at the Company, he should "get the hell out" of there before he cost everybody their jobs.

In addition to these tactics of coercion and surveillance, Huck Store supervisors also committed unlawful labor practices by: (1) requiring supervisor permission prior to employee circulation of a petition related to union activity; (2) urging employees to sign an antiunion petition; and (3) threatening physical violence against the "boys ... who signed antiunion cards." (Tr. at 570.)

On February 20, the same day that Union representatives distributed literature to workers at the Company, and around a week after Huck Store management became aware of workers' unionization efforts, Prock and other senior managers at Huck Store resolved to implement a reduction in the Company's workforce. According to Huck Store, while 1997 sales figures were projected to be better than those of the previous year, the Company had built up around $2.1 million in inventory, and such excess inventory necessitated a reduction in workforce.

Thus, in spite of the fact that Huck Store employees were not expecting to undergo performance evaluations for another two months, the Company's management decided to perform another round of evaluations in March to determine which employees would be laid off or terminated. The evaluations weighed factors such as employee attendance, work habits, quality of work, knowledge, and "attitude."

Based on the evaluation results, the Company discharged eight Huck Store employees and three Snelling employees on March 4, and ten Snelling employees on March 7. Huck Store also laid off 12 permanent Huck Store employees on March 11. Of the eight Huck Store employees discharged on March 4, five had signed union authorization cards. Of the 12 Huck Store employees laid off on March 11, ten had signed union authorization cards, and four were also members of the Union's seven-person organizing committee. Amidst this workforce reduction process, on March 10, the Company hired ten Snelling employees who had previously been working only on a temporary basis. A week thereafter, the Company granted wage increases to thirty of the remaining employees.

Subsequent to the downsizing, the Union filed a charge of unfair labor practices and the Board's General Counsel issued a complaint against Huck Store based on the allegations made by the Union. After a five-day hearing, an administrative law judge (the "ALJ") issued a recommended order, finding that Huck Store violated the NLRA by: (1) interrogating and threatening employees in connection with their union activities (in violation of Section 8(a)(1) of the Act); and (2) discharging or laying off 33 members of its workforce on account of antiunion animus (in violation of Section 8(a)(1) and (3) of the Act).

On appeal to a three-member panel of the NLRB, Huck Store contested the ALJ's recommendation as to the workforce reduction, but did not dispute the ALJ's finding that Huck Store's coercive interrogation and surveillance of its employees' union activities violated the Act. On July 13, 2001, the Board's three-member panel issued an order adopting the ALJ's conclusion that the 33-person workforce reduction violated Section 8(a)(1) of the Act. The Board ordered Huck Store to cease and desist from its coercive and threatening tactics, to reinstate the Huck Store employees it had discharged or laid off, and to "make whole" (by issuing back compensation) the 13 Snelling employees who were discharged in violation of the Act.

II. ANALYSIS

Under the NLRA, employees have the right to form, join or assist labor organizations, and to engage in activities for the purpose of collective bargaining. See 29 U.S.C. § 157 (Section 7 of the Act). Section 8(a)(1) of the Act protects such rights, by making it unlawful for an employer to "interfere with, restrain, or coerce employees in the exercise of the rights guaranteed in section 7." The Act also prohibits an employer from taking adverse action against an employee in order to discourage union activities. 29 U.S.C. § 158(a)(3) (Section 8(a)(3) of the Act).

To prove that a Section 8(a)(3) violation has taken place under the analysis set forth in Wright Line, a Division of Wright Line, Inc., v. Lamoureux, 251 NLRB 1083 (1980), the General Counsel must demonstrate that antiunion animus was a "substantial...