--- hive-0.12.0-cdh5.1.2.orig/src/serde/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hive/serde2/avro/AvroDeserializer.java       2014-08-25 22:48:05.000000000 -0400
+++ hive-0.12.0-cdh5.1.2/src/serde/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hive/serde2/avro/AvroDeserializer.java    2014-09-21 21:17:37.087223770 -0400
@@ -266,9 +266,10 @@
       return null;
     }
 
-    return worker(datum, fileSchema == null ? null : fileSchema.getTypes().get(tag), schema,
-        SchemaToTypeInfo.generateTypeInfo(schema));
-
+    if ((fileSchema != null) && fileSchema.getType().equals(Schema.Type.UNION))
+        return worker(datum, fileSchema.getTypes().get(tag), schema, SchemaToTypeInfo.generateTypeInfo(schema));
+    else
+        return worker(datum, fileSchema, schema, SchemaToTypeInfo.generateTypeInfo(schema));
   }