UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE FIFTH CIRCUIT
No. 01-60360
NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD,
Petitioner,
VERSUS
PNEU ELECTRIC, INC./NAN YA PLASTICS CORP.,
Respondents.
Application for Enforcement of an Order
of the National Labor Relations Board
October 10, 2002
Before JONES, WIENER, and PARKER, Circuit Judges
ROBERT M. PARKER, Circuit Judge:
The National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB” or “the Board”), in
seeking enforcement of its order against Respondents Pneu-Electric,
Inc. (“Pneu-Elect”) and Nan Ya Plastics Corp. (“Nan Ya”), raises
three issues before us. First, whether substantial evidence
supports the Board’s finding that Pneu-Elect and Nan Ya violated
Section 8(a)(1) of the National Labor Relations Act (“the Act”), 29
U.S.C. § 151, et seq., by numerous coercive anti-union acts and
1
statements, including interrogation, threats, and imposition of
invalid no-solicitation rules. Second, whether substantial
evidence supports the Board’s finding that Pneu-Elect and Nan Ya
violated Section 8(a)(3) and (1) of the Act by discharging or
causing the discharge of Clifford Zylks and Andras Aycock because
of their union activities. Third, whether substantial evidence
supports the Board’s finding that Pneu-Elect violated Section
8(a)(3) and (1) of the Act by discriminatorily refusing to consider
known union supporters Russell, Longupee, and Goetzman for
employment. We grant the NLRB’s petition in part, except as to the
potential award of back pay associated with the third issue, and
vacate and remand its Order in part.
I. BACKGROUND.
Respondent Nan Ya operates a plastics plant in Batchelor,
Louisiana. In 1995, it hired respondent Pneu-Elect, an electrical
contracting company in Lafayette, Louisiana. Pneu-Elect performed
at the Nan Ya site via five contracts from spring to December 1996,
in which time it doubled its workforce to over 100 on that site.
Neither company recognized union representation of their employees.
On June 14, 1996, Pneu-Elect’s Field Manager Freddie Zeringue
interviewed Andras Aycock and Clifford Zylks and directed each to
report for work the following Monday at the Nan Ya site.
They did so on June 17. As they walked into the job site,
Pneu-Elect Foreman Mark Miller recognized Zylks as a union
2
supporter and commented to a Pneu-Elect employee, “Here comes union
trash. They’re here to start trouble.” After filling out their W-
4 forms, Aycock and Zylks informed Zeringue that they were members
of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local Union
No. 995, AFL-CIO (“the Union” or “IBEW”) and that they intended to
organize the Pneu-Elect employees. They put on IBEW buttons.
After they left Pneu-Elect’s trailer, Miller entered and asked
Zeringue if he had hired them. Zeringue said that he had. Miller
replied that they were “union guys,” that he did not want them on
his crew, and that he contemplated assigning them to “dirt work” in
an isolated location. The conversation occurred before Pneu-Elect
employee Simon Lopez, as did most of the conversations reported
herein. The two were assigned to work on a transformer, under
Miller’s supervision, isolated from other employees.
Miller later asked Zeringue, “What’s happening with the union
guys?” Zeringue said that he had spoken with the Nan Ya Safety
Manager, who would “run off” an otherwise-unidentified man and that
Nan Ya did not want a union on the site.
That same day, a 10-foot piece of conduit fell from above,
landing near Zylks and Aycock. Zeringue told them that it had
probably been dropped by the “elevator men” who did not like the
Union. He also told the two to take their Union buttons off. He
later told Miller, Lopez, and others that he had talked to Nan Ya
officials who said not to do or say anything, but that they would
“figure something out.”
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While commuting together that evening, Miller told Lopez that
he had “started to wait 30 minutes and throw another piece of
conduit at them.” He also said that he would not allow Zylks and
Aycock to commute in the company van and that he would defecate in
their lunch boxes, as he had done at other job sites.
On June 18, Zylks introduced himself to Pneu-Elect’s owner,
president, and CEO, Lester Colomb, and identified himself as a
union organizer with a Union letter confirming that he and Aycock
were acting in that capacity. Also that morning, Pneu-Elect
Foreman Tim Benoit asked Miller if he could “find anybody on [your]
crew [we] could get rid of . . . before [we] get rid of the union
guys,” so that firing Zylks and Aycock “wouldn’t look so bad.”
Miller replied that it would not be a problem.
On June 19, in response to Pneu-Elect employee Walter Porche’s
concern of being laid off, Zeringue said, “I’m not going to lay
nobody off . . . The first ones to be gone will be those union guys
. . . Don’t worry about nothing . . . We got a lot of work that
needs to be done.” The same morning, Zylks and Aycock used the
phone in the company’s trailer, in Zeringue’s presence, to contact
a Union representative for OSHA’s phone number to report the
dropped conduit and other safety issues. Zeringue told them to
return to work and that Nan Ya’s Safety Manager would find them.
Nan Ya Safety Manager Paul Bergeron later introduced himself to
Zylks and Aycock and told them that, if they were organizing on the
job site, he would have to ask them to leave. He said that he
4
would not allow any organizing activity to occur “on this site.”
The two replied that they were Pneu-Elect employees and entitled to
organize on the site and would continue to do so. Bergeron then
told them that they had to leave immediately. Zylks and Aycock
asked if he was firing them and Bergeron said that he was.
