Fla. Sugar Marketing & Term. Ass'n v. Local No. 3, International Longshoremen's Association

668 F. Supp. 173, 127 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2121, 1987 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10602
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. New York
DecidedAugust 4, 1987
Docket85 Civ. 0955 (WK)
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 668 F. Supp. 173 (Fla. Sugar Marketing & Term. Ass'n v. Local No. 3, International Longshoremen's Association) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Fla. Sugar Marketing & Term. Ass'n v. Local No. 3, International Longshoremen's Association, 668 F. Supp. 173, 127 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2121, 1987 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10602 (S.D.N.Y. 1987).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM & ORDER

WHITMAN KNAPP, District Judge.

Plaintiff Florida Sugar Marketing and Terminal Association Inc. (“Florida Sugar”) brings this action against Local No. 3, International Longshoremen’s Association, AFL-CIO (“Local 3”) and Local 1814, International Longshoremen’s Association, AFL-CIO (“Local 1814”) alleging, inter alia, that Local 3 engaged in illegal picketing and Local 1814 engaged in an illegal work stoppage, thereby causing damage to Florida Sugar in violation of Section 303 of the Labor Management Relations Act of 1947, 29 U.S.C. § 151 et seq.

The ease was tried before us without a jury on May 6-12, 1987. We have received and carefully reviewed post-trial submissions from the parties. What follows constitutes our findings of fact and conclusions of law.

FINDINGS OF FACTS

Plaintiff has presented evidence concerning two instances of picketing by Local 3, one in Baltimore, Maryland and the other in Brooklyn, New York. Local 1814 was only involved in the Brooklyn incident.

Plaintiff Florida Sugar sells raw sugar. Often it sells this sugar to commodity brokers, who in turn sell it to refiners. Florida Sugar then delivers it, on barges, to a refinery. Upon arrival, the sugar is offloaded from the barge by longshoremen employed by the refiner and placed on conveyor belts which take it inside the refinery. Along the way the raw sugar is sampled and weighed by employees of the refiner whose work is overseen by employees (or an employee) of a company retained by Florida Sugar as its representative (seller’s representative”). We shall refer to these employees as the “weighers and samplers.” 1 The weighers and samplers are the only employees of the seller’s representative in the refinery.

Local 3 is a labor union representing unionized weighers and samplers. Local 1814 is a labor union representing refinery workers and longshoremen in Brooklyn.

The instant dispute arose when Florida Sugar attempted to save money by retaining a seller’s representative which employed a non-union weigher and sampler. Local 3 took steps to stop this. The issue before us concerns the legality of those (largely successful) steps.

1. The Baltimore Incident

In July, 1984 Florida Sugar delivered a shipment of raw sugar to the Baltimore refinery of a company called AMSTAR. Florida Sugar hired a non-union weighing and sampling company, Caleb Brett, to represent its interests during the unloading of the sugar.

John Leary, President of Local 3 decided to travel to Baltimore from New York to picket the AMSTAR facility on July 18. Leary left New York with two other members of Local 3 at 2:30 a.m. on July 18 and drove to Baltimore, arriving at 5:30 or 6:00 a.m., in anticipation that the non-union weigher and sampler would arrive at approximately 7:00 a.m. Leary did not know the name of the company Florida Sugar had hired, nor did he make any efforts to ascertain the name of that company or the name of the individual who would be entering the refinery to do the work he felt belonged to his union. Leary and other members of Local 3 simply established a picket line at the main employee’s entrance to the refinery. They carried two signs *176 which identified themselves as members of Local 3 and stated that they had a grievance concerning nonunion workers in the refinery. The signs did not identify Florida Sugar or Caleb Brett as the company against whom Local 3 was picketing.

A sign posted on the gate where these men were picketing said that it was only for the use of employees of or those having a business relationship with AMSTAR. Deposition of Ronald Frey (“Frey Dep.”) at pp. 33-40. The rear gate of the facility, which was only accessible by driving part of the way around the refinery or by crossing through a neighboring Proctor and Gamble parking lot and then continuing along an easement alongside some railroad tracks, was the entrance which had been designated for use by the representative of Florida Sugar. A sign was posted on that gate which so stated. Indeed, the single representative of Florida Sugar arrived through that gate on the morning of July 18, 1984. Deposition of Henry Kief pp. 96-99. At some point later in the day one or two members of Local 3 picketed in front of that gate as well. Tr. pp. 792-793.

When AMSTAR’s Employee Relations Manager Ronald Frey arrived at the plant some time before 7:00 a.m., he encountered the pickets outside the gate. He also noticed a small group of AMSTAR employees who had congregated outside the gate instead of going inside the refinery to work. Frey approached Leary and asked what the problem was. Leary responded that the problem was the use of nonunion labor. Frey asked Leary how that involved AMS-TAR. Leary replied that AMSTAR was permitting the seller to use nonunion labor. Frey asked Leary to move the pickets around to the entrance where the seller’s employees would enter the plant, but Leary refused. At some point during the day, either in this conversation or in a later one, Frey told Leary that AMSTAR had no control over whether the seller of the sugar used nonunion people and Leary responded that “whether [Frey] knew it or not, [AMS-TAR] did have control over that situation.” Frey Dep. at 43.

As AMSTAR employees arrived at the refinery and encountered the pickets at the main gate, most of them (200-300) refused to enter and go to work.

Later in the morning a meeting was held inside the AMSTAR facility attended by Leary, a representative of the AMSTAR refinery workers, and AMSTAR officials. The AMSTAR officials requested that Leary remove the pickets so that the refinery could function. Leary eventually did so at between 1:00 and 2:00 p.m.

Throughout the day AMSTAR and Florida Sugar communicated via telephone and telex. From the initial phone conversation between Ken Otto of AMSTAR and John Hale of Florida Sugar, which took place at around 9:00 a.m., Otto informed Hale of the problems at the Baltimore refinery and told him that Florida Sugar should hire union weighers and samplers. Hale informed Otto that under the contract between AMSTAR and Florida Sugar, Florida Sugar could hire whoever it wanted to represent its interests. In the second phone call, at around 10:00 a.m., Otto told Hale that if Florida Sugar did not hire a unionized seller’s representative, AMSTAR would hold it responsible for any damages resulting from a work stoppage or the shutting down of the refinery. The third conversation involved Hale, Otto and a superior of Otto’s within AMSTAR. During this conversation Hale was informed how much Florida Sugar could expect to be billed by AMSTAR due to the work stoppage if they had to shut down the refinery. Telexes between the parties sent later in the day confirm the substance of the communications between AMSTAR and Florida Sugar as testified to by Hale. See Plaintiff’s exhibits 11-16. Eventually Florida Sugar did agree to replace its nonunion seller’s representative with a representative who would hire union (Local 3) labor. The barge was then unloaded without further incident. AMSTAR did, however, withhold from Florida Sugar $32,022.83 for alleged costs incurred as a result of the work stoppage.

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Bluebook (online)
668 F. Supp. 173, 127 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2121, 1987 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10602, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fla-sugar-marketing-term-assn-v-local-no-3-international-nysd-1987.