Electronic Data Systems Corporation

Electronic Data Systems (EDS) (defendant) provided communication services to Xerox Corporation and contracted with service vendors to resolve Xerox’s technical problems. EDS maintained customer-support centers (CSC) staffed with service representatives who took calls from Xerox and customers about computer problems. When incoming calls involved telephone-related problems, CSC transferred the caller to EDS’s network-operations center (NOC). EDS employees were nonunionized. EDS’s NOC employees routinely interacted with Rochester Telephone (Rochester), the service vendor responsible for maintaining Xerox’s circuits and telephone lines. NOC employees contacted Rochester multiple times daily to resolve problems for Xerox. Nettie Eaton (plaintiff) was an EDS service representative in the CSC who learned one day that Rochester’s employees would be striking soon. Eaton sent two emails to her coworkers and spoke directly to a few NOC employees. Eaton’s first email, to NOC employees, announced the imminent Rochester strike and asked the NOC employees for their “support.” Eaton’s second email, to CSC employees, announced the imminent Rochester strike and warned that anyone crossing Rochester’s picket line would “suffer the consequences.” In conversing with NOC employees, Eaton asked them not to call or interact with Rochester during the strike. EDS discharged Eaton shortly thereafter. Eaton brought a charge before the National Labor Relations Board, alleging that she was terminated for protected activity in violation of the National Labor Relations Act.