The two told Zeringue that Bergeron had fired them. Zeringue
asked them to cease their organizing activities. He said, “You
can’t [organize] on site,” and accused the two of disrupting work.
They replied that they had been working and not disrupting anyone.
Bergeron then joined in, repeating that he would not allow any
organizing on the site. Zeringue again claimed that they had
stopped others from working. Bergeron then said, “[I]t doesn’t
matter, done did and over with,” and again ordered Zylks and Aycock
to leave. They asked if Zeringue agreed they were being fired; he
stated that he could not override Bergeron’s order and accused them
again of interrupting work, which they again denied.
Colomb later called Zylks at home and said that he and Aycock
were not fired and that Nan Ya could ask them to leave the site,
but could not fire them. He also said he was continuing to pay the
two, at least until the matter was straightened out. Zylks said
that they wanted to return to work. Colomb thought he could put
them back to work, but because he was unsure if they could return
to Nan Ya immediately, they arranged to meet off-site the next
morning, June 20.
At the meeting, Zylks told Colomb that Bergeron had fired them
5
for organizing on-site. Colomb asked them, “if I can get y’all
back in the plant . . . will y’all agree not to organize during
work time?” Zylks replied that he would organize during working
hours without stopping anyone from working. Colomb indicated that
he had “documented cases that during work time y’all did go talk to
people about organizing.” Zylks said, “As long as I’m working I’m
going to talk. I’m not stopping anybody else from working. If I
go over there to pick up some pipe or go get some wire or whatever,
and the guys are in there terminating and I’m cutting wire, I’m
working . . . I’m not stopping nobody from working.” Both refused
to restrict themselves to breaks and lunches. Pneu-Elect employees
at the Nan Ya site had previously been allowed to talk about
anything on the job, not interfering with work.
The three disagreed whether Zylks and Aycock could be
prohibited from organizing if it did not interfere with work,
whether Bergeron’s prohibition applied to organizing on “work time”
or “on the site,” and whether Bergeron had told them they were
fired. Colomb again said he would talk to Nan Ya about returning
them to the site.
On June 21, Colomb told them that he had spoken to Nan Ya and
that he could not return them to Nan Ya as long as they refused to
stop organizing during work time. Zylks said that they would
continue to organize; Colomb said there was nothing he could do.
That was the last contact between Zylks and Aycock and Pneu-Elect.
Also on June 21, Zeringue asked Pneu-Elect employee Johnny
6
Byrd, of whose union affiliation Zeringue was unaware, if employee
George Hughes was a “union man.” Byrd said he did not know.
On June 24, journeyman electrician Russell Anderson called
Zeringue to inquire about hiring. He identified himself as a
journeyman with an OSHA card. Zeringue said, “I pretty much need
people right now . . . If you’re ready to go to work, I need people
bad, got a lot working right now until the end of this week, for
sure this weekend.” Anderson said he would apply the next day.
On June 25, three individuals wearing Union organizer buttons
appeared at the Nan Ya gate. Kendrick Russell, Donald Longupee,
and Roland Goetzman wanted to apply for work with Pneu-Elect.
Russell was the Union’s business manager and organizer; the others
were electricians on its out-of-work list. Russell introduced
himself to Zeringue as the Union’s business manager and told him
that all three wanted to apply. Zeringue told them, “I’m kinda
caught up at the moment but I may be hiring . . . we’re fixing to
cut back some guys here” when the power station was energized. He
said that was where Zylks and Aycock had been working and added,
“Fixing to cut back today for sure, tomorrow once we energize it.”
Colomb then went to the gate and told the three, “We’re laying
off, we don’t have any positions or nothing right here now . . . We
laid off some people yesterday and we are continuing laying off all
the way through Thursday.” He said he had no applications to hand
out but that they could go to the Lafayette office where they could
apply. He also said that they had completed one contract with Nan
7
Ya and would finish the rest that week.
Colomb subsequently told Zeringue and Miller, in front of
Lopez, that he told the “union guys” at the gate that Pneu-Elect
was not hiring and was laying-off. He said that Miller should tell
them the same. Miller suggested offering them jobs at $6.50 per
hour and Zeringue suggested giving them “a thorough ass-whipping.”
Later that day, Russell Anderson appeared to apply for a job
with Pneu-Elect. He did not identify himself as a Union member and
was given a job application by a Pneu-Elect employee.
Based on these circumstances, the Union filed unfair labor
practice charges and the Board’s General Counsel issued a complaint
alleging that Pneu-Elect and Nan Ya violated § 8(a)(1) and (3) of
the Act. After a hearing, an Administrative Law Judge (“ALJ”)
issued a recommended decision and order sustaining several of the
complaint’s allegations. The General Counsel, Pneu-Elect, and Nan
Ya each filed with the Board exceptions to the ALJ’s decision.
On September 29, 2000, the Board agreed with the ALJ that
Pneu-Elect violated § 8(a)(1) of the Act by threatening employees
with discharge, loss of benefits or privileges, isolation from
coworkers and assignment of more onerous work, and interrogating
employees about the union activities of other employees, all to
discourage them from engaging in union activities. Further, that
Pneu-Elect violated § 8(a)(3) and (1) of the Act by discharging
Zylks and Aycock because of their union activities, and by denying
union-affiliated applicants consideration for employment because of
8
their union membership. Additionally, that Nan Ya violated §
8(a)(1) of the Act by telling Pneu-Elect employees that they could
not engage in union activities on its premises and violated §
8(a)(3) and (1) of the Act by discharging or causing the discharge
of Zylks and Aycock because of their union activities.
