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.