Brown v. American Federation of Television & Radio Artists

191 F. Supp. 676, 47 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2775, 1961 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 4029
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. California
DecidedFebruary 23, 1961
DocketCiv. No. 8225
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 191 F. Supp. 676 (Brown v. American Federation of Television & Radio Artists) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. California primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Brown v. American Federation of Television & Radio Artists, 191 F. Supp. 676, 47 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2775, 1961 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 4029 (N.D. Cal. 1961).

Opinion

HALBERT, District Judge.

Respondent labor organizations are charged with engaging in an unfair labor practice, namely: organizing and participating in an illegal secondary boycott in violation of Title 29 U.S.C.A. § 158(b) (4) (ii) (B). Petitioner’s preliminary investigation has led him to conclude that a complaint should be issued against respondents by the National Labor Relations Board. Accordingly, he has, pursuant to Title 29, U.S.C.A. § 160 (Z), petitioned this Court for a temporary injunction against further violation of the law by respondents.

The Facts of the Case.

Respondents are labor organizations as defined in Title 29 U.S.C.A. § 152(5). Respondents are currently engaged in a strike against Great Western Broadcasting Corporation, which operates Television Station KXTV- — -Channel 10 (Great Western Broadcasting Corporation has intervened in this suit. Hereafter in this memorandum this corporation will be referred to as KXTV). KXTV is engaged in commerce within the meaning of Title 29 U.S.C.A. § 158(b) (4) (See Footnote 1).

Respondents sought to induce customers of KXTV to engage in a boycott of the station. It is not disputed that respondents may legally appeal to the sympathy of advertisers on KXTV in order to persuade them, voluntarily, to boycott the station. Such action would be a primary consumer boycott, as the strike itself is a primary employee boycott.

Respondents, however, did not limit themselves to an appeal to the sympathy of the advertisers on KXTV. They used various means to exert coercive pressure on those advertisers, in order to compel them to boycott KXTV. Respondents are clearly shown (For the most part, the facts are stipulated.) to have done the following things:

They approached various advertisers and asked them to cease doing business with KXTV. When these advertisers refused, respondents threatened to publicize the fact that the said advertisers were patronizing the allegedly unfair station. Among these advertisers were Benicia Development Co. doing business as John Geer Chevrolet Co., Capitol Studebaker Co., Rainbo Baking Co., Shell Oil Co., and Burgermeister Brewing Co. (Hereafter in this memorandum the advertisers just listed will be referred to, respectively, as Geer, Capitol, Rainbo, Shell and Burgermeister.). Each of the listed advertisers is engaged in commerce or in an industry affecting commerce, within the meaning of such terms as they are employed in Title 29 U.S.C.A. § 158(b) (4).1

Capitol cancelled its contract with KXTV by a letter (petitioner’s exhibit 4) which stated that the cause of the cancellation was a telephone campaign organized, according to the telephoners, by union supporters. Those who called Capitol were stated to have threatened to [678]*678boycott Capitol as long as it continued to advertise on KXTV.

The remaining advertisers continued to advertise on KXTV. Respondents then had printed a leaflet (petitioner’s exhibit 2) 2 and distributed it in union halls and meetings, at a market which sells the products of Rainbo and Burgermeister, and in various other places in the Sacramento area.

When these leaflets were found distributed in places where Rainbo sold its product, Rainbo capitulated, and can-celled its contract with KXTV.

Respondents prepared and printed in quantity leaflets (petitioner’s exhibits 5-15) describing certain firms (including Geer, Handy Andy TV, Lucky Markets, and others) as continuing to advertise with KXTV despite the strike. These leaflets asked the customers of these firms not to patronize them. It is not shown that Handy Andy TV, Lucky Markets, or the others of these firms, except Geer, are engaged in commerce or industry affecting commerce. A leaflet from this group, pertaining to Handy Andy TV, was exhibited to the proprietor of that concern, with the threat that it would be distributed if the firm continued to advertise on KXTV. Respondents telephoned a representative of Geer, and told him that the respondents had printed up leaflets of the nature of petitioner’s exhibit 5, which would be distributed in front of Geer’s place of business and elsewhere, unless Geer ceased to do business with KXTV. Geer did not capitulate, and the leaflet has not as yet been so distributed.

Respondents addressed letters to advertising agencies and sponsors, approximately 18 or 20 in number, in which letters it was indicated that those firms who advertised on KXTV during the period of the strike would be considered as taking sides in the strike, and that union members, and those sympathetic to organized labor, would cherish a long-lasting resentment against any such firm (Representative samples of these letters are petitioner’s exhibits 16 and 17).

Respondents requested the San Francisco Labor Council and the members of affiliated unions to return their Shell credit cards. They also asked union members not to use products and services of Geer and other firms. A number of individuals mailed in their credit cards to Shell, with a request that they be returned if the strike were settled or Shell’s contract with KXTV cancelled (See petitioner’s exhibits 18, 19 and 20).

Certain advertisers discontinued doing business with KXTV for undisclosed reasons connected with the strike (See respondent’s exhibits A, B, C and D for identification). As it is not established that the reason for such cancellation was force or coercion, these exhibits are irrelevant, and have not been considered. It is apparent that most of these advertisers were political candidates who hoped to gain labor votes by boycotting KXTV.

The Law Pertaining to Secondary Boycotts.

It is an unfair labor practice for a labor organization to threaten, coerce, or restrain any person engaged in commerce or in an industry affecting commerce, where an object of such action is forcing or requiring any person to cease doing business with any other person, except where such activity is in the course of a primary strike or primary picketing (Title 29 U.S.C.A. § 158(b) (4) (ii) (B)). Publicity, other than picketing, for the purpose of truthfully advising the public that products are produced by an employer with whom a labor organization has a primary dispute and distributed by another is lawful as long as it does not result in a secondary strike (Title 29 U.S.C.A. § 158(b) (4)). [679]*679Respondents contend that their activities which are the subject of this action are protected by the free speech guarantees of the First Amendment to the Federal Constitution. They further contend that one may threaten to do anything which he may lawfully do, citing the California Supreme Court decision in McKay v. Retail Automobile Salesmen Union, 16 Cal.2d 311, 106 P.2d 373.

All of the parties have made considerable reference to the legislative history of the law here construed. Although complex, the statute involved in this case is clear in its purport. Legislative history is to be used to resolve ambiguities in statutes, not to create them or to vary the terms of the statute (United States v. Shreveport Grain & Elevator Co., 287 U.S. 77, 53 S.Ct. 42, 77 L.Ed. 175; United States v. Mock, D.C., 143 F.Supp. 661; and See: Commissioner of Internal Revenue v. Acker, 361 U.S. 87, 80 S.Ct.

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191 F. Supp. 676, 47 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2775, 1961 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 4029, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/brown-v-american-federation-of-television-radio-artists-cand-1961.