American Boiler Manufacturers Association v. National Labor Relations Board

404 F.2d 547
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
DecidedJanuary 21, 1969
Docket19033_1
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 404 F.2d 547 (American Boiler Manufacturers Association v. National Labor Relations Board) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
American Boiler Manufacturers Association v. National Labor Relations Board, 404 F.2d 547 (8th Cir. 1969).

Opinion

404 F.2d 547

AMERICAN BOILER MANUFACTURERS ASSOCIATION, Petitioner,
v.
NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, Respondent, and Local Union
455 of the UnitedAssociation of Journeymen and Apprentices
of the Plumbing and Pipe FittingIndustry of the United
States and Canada, Intervenor.

No. 19033.

United States Court of Appeals Eighth Circuit.

Dec. 6, 1968, Rehearing En Banc Denied Jan. 21, 1969,
Rehearing Denied Jan.29, 1969.

Kenneth C. McGuiness, of Vedder, Price, Kaufman, Kammholz & McGuiness, Washington, D.C., for petitioner; Stanley R. Strauss, Washington, D.C., on brief and reply brief.

Leonard M. Wagman, Atty., National Labor Relations Board, Washington, D.C., for respondent; Arnold Ordman, Gen. Counsel, Dominick L. Manoli, Associate Gen. Counsel, Marcel Mallet-Prevost, Asst. Gen. Counsel, and Gary Green, Atty., N.L.R.B., with him on briefs.

Donald J. Capuano, of O'Donoghue & O'Donoghue, Washington, D.C., for intervenor, United Assn. Pipefitters Local Unions 455 and 539; Martin F. O'Donoghue and Patrick C. O'Donoghue, Washington, D.C., on brief with him.

Gerard D. Reilly, Winthrop A. Johns and Lawrence T. Zimmerman, Washington, D.C., for Associated General Contractors of America and Mechanical Contractors Assn. of America, Inc., and John H. Pratt, Washington, D.C., for Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Institute, on brief as amici curiae for Associated General Contractors of America, Mechanical Contractors Assn. of America, Inc., and Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Institute.

Before MEHAFFY, GIBSON and HEANEY, Circuit Judges.

HEANEY, Circuit Judge.

This is the second time that this matter has been before this Court. On the first occasion, we enforced the Board's order in part. We then remanded the matter to the Board to determine the legality of a 'fabrication' clause in a collective bargaining agreement between the United Association Pipe Fitters Local Union No. 455, and the St. Paul Association of Plumbing, Heating and Mechanical Contractors, Inc., and to take other action consistent with the views expressed in the opinion. American Boiler Manufacturers Association v. N.L.R.B., 366 F.2d 815 (8th Cir. 1966).

The facts are reported in detail in the two decisions of the Board1 and the earlier decision of this Court, and will be repeated here only to the extent necessary to an understanding of the opinion.

Packaged boilers with trim piping attached were introduced and used in the St. Paul area before 1941. By the mid1940's, ten per cent of the boilers being installed were of the packaged variety. Their use increased rapidly and by 1963, had risen to sixty to eighty-five per cent of all boiler installations.

Prior to the use of packaged boilers, the boilers and the trim piping were shipped separately and assembled on the job site by members of the Union. The advent of packaged boilers resulted in a decrease of work at the job site for members. The work claimed took two men about two days for each installation.

In 1959 and 1961, the Union tried unsuccessfully to obtain a clause in their agreement with the Association requiring that trim piping be installed by unit employees. They obtained such a clause in 1963:

'Article II. ' (c) Fabrication. 'As a primary working condition, it is agreed that all pipe formations, systems, or controls, or component parts thereof, included within the nonpurchase list attached hereto and made a part hereof as Exhibit I, as amended from time to time as provided in this agreement, shall be fabricated on the job site or in the shop of an Employer2 within the bargaining unit who is bound by this agreement, except as otherwise mutually agreed upon with relation to any particular job.' 'Exhibit I. 'Non-Purchase List. '2. On boilers, all piping beyond the gas and oil burners proper and trim piping on those boilers 30 horsepower or more.'

The fabrication clause did not cover construction contracts signed or bid on prior to the execution of the agreement.

The agreement provided for a fabrication committee, composed of an equal number of representatives of the Union and the Association, to apply, interpret and enforce the provisions of the fabrication clause.3 It provided that deadlocks were to be broken through arbitration.

This proceeding arose out of the efforts of the Union to secure compliance with the fabrication clause on three jobs-- 3-M, Aircon and Upper Midwest Piping. A common question is presented as to each job: Is the fabrication clause a per se violation of 8(e) of the National Labor Relations Act, 29 U.S.C.A. 158 et seq.?4 The Board answered in the negative. We agree.

We stated in our earlier decision that the Supreme Court could be expected to set forth guidelines which would aid in answering the above question. The guidelines were forthcoming in the companion cases of National Woodwork Manufacturers Association v. National Labor Relations Board, 386 U.S. 621, 87 S.Ct. 1250, 18 L.Ed.2d 357 (1967), and Houston Insulation Contractors Association v. National Labor Relations Board, 386 U.S. 664, 87 S.Ct. 1278, 18 L.Ed.2d 389 (1967).5

In National Woodwork, a Carpenters Union and a Contractors Association had agreed that Union members would not handle doors which had been fitted prior to being furnished on the job. Prefitted doors were delivered to the job of a signator contractor. When the Union threatened not to hang the doors, the contractor agreed to substitute blank doors to be fitted by the carpenters on the job. The Union was charged with violating 8(e) and 8(b)(4)(B) of the Act.6

The Board dismissed both allegations. The Supreme Court affirmed stating that a Union has a right to protect work 'traditionally' done by its members at job sites by concerted activity directed towards a primary employer. The holding in National Woodwork was summarized in Houston as follows:

'* * * Collective activity by employees of the primary employer, the object of which is to affect the labor policies of that primary employer, and not engaged in for its effect elsewhere, is protected primary activity. * * *'

Houston, 386 U.S. at 668, 87 S.Ct. at 1281.

Houston extended National Woodwork to a situation in which a local Union sought to preserve work opportunities of the members of another local but employed by the same employer. The Court said:

'A boycott cannot become secondary because engaged in by primary employees not directly affected by the dispute, or because only engaged in by some of the primary employees, and not the entire group.

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