The Board’s order directs Pneu-Elect and Nan Ya to cease and
desist from engaging in the unfair labor practices found and from
interfering with, restraining, or coercing employees in the
exercise of their rights protected by § 7 of the Act in any like or
related manner. Affirmatively, the Board’s order requires Pneu-
Elect to offer reinstatement to Zylks and Aycock and, jointly and
severally with Nan Ya, to make them whole for losses suffered as a
result of the discrimination against them; to consider applicant
Russell, Longupee, and Goetzman for future job openings in a non-
discriminatory manner; and to post an appropriate remedial notice.
The Board’s order also requires Pneu-Elect to make Russell,
Longupee, and Goetzman “whole” for lost back pay, if it is shown in
a future compliance proceeding that Pneu-Elect would have hired
them but for its discriminatory refusal-to-consider on June 25,
1996. Further, the order affirmatively requires Nan Ya to notify
Zylks and Aycock that it has no objection to their working for
Pneu-Elect on Nan Ya projects, and to post an appropriate remedial
notice.
The Board seeks enforcement of these orders here.
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II. STANDARD OF REVIEW.
The Act provides that the Board’s findings of fact shall be
conclusive, “if supported by substantial evidence on the record
considered as a whole.” See 29 U.S.C. § 160(e); Mississippi Power
Co. v. NLRB, No. 00-60794, 2002 U.S. App. LEXIS 4142, at *15 (5th
Cir. Mar. 14, 2002)(citing NLRB v. Pinkston-Hollar Constr. Servs.,
Inc., 954 F.2d 306, 309 (5th Cir. 1992)). Substantial evidence is
evidence a reasonable mind might accept as adequate to support a
conclusion. Entergy Gulf States, Inc. v. NLRB, 253 F.3d 203, 208
(5th Cir. 2001).
III. ANALYSIS.
A. Violation of § 8(a)(1) by coercive anti-union acts and
statements.
Section 7 of the Act, 29 U.S.C. § 157, guarantees employees
the right “to form, join, or assist labor organizations . . . and
to engage in other concerted activities for the purpose of . . .
mutual aid or protection.” Section 8(a)(1)1 implements § 7 by
making it an unfair labor practice for an employer to interfere
with, restrain, or coerce employees in the free exercise of their
§ 7 rights. NLRB v. Brookwood Furniture, 701 F.2d 452, 459 (5th
1
(a) Unfair labor practices by employer
It shall be an unfair labor practice for an employer--
(1) to interfere with, restrain, or coerce employees in the exercise of
the rights guaranteed in section 157 of this title[.]
29 U.S.C. § 158(a)(1).
10
Cir. 1983). “The test for determining whether an employer has
violated § 8(a)(1) is whether the employer’s questions, threats, or
statements tend to be coercive, not whether the employees are in
fact coerced.” Id. (quoting TRW - United Greenfield Division v.
NLRB, 637 F.2d 410, 415 (5th Cir. 1981)). The coercive tendencies
of an employer’s conduct must be assessed within the totality of
circumstances surrounding the occurrence at issue. Id.; Selkirk
Metalbestos, North America, Eljer Mfg., Inc. v. NLRB, 116 F.3d 782,
788 (5th Cir. 1997)(citing Brookwood Furniture). An unlawful
threat is established if, under the totality of the circumstances,
an employee could reasonably conclude that the employer is
threatening economic reprisals if the employee supports the union.
An employer may not issue a blanket prohibition on
solicitation by employees at the work site, without special
circumstances. Valmont Indus., Inc., v. NLRB, 244 F.3d 454, 469
(5th Cir. 2001)(“[i]t is not within the province of an employer to
promulgate and enforce a rule prohibiting [] solicitation by an
employee outside of working hours, although on company
property”)(citing Cooper Tire & Rubber v. NLRB, 957 F.2d 1245, 1249
(5th Cir. 1992)). An employer must permit solicitation during
meals, breaks, and other nonworking time, even if the employee
remains “clocked in” during such times. 957 F.2d at 1249 n.7.
Even during “paid working hours,” an employer must allow
solicitation en route to and from the timeclock, in the break room,
11
and in the rest rooms. Valmont Indus., 244 F.3d at 469 (citing 957
F.2d at 1248-50).
Although it is “well-settled that it is within the province of
an employer to promulgate and enforce a rule prohibiting []
solicitation during working hours,” see 244 F.3d at 469 (citing 957
F.2d at 1249), the presumed validity of such a narrowly-constructed
rule evaporates when it is applied discriminatorily. If a no-
solicitation rule is discriminatorily applied or enforced, i.e.,
applied to union activities as opposed to nonunion activities, that
discriminatory application violates § 8(a)(1) of the Act. NLRB v.
Trailways, Inc., 729 F.2d 1013, 1021 (5th Cir. 1984).
