the Pittsburgh area manager understood that he was instructed "to work on making those changes . . .  reducing part-time people, and having just full-time people," but that he resisted because the change would deny him the kind of operating flexibility that he felt that he required, and he did nothing to implement the proposed change.  The general manager testified that he took personal charge of the matter when he returned from vacation on August 18th, but the area manager did not return from his vacation until August 25th.  The testimony was that only the supervisor of stores communicated with the area manager in the two weeks following August 18th: the general manager did not do so before August 29th when, admittedly, Florsheim received Local1407's request for recognition.


10
The testimony of the general manager comes down to the fact that as late as August 22nd his "decision" was still an equivocal disposition to reduce or eliminate part-time employment in Pittsburgh.  Only after the general manager on September 8th and 9th met with the area manager in Pittsburgh and met also with each of the five store managers did he, his testimony indicates, make the decision to replace all the part-time employees in the Pittsburgh area stores.  That, he testified, was the final step in a decision taken eight months earlier when he "started on the program to eliminate and reduce or phase . . .  out" part-time employment.  But the events demonstrate that there was no earlier decision. 