162721P.pdf   08/08/2017  Cooper Tire & Rubber Company  v.  NLRB
   U.S. Court of Appeals Case No:  16-2721
                          and No:  16-2944
   National Labor Relations Board   
   [PUBLISHED] [Benton, Author, with Beam and Murphy, Circuit Judges] 
   Petition for Review - National Labor Relations Board. Discharged worker's 
   comments directed at a van carrying replacement workers were a "package of 
   verbal barbs thrown out during a picket line exchange," and the Board's 
   order directing the employer to reinstate the employee is affirmed; the 
   statements, concerning fried chicken and watermelon, while racially 
   derogatory, were not accompanied by any threatening behavior or physical 
   acts of intimidation directed towards the replacement workers; reinstating 
   the worker would not conflict with the employer's Title VII obligations as 
   the comments did not create a hostile work environment; since the employee 
   was discharged for a prohibited reason - the protected activity of 
   engaging in picketing, the employer did not fire him for just cause under 
   Section 10(c) of the Act. Judge Beam, dissenting.