Plaza Auto Redux

Last November, I posted about an animation of Plaza Auto, 355 NLRB No. 85 (2010) . It's a case that illustrates both protected concerted activity and the leeway that is sometimes given to employees when they say or do impertinent things while engaging in protected concerted activity. The employee in the case was a car salesman who was fired after he raised various concerns on behalf of himself and other employees including complaints about whether the employer was paying the salesmen minimum wage, whether the employer was padding vehicle costs (which cut into commissions), breaks, and access to bathrooms.  During a meeting with his boss, the employee raised some of these concerns and was told in so many words that he was free to quit. At that point, the employee let loose a torrent of words. The Board determined that the employee had been engaged in protected concerted activity and had to determine whether the employee lost the protection of the Act by going overboard with his words during the meeting.  The Board applied its Atlantic Steel doctrine and determined that he had not lost the protection of the Act and that his discharge was unlawful.  Today, the Ninth Circuit took issue with Board's reasoning with regard to one of the four Atlantic Steel factors, nature of the outburst (the others are place of the discussion, subject matter of the discussion; and whether the outburst was provoked by the employer's unfair labor practice), and remanded the decision to the Board for further analysis.

Link to the Board decision here

Here's my animation:



This animation is just a rough imagining of the situation as depicted in the case. Some of the language is from the case, but not all of the language is taken from the case. Artistic liberty and technical limitations abound.

Blessed Adolph Kolping

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolph_Kolping

For Catholics, today is the feast Day of the Blessed Adolph Kolping, a German priest who ministered to workmen in the Industrial Revolution and founded the Young Workman's Society (Kolping Society). The Kolping Society, whose 450,000 members are spread over 60 countries, emphasizes the sanctification of family life and the dignity of labor.

The son of a shepherd, at a young age, Kolping moved from the countryside to industrial Cologne, Germany. There he worked as a shoemaker's assistant and learned firsthand about the brutal effects of the Industrial Revolution on the lives of the young men that filled German factories.  He made it his life's work to better their lives and deepen their faith.  The keystone of Kolping's ministry was beginning the Gesellenvereine (young workman's societies) that quickly spread around the world. Nine years after founding the first, there were 400 branches. The society today describes itself this way:

The International Kolping Society is a catholic social organization founded by Adolph Kolping. The members create a family-like and life accompanying community. The International Kolping Society promotes through education and activities the development of its members in many fields of the daily life. It consists of local Kolping families which form diocesan or regional organizations and National Kolping Societies. 

There are some 5000 Kolping families today.  Key to the organization's ultimate success was Koliping's ability to unite the isolated and fragmented workmen of his time. During the homily of Kolping's beatification mass, the Blessed Pope John Paul, II said:

Adolph Kolping gathered skilled workers and factory laborers together. Thus he overcame their isolation and defeatism. A faith society gave them the strength to go out into their everyday lives as Christ’s witnesses before God and the world. To come together, to become strengthened in the assembly, and thus to scatter again is and still remains our duty today. We are not Christians for ourselves alone, but always for others too.

New revolutions in technology are changing our work and our lives today. In these times, Blessed Adolph Kolping, pray for us.