Nan Ya’s posted no-solicitation rule was purported to apply at
all times on the Nan Ya work site. On its face, the rule is a
blanket prohibition against any solicitation on the work site,
which would include union-related solicitation. Such a blanket no-
solicitation rule applied to employee attempts to organize is
improper under the Act. Furthermore, the Board examined evidence
supporting its conclusion that other forms of solicitation were not
excluded, whether during working or non-working hours, so long as
work was not impacted. See PNEU Electric, Inc./Nan Ya Plastics
Corp. and Int’l Brotherhood of Elec. Workers, 332 N.L.R.B. No. 60,
2000 WL 1517680, at *8 (Sept. 29, 2000). Even to the extent that
an employer may regulate the times in which such solicitation may
take place on its property, such a discriminatory application
12
violates § 8(a)(1). Nan Ya went further and, through Safety
Manager Bergeron, openly informed Zylks and Aycock that no union-
related activity would be tolerated at Nan Ya on the pain of being
fired.
Additionally, Pneu-Elect made it clear that Union activities
and members were not welcome. Its attitude was reflected in the
comments about “union trash” coming “to start trouble” by Foreman
Miller; Zylks’s and Aycock’s segregation from other workers; their
being given “dirt work”; the apparently deliberate dropping of a
piece of conduit near them from above and Miller’s subsequent
comments appearing to acknowledge responsibility for the incident;
their being told to remove their Union badges; the interrogation of
employees regarding union status by Pneu-Elect supervisors; and the
obvious efforts to prevent Union members from entering the Pneu-
Elect work force.
Under the totality of the circumstances, these acts can only
be viewed as an active anti-union animus by Nan Ya and Pneu-Elect,
intended to coerce employees away from union organizing activities
through a reasonable belief that economic reprisals would result
from support for a union.
Before finding whether both Pneu-Elect and Nan Ya have
violated § 8(a)(1), however, we must consider whether Nan Ya may be
statutorily liable under the Act in this circumstance. Board and
Supreme Court precedent recognize that an entity may be an employer
within the meaning of the Act without being the direct employer of
13
the affected employees. See Hudgens v. NLRB, 424 U.S. 507, 510 n.3
(“[w]hile Hudgens was not the employer of the employees involved in
this case, it seems to be undisputed that he was an employer
engaged in commerce within the meaning of §§ 2(6) and (7) of the
Act. . . . The Board has held that a statutory ‘employer’ may
violate § 8(a)(1) with respect to employees other than his
own”)(citations omitted) and 522 n.11. The Board in this case
specifically identified both Pneu-Elect and Nan Ya as “employers
engaged in commerce within the meaning of Section 2(2), (6), and
(7) of the Act” in its Order. See 332 N.L.R.B. No. 60, 2000 WL
1517680, at *20 (Conclusions of Law).
Although Nan Ya is a statutory employer, of concern is whether
Pneu-Elect’s employee-organizers fall into the employee or
nonemployee status with respect to Nan Ya, and whether they were
trespassers while organizing. In the context of conducting
organizing activities on an employer’s property, the Supreme Court
has drawn a “distinction [] of substance” between the organizing
rights afforded to employees and to nonemployees. N.L.R.B. v.
Babcock and Wilcox Co., 351 U.S. 105, 113 (1956). There, the Court
reviewed a series of individual cases, all involving union
organizers who entered the property of various employers, without
permission, for the purpose of distributing literature or leaflets
providing information about the respective unions and organizing.
In each case, the union organizers were not employees of the
14
targeted employers. Also in each case, the Board had found that it
was unreasonably difficult for the union organizer to reach the
employees off company property and assessed a violation of §
8(a)(1) against the employers for refusing the organizers access.
Id. at 107. The Court rejected the Board’s interpretation because
the Board had not taken the difference between employee and
nonemployee into account when determining the organizers’ access
rights. Id. at 112-13. With certain exceptions, the Court held,
“an employer may validly post his property against nonemployee
distribution of union literature. . . .” Id. at 112. It
categorically stated that, “[n]o restriction may be placed on the
employees’ right to discuss self-organization among themselves,
unless the employer can demonstrate that a restriction is necessary
to maintain production or discipline,” citing Republic Aviation
Corp. v. N.L.R.B., 324 U.S. 793, 803 (1945), “[b]ut no such
obligation is owed nonemployee organizers.” 351 U.S. at 113.
In Lechmere, Inc. v. N.L.R.B., 502 U.S. 527 (1992), the Court
again distinguished employees’ from nonemployees’ right to access
an employer’s property for the purpose of union organizing. There,
nonemployee union organizers entered an employer’s property,
without permission, to post handbills on employees’ cars, and
related organizing activity. Id. at 529-30. The Board approved an
ALJ’s cease and desist order against the employer, based on Jean
Country, 291 N.L.R.B. 11 (1988). Id. at 531. The Court reviewed
15
whether Jean Country, “as applied to nonemployee organizational
trespassing [was] consistent with [the Court’s] past interpretation
of § 7.” Id. at 536. It determined that Jean Country was being
“applie[d] broadly to all access cases” by the Board Id. at 538
(internal quotation and citation omitted). Further, under Jean
Country, the Board approached every case by balancing § 7 rights
against an employer’s property rights, regardless whether the
organizers were employees or nonemployees, and relegating the
Babcock alternative access analysis to being no more than an
“especially significant” consideration. Id. The Court rejected
the Board’s casting of the Babcock rule as a “multifactor balancing
test” and emphasized the applicability and narrowness of Babcock’s
inaccessibility exception to the rule that an employer may post his
property against nonemployee distribution of union literature. Id.
at 539-41.
