Liberty Mutual Insurance Company v. National Labor Relations Board

ALDRICH, Senior Circuit Judge

(concurring).

While I fully concur in the court’s opinion, and admire its careful compilation of authorities, I fear that this expenditure of our time is wasted on the Board. As these authorities, and the present case, reveal, the Board seems unable to recognize that as a matter of business judgment there can be only one course open to management when an employee persists in giving it the finger.

Equally, the Board has ignored our rule applicable to double motive cases, even now, after we pointed out in Coletti’s Furniture, Inc. v. NLRB, 1 Cir., 1977, 550 F.2d 1292, 1293, that the Supreme Court had confirmed its correctness in Mt. Healthy City Board of Education v. Doyle, 1977, 429 U.S. 274, 285-87, 97 S.Ct. 568, 50 L.Ed.2d 471. In Coletti’s Furniture we said that, in the light of Doyle, “there can be little reason for us to rescue the Board hereafter if it does not both articulate and apply our rule.” If the Board does not recognize the validity of our rule, it must, at the least, recognize the validity of our word. Neither employers, or this court, should be put to totally needless litigation.