EMPLOYER DETERRENCE OR DISCOURAGEMENT – Contextual Factors

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Even without the presumptive section 3550 violation borne of the University’s section 3553, subdivision (b) violation, the Board found that Teamsters proved a prima facie case of a section 3550 violation. The context in which the University distributed the FAQs also supports finding that they tend to deter or discourage employee free choice. The University circulated the FAQs within days of the accretion becoming final, which was a crucial period for Administrative Officer IIs (AO2) to decide whether to join Teamsters. The timing was therefore particularly sensitive to influencing employee free choice. Moreover, the Board noted that the unit employees who received the FAQs were part of a group of employees who received a previous University communication that violated section 3550. That prior communication likely tended to color how AO2s perceived the University’s October 2020 FAQs. (p. 22.)