We note that another circuit court has recently reviewed the
issue of nonemployee access to an employer’s property for union
organizing activities. In ITT Indus., Inc. v. N.L.R.B., 251 F.3d
995 (D.C. Cir. 2001), the court vacated and remanded a Board order
granting nonderivative access rights for offsite employees.
Employees in that case were employed at several different job
sites. On two occasions, employee-organizers from one plant
attempted to handbill in the parking lot of another plant, both of
which belonged to the same employer. Id. at 996. Citing, inter
16
alia, the property interest concerns articulated in Babcock and
Lechmere, the court held that the Board must take account of an
offsite employee’s trespasser status as it applied to two areas.
First, to the Board’s decision to extend nonderivative access
rights to offsite employees and, second, to its determination that
the scope of those rights be defined by the same balancing test2
used to assess the scope of onsite employee access rights. Id. at
1004-06. In so doing, the court noted that the Board’s opinion
lacked any discussion of the employer’s property rights and of the
potential implication of state trespass laws in light of the
Supreme Court’s prior decisions addressing nonemployee organizers
as trespassers. Id. at 1005 (citing Sears, Roebuck & Co. v.
Carpenters, 436 U.S. 180, 205 (1978)).
Babcock and Lechmere involved non-employee union organizers
trespassing on employer property and attempting to organize the
employer’s employees by leafleting and other means. ITT Indus.
involved offsite employees not employed at the site of the
organizing effort. Neither situation is close to the circumstances
here, where bona fide employees of an employer operating a distinct
work site on the property of another statutory employer, by
contract, are the subjects at issue. On its face, the situation
appears more closely related to that in Republic Aviation, in which
2
As expressed in Tri-County Medical Center, Inc. v. District
1199, 222 N.L.R.B. 1089, 1976 WL 7839 (1976).
17
the Court upheld employees’ rights under the Act to conduct union
solicitation and organizing activities on their own time, subject
to reasonable rules, even on the employer’s property. 324 U.S. at
804 and n.10.
The Board has, in fact, based its decisions in two prior,
somewhat similar, cases on Republic Aviation. In Southern Serv.,
Inc. v. N.L.R.B., 954 F.2d 700 (11th Cir. 1992), the Eleventh
Circuit upheld a Board determination that a contractor providing
janitorial services at a Coca-Cola manufacturer’s site enjoyed the
same organizational rights under the Act as the employer’s
employees did. In its narrow ruling, the court held that “[w]hen
the relationship situates the subcontract employee’s workplace
continuously and exclusively upon the contracting employer’s
premises, the contracting employer’s rules purporting to restrict
that subcontract employee’s right to distribute union literature
among other employees of the subcontractor must satisfy the test of
Republic Aviation.” Id. at 704. While addressing the rule of
Babcock and its progeny, and emphasizing the distinction between
trespassers and nontrespassers implied in Babcock and discussed
more fully in later cases, the Eleventh Circuit did not address the
more recent Lechmere case, decided the previous month, with its
greater emphasis on the difference in access rights between
employees and nonemployees.
In N.L.R.B. v. Gayfer’s Dep’t Store, 324 N.L.R.B. 1246 (1997),
18
the Board addressed a similar issue. Employees of an electrical
contractor engaged in remodeling efforts at a Gayfer’s store, the
contracting employer, in a shopping mall, attempted on several
occasions to hand out leaflets and conduct other organizational
activities on the store’s and mall’s premises. The did so at the
entrances to the store, outside of the mall and at an interior
entrance, aimed at customers and other employees, in violation of
Gayfer’s no-solicitation policy. The Board upheld a determination
that the contracting employer violated § 8(a)(1) with regard to the
contractor-employees. In doing so, the Board recognized that
Babcock and Lechmere drew “‘a critical distinction between employee
and nonemployee solicitation.’” 324 N.L.R.B. at 1249 (quoting
Lechmere, 502 U.S. at 509). The Board distinguished the Gayfer’s
situation, in favor of Republic Aviation. It noted that, in
Hudgens, the Supreme Court stated that “[a] wholly different
balance was struck [in Republic Aviation] when the organizational
activity was carried on by employees already rightfully on the
employer’s property, since the employer’s management interests
rather than his property interests were there involved.” 324
N.L.R.B. at 1249 (quoting 424 U.S. at 521 n.10). The Board
buttressed this by noting that the Court had also stated that “‘the
nonemployees in Babcock & Wilcox sought to trespass on the
employer’s property, whereas the employees in Republic Aviation did
not.’” Id. (quoting Eastex, Inc. v. NLRB, 437 U.S. 556, 571
19
(1978)). The Board then analogized the case before it to Southern
Serv. to determine that the contractor-employees were lawfully on
the department store’s premises, not “strangers” to it. On that
basis, the Board concluded that “their rights to engage in Section
7 activity during nonworking time in nonwork areas of the
Respondent’s premises are established by the standard of Republic
Aviation and not, as the Respondent urges, Babcock & Wilcox and
Lechmere.” Id. at 1250. The Board went on to declare Gayfer’s no-
solicitation policy invalid as overbroad because on its face, it
prohibited protected conduct during periods from the beginning to
the end of workshifts, periods that include the employees’ own
time. Id at 1250-51 (citation omitted).
