I'm sorry, but saying that "maybe" they will be able to place him elsewhere is not a guarantee; nor does it change anything with regards to the legalities. It is still not a wrongful termination under the law and he is still going to have to go through his union for any relief.
He needs to apply for unemployment sooner rather than later.
I know it wasn’t a guarantee, but it sounded hopeful that they were going to put him somewhere else so we did not want to file for unemployment before speaking to him. The call came in late on Friday afternoon stating that he could send his resume over.
We’ve never dealt with anything like this before so another question I have is will him filing unemployment hurt his chance of obtaining a new job from this company if they decide to rehire him after they get his resume? (Which I know they don’t have to hire him but they said to send it so we will)