Town & Country Electric v. National Labor Relations Board

Town & Country Electric (Town & Country) (defendant) needed to hire Minnesota-licensed electricians for a contracted job. Town & Country retained a temporary-staffing agency to provide these electricians, making clear to the agency that applicants had to be willing to work a “nonunion job.” The electricians would be employees of the staffing agency under Town & Country’s control. On the day set aside for interviews, Town & Country’s human resources (HR) manager refused to interview or hire 10 of 11 union applicants arranged by the staffing agency on the stated ground that the applicants did not have a scheduled interview. Union member Malcolm Hansen was interviewed and hired to work on Town & Country’s job site. Soon after his first day on the job, Hansen spoke to a few others of his union membership and his intention to organize workers. The other workers were not interested in unionizing, and tensions between them and Hansen rose. Within a few days, Hansen was fired. The HR manager told Hansen that Town & Country could not use an agency employee on the job site and that the company would “absolutely not” hire him directly. The electricians’ labor union (the union) initiated a proceeding before the National Labor Relations Board (the board). The administrative law judge (ALJ) found that Town & Country had discriminated against the union applicants and terminated Hansen for improper reasons, in violation of the National Labor Relations Act. In particular, the ALJ disbelieved Town & Country’s witnesses on their rationale for not interviewing union applicants and supposed performance-based reasons that led to Hansen’s termination. The board affirmed the ALJ’s findings. The Eighth Circuit reviewed the board’s decision.