Here, the Board relies on Gayfer’s and Southern Serv. to
determine that Pneu-Elect employees Zylks and Aycock “worked
exclusively for Pneu-Elect at the Nan Ya site and had full employee
rights.” See 332 N.L.R.B. No. 60, 2000 WL 1517680, at *17. We
defer to the Board’s reasonable interpretation of the Act.
Lechmere, 502 U.S. at 536. “When it is unclear under established
law whether a category of workers enjoys free-standing,
nonderivative access rights, then a court is obliged to defer to
reasonable judgments of the Board in its resolution of cases that
have not as yet been resolved by the Supreme Court.” ITT Indus.,
251 F.3d at 1003 (emphasis in original). We agree with the D.C.
circuit and are concerned that the Board’s determination that
20
Republic Aviation controls the contractor-employee situation before
us has not provided a sufficiently reasoned analysis in light of
Lechmere regarding why the Pneu-Elect employees should also be
considered employees as to Nan Ya for the purposes of the Act. The
Board did not address the issue at all in Southern Serv. and did
not provide a detailed analysis in Gayfer’s to “establish[] the
locus of [] accommodation,” Lechmere, 502 U.S. at 538, due to a
contractor-invitee by a contracting employer. In the Board’s Order
before us, there is no further analysis. This is a category of
workers not previously addressed in Supreme Court precedent.
Republic Aviation may well be the correct standard to employ as
against the contracting employer, considering that a statutory
employer may violate § 8(a)(1) with respect to employees other than
his own. Hudgens, 424 U.S. at 510 n.3.
Regardless, the Board must first determine, considering
Lechmere, explicitly whether the term “employee” encompasses this
relationship between an employer and a contractor-invitee for the
purposes of the Act. That will establish the appropriate locus of
accommodation.
Once accomplished, the Board should also determine, in view of
the Supreme Court cases addressing trespassory conduct in relation
to organizational activities, whether the Pneu-Elect employees in
this case were trespassing on Nan Ya’s property when organizing.
Undoubtedly, Louisiana law must be considered as well as the
21
validity of the restrictions put in place by Nan Ya’s no-
solicitation rule.
In the event that the Board determines that the Pneu-Elect
employees are nonemployees with regard to Nan Ya and are therefore
subject to the Babcock/Lechmere access analysis, it must also
consider whether one of the exceptions to Babcock applies. That
is, “[t]o gain access, the union has the burden of showing that no
other reasonable means of communicating its organizational message
to the employees exists or that the employer’s access rules
discriminate against union solicitation.” Lechmere, 502 U.S. at
535 (quoting Sears, Roebuck & Co., 436 U.S. at). The former, the
inaccessibility exception, places a heavy burden on the union to
show, as “the Babcock accommodation principle has rarely been in
favor of trespassory organizational activity.” Id. The latter,
the discrimination exception, applies “if the employer’s notice or
order [against nonemployee distribution of union literature] does
not discriminate against the union by allowing other distribution.”
Babcock, 351 U.S. at 112. The Board has already found that the Nan
Ya no-solicitation policy was invalid for being discriminatorily
applied. If reaching this level of analysis, the Board will have
to determine whether the discriminatory policy satisfies the second
Babcox exception.
For these reasons, we vacate that portion of the Board’s Order
relating to Nan Ya’s liability under § 8(a)(1) for coercive anti-
22
union acts and statements toward the Pneu-Elect employees and
remand for further determination.
We have no difficulty, on the other hand, determining that the
employee-organizers were employees of Pneu-Elect under the Act.
The Board’s finding that Pneu-Elect violated § 8(a)(1) by coercive
treatment of employees is supported by substantial evidence, and we
affirm it.
B. Violation of § 8(a)(3) and (1) by discharging Zylks and Aycock
for their union activities.
In addition to alleging a § 8(a)(1) violation for improperly
discharging Zylks and Aycock, the Board asserts a violation of §
8(a)(3) against both Pneu-Elect and Nan Ya. That section
establishes an employer’s unfair labor practice “by discrimination
in regard to hire or tenure of employment or any term or condition
of employment to encourage or discourage membership in any labor
organization . . . .” See 29 U.S.C. § 158(a)(3). Section 8(a)(3)
therefore prohibits such discrimination based on union-related
activity. “Thus, ‘it is elementary that an employer violates
section 8(a)(3) and (1) of the Act by discharging employees because
of their union activity.’” See Poly-America, Inc. v. NLRB, 260 F.3d
465, 488 (5th Cir. 2001)(quoting NLRB v. Adco Elec., 6 F.3d 1110,
1116 (5th Cir. 1993), in turn citing NLRB v. Transportation Mgmt.
Corp., 462 U.S. 393, 397-98 (1983)). The Board bears the burden of
proving through direct or circumstantial evidence that anti-union
23
animus was a “motivating factor” in the decision to discharge the
employee, and the evidence must support a reasonable inference of
causal connection between the employer’s anti-union motivation and
the employee’s discharge. If the Board meets this burden, it
establishes a prima facie case of discriminatory discharge, and the
employer must present evidence showing that the employee would have
been discharged even absent the protected activity. Poly-America,
260 F.3d at 488-89 (citations omitted).
The record reflects that Zylks and Aycock were targeted as
“union guys” from the moment they were hired, and particularly
after they announced their union affiliation and intent to
organize. In addition to the public comments reflecting hostility
toward the union affiliation, two Pneu-Elect foremen discussed
“getting rid of” non-union workers specifically to camouflage
terminating Zylks and Aycock. Field Manager Zeringue continually
alluded to work being available, but stated that the first to be
laid off would be “those union guys.” Zeringue also met with Nan
Ya Safety Manager Bergeron about the presence of Zylks and Aycock,
and later arranged for Bergeron to meet with them after they tried
to register a complaint about safety conditions on the job site.
