222958P.pdf   12/06/2023  Strategic Technology Institute  v.  NLRB
   U.S. Court of Appeals Case No:  22-2958
                          and No:  22-3045
   National Labor Relations Board   
   [PUBLISHED] [Benton, Author, with Loken and Wollman, Circuit Judges] 
   Petition for Review - Labor law. The Board found petitioner had terminated 
   17 employees for union activities in violation of 8(a)(1) and (3) of the 
   NLRA, and the union filed an unfair labor practice charge challenging the 
   terminations. The ALJ found the terminations were violations, and the 
   Board adopted the rulings. Held: the Board relied on suspicion and 
   unreasonable inference in finding that three employees fired after an 
   investigation determined they left a screwdriver in a jet engine were 
   fired in violation of the Act; the fact that the company had not 
   terminated employees for past errors was not proof of pretext in light of 
   the seriousness of this error and the failure of the company's training 
   efforts to correct and eliminate such errors; with respect to the firing 
   of 14 employees ranked as poor performers, there was no direct evidence of 
   anti-union animus in the terminations; the other evidence the ALJ relied 
   on did not support a finding that the terminations were motivated by 
   anti-union animus; the "mass discharge" standard does not support the 
   Board's findings as application of the standard still requires a nexus 
   between anti-union animus and the terminations, and such a nexus is 
   lacking here. The petition for review is granted, the Board's order is 
   vacated, and the matter is remanded for further proceedings.