Bergeron, acting for Nan Ya, told Zylks and Aycock that there
would be no union organizing or solicitation on the Nan Ya job site
whatsoever. When they replied that they were entitled to do so,
Bergeron ordered them off of the property and told them that they
24
were fired. Zylks and Aycock challenged the issue with Zeringue,
who refused to override Bergeron’s order and accused them of
interrupting others’ work. CEO Colomb later acceded to Nan Ya’s
blanket no-solicitation policy, though a proper restriction during
actual working hours might have been enforceable. Anti-union
animus motivating the discharge is a reasonable inference
supporting the Board’s prima facie case of discriminatory
discharge.
Pneu-Elect and Nan Ya argue that Zylks and Aycock were fired
for soliciting -- or not working -- during working hours and for
being disruptive in the process. Pneu-Elect did not have a
formally published “no solicitation” rule, whether focused at only
during working hours or at any time on the work premises.
Nonetheless, Pneu-Elect contends that such a policy was in effect
and the Board found that such a policy was in effect.
Nan Ya did have a posted “no solicitation” rule and claims
that Zylks and Aycock violated it when soliciting for the Union,
conducting labor organizing activities, and being disruptive during
working hours.
Certainly, an employer has the right to restrict organizing
activities, or other types of solicitation, on the employer’s
property to those times not involving working hours. Valmont
Indus., 244 F.3d at 469. That is not what Nan Ya required, and
Pneu-Elect acceded to, here. Nan Ya’s posted regulation prohibited
25
any solicitation at all. From the content of Bergeron’s orders,
and the comments of various Pneu-Elect supervisors, the prohibition
was aimed against union organizing. Neither Nan Ya nor Pneu-Elect
have provided any evidence that the no-solicitation rule was
enforced in any other context. Such discriminatory application
violates § 8(a)(1) of the Act. NLRB v. Trailways, Inc., 729 F.2d
1013, 1021 (5th Cir. 1984). Zylks’s and Aycock’s discharge, on the
basis of the discriminatory application, was predicated on and
motivated by the employers’ anti-union animus and is a violation of
§ 8(a)(3). There is substantial evidence in the record to support
the Board’s findings in this regard, and we therefore affirm them.
Nan Ya further contends that it cannot be held responsible
under § 8(a)(3) because Pneu-Elect was merely under a short-term
contract and was the sole employer of the discharged employees.
Nan Ya need not be the direct employer, however. “An employer
violates [§§ 8(a)(3) and (1)] when it directs, instructs, or orders
another employer with whom it has business dealings to discharge,
layoff, transfer, or otherwise affects the working conditions of
the latter’s employees because of the union activities of said
employees.” See Dews Const. Corp., 231 NLRB 182, 183 n.4
(1977)(citing cases), enforced, 578 F.2d 1374 (3rd Cir. 1978);
Int’l Shipping Ass’n., Inc., 297 NLRB 1059 (1990)(citing cases).
In this case, the record as a whole provides substantial evidence
to support the Board’s conclusion that Nan Ya’s Safety Officer,
26
Bergeron, ordered Zylks and Aycock off of the Nan Ya premises and
told them that they were fired. Further, that Bergeron repeated
the same to Pneu-Elect Field Manager Zeringue and effectively
forced Pneu-Elect CEO Colomb to refuse to let Zylks and Aycock
return to work unless they refrained from organizing.
C. Violation of § 8(a)(3) and (1) by discriminatorily refusing to
consider known union supporters.
This issue applies only to Pneu-Elect’s apparent refusal to
consider three IBEW members’ applications for employment.
The NLRB argues that its decision in FES (a Division of Thermo
Power) and Plumbers and Pipefitters Local 520 of the United Assoc.,
331 N.L.R.B. No. 20, 2000 WL 627640 (May 11, 2000) should provide
the appropriate analysis in this refusal-to-consider situation.
That is, to establish a discriminatory refusal to consider, the
Board’s General Counsel bears the burden of showing (1) that the
respondent excluded applicants from a hiring process; and (2) that
anti-union animus contributed to the decision not to consider the
applicants for employment. Once established, the burden shifts to
the employer to show that it would not have considered the
applicants even in the absence of their union activity or
affiliation. If the employer fails to meet its burden, a violation
of § 8(a)(3) is established. FES, 331 N.L.R.B. No. 20, 2000 WL
627640, at *10; Int’l Union of Operating Engineers, Local 147, AFL-
CIO, v. NLRB, No. 01-1301, 2002 WL 1461724, at *3-4 (D.C. Cir. July
27
9, 2002). This approach, however, obviates an examination of
whether the excluded applicants are qualified for the applied-to
position, or even if any position exists at all to be filled. The
Board asserts that, regardless of qualifications or available
openings, a blanket refusal to consider union-related applicants
excludes them from the hiring process completely and that such a
discriminatory refusal is a deterrent to employees’ engaging in the
right of self-organization. On that basis, the Board contends that
Pneu-Elect’s demonstrated anti-union animus and its alleged blanket
refusal to consider any union-related applicants for hire, without
more, constitutes a violation of § 8(a)(3).
We think that the approach taken by the Sixth Circuit in NLRB
v. Fluor Daniel, Inc., 161 F.3d 953 (6th Cir. 1998), may provide a
better basis for analyzing a refusal-to-consider charge. Under
Fluor Daniel, there are two elements to a § 8(a)(3) violation: (1)
anti-union animus and (2) the occurrence of a covered action such
as a particular failure to hire. See Fluor Daniel, 161 F.3d at 966
(citing NLRB v. Transportation Mgmt. Corp., 462 U.S. 393, 395
(1983)). After the Board’s General Counsel has proven each
element, the employer must present evidence that the employees in
question would not have been hired, even if they had not been
involved with a union. 161 F.3d at 966. There can be no violation
if there was no refusal to hire or if there were no positions
available of the type applied for. Id. at 966-67. Therefore, in
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reviewing a § 8(a)(3) claim under a Fluor Daniel-type analysis, we
would have to determine that not only did anti-union animus exist,
and that a failure to hire circumstance occurred, but also that the
employees involved were actually qualified for the respective job
positions and that there were job positions actually available.
This approach seems the more equitable balance between the
interests of individual applicants and those of the employer, who
otherwise might be exposed to liability even if it legitimately had
no job openings available at all.
In this situation, analysis under either of the tests supports
the Board’s finding of discriminatory refusal to hire. If we were
to find that applicants Kendrick Russell, Donald Longupee, and
Roland Goetzman were unqualified for the positions applied for, or
that Pneu-Elect had no job openings available at the time, we would
have to decide whether to ultimately employ the FES test propounded
by the Board or the Fluor Daniel test established by the Sixth
Circuit. Because we find that the applicants were qualified and
that Pneu-Elect did have jobs available at the time of application,
we need not determine with finality which test to follow.
As recently as June 21, 1996, Pneu-Elect CEO Colomb attempted
to return Zylks and Aycock to work as electricians, with the caveat
that they stop organizing during working hours. That indicates
that there were electrician positions available with Pneu-Elect at
the Nan Ya work site and that at least the two positions vacated
29
when Zylks and Aycock were open. On June 24, electrician Russell
Anderson inquired about electrician positions with Pneu-Elect and
was told by Field Manager Zeringue that the company had jobs
available and needed people, at least through the end of the week.
The following day, Russell, Longupee, and Goetzman presented
themselves at the job site, identified themselves as IBEW
organizers, wore Union buttons, and asked to apply for electrician
jobs with Pneu-Elect. They represented themselves as electricians
on the Union’s out-of-work list, which Pneu-Elect has not
challenged. Field Manager Zeringue told them that he was cutting
back that day. CEO Colomb then told the three aspiring applicants
that Pneu-Elect was laying off employees and that there were no
positions available, despite Zeringue’s representation to Anderson
the day before. Colomb also told the three that there were no
application forms available at the job site for them to fill out,
requiring them to go instead to the company’s office in Lafayette.
Colomb later told Zeringue and Foreman Miller that they should tell
the union-related applicants the same thing. Regardless, that same
day, Anderson, with no apparent union affiliation, presented
himself at the work site and was given a job application.
Whether following FES or Fluor Daniel, the Board’s findings
are supported by substantial evidence. There were jobs available
the day before Russell, Longupee, and Goetzman presented themselves
for applications, and with strong likelihood that same day, based
30
on the company accepting Anderson’s application for consideration.
Pneu-Elect has not challenged their qualifications for the work at
Nan Ya. Under the totality of the circumstances, there was
certainly an anti-union animus present within Pneu-Elect and, given
the commentary by Colomb and Zeringue, this animus contributed to
the company’s decision not to consider the three union-affiliated
applicants. Consideration for their employment was refused with
their refused attempt to apply, though an applicant without
apparent union affiliation was later considered. On this basis, we
affirm the findings of the Board that Pneu-Elect’s discriminatory
refusal to consider the three violated §§ 8(a)(3) and (1).
The record also shows, however, that Pneu-Elect did not hire
any applicants for the Nan Ya job site after Russell, Longupee, and
Goetzman attempted to apply and were refused. The only hires made
by Pneu-Elect were for other jobs in other locales; Russell did in
fact apply for a position at any of the sites via Pneu-Elect’s
office in Lafayette and the company accepted his application.
Russell was not hired for any of the other sites because, according
to Colomb, his application reflected a lack of any recent or
significant experience. Because there were no subsequent hires for
the Nan Ya work site, we decline to enforce the Board’s order as it
pertains to requiring a hearing in the compliance stage regarding
whether Russell, Longuee, and Goetzman might have been hired at the
Nan Ya work site but for the discriminatory refusal to consider
them. It is difficult to see how they would be eligible to be
31
“made whole” for any losses that could not have been incurred to
begin with.
IV. CONCLUSION.
For the reasons stated herein, we VACATE that portion of the
Board’s Order regarding Nan Ya’s § 8(a)(1) liability for coercive
anti-union acts regarding Pneu-Elect’s employees and REMAND for
further determination. The Board’s petition for enforcement of its
order is otherwise GRANTED, except insofar as it directed hearings
in the compliance stage regarding losses by Russell, Longupee, and
Goetzman when no electricians were hired by Pneu-Elect for the Nan
Ya site after June 25, 1996.
32