Giant Eagle Markets Co. v. United Food & Commercial Workers Union, Local Union No. 23

652 A.2d 1286, 539 Pa. 411, 1995 Pa. LEXIS 56, 149 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2620
CourtSupreme Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedJanuary 20, 1995
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 652 A.2d 1286 (Giant Eagle Markets Co. v. United Food & Commercial Workers Union, Local Union No. 23) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Giant Eagle Markets Co. v. United Food & Commercial Workers Union, Local Union No. 23, 652 A.2d 1286, 539 Pa. 411, 1995 Pa. LEXIS 56, 149 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2620 (Pa. 1995).

Opinions

OPINION

MONTEMURO, Justice.

This is an appeal from an order of the Superior Court reversing the order of the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County, Civil Division, which granted an injunction limiting the number of union pickets, and enjoining unlawful conduct by those pickets at any of the retail stores in Alegheny County owned by appellant, Giant Eagle Markets Company. The issue presented is whether the Superior Court erred in holding that the trial court had no reasonable basis for issuing an injunction against appellee on the ground that the conduct of appellee’s union pickets resulted in a seizure of appellant’s property under the Labor Anti-Injunction Act, 43 Pa.S. § 206(d). Having reviewed the record, we find that there was ample evidence to support the trial court’s action and reverse.

At 12:01 a.m. on April 21,1991, members of appellee, United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local No. 23 went on strike and began picketing appellant’s Allegheny County stores. On April 23, 1991, appellant sought injunctive relief averring that union workers were engaging in mass picketing, violence, and intimidation directed against persons seeking to do business with appellant, including those employees who were willing to cross the picket line. In addition, appellant alleged that business revenues had dropped seventy percent during the forty-eight hour period since the onset of the strike.

[415]*415On the afternoon of April 23, 1991, a hearing was held on the motion for injunction. During the hearing, appellant presented the following testimony: Raymond Burgo, the executive vice president of Giant Eagle testified that the “picketing ha[d] basically taken over control of the stores.” (Injunction Hearing Transcript (IHT), 4/23/91, at 7). In addition, Burgo described the inability of customers to get into the stores, the difficulty employees were having in the stores, and further testified that there had been a large number of complaints to the customer relations office by both customers and employees. I.H.T. at 8. Finally, Burgo testified that he had personally observed pickets blocking the front entrances of the stores. Id. at 9.

Appellant next introduced the testimony of Douglas Martin, the manager of the Giant Eagle store in Pleasant Hills. Martin testified that he had personally observed the picketing that had been going on since April 21st. According to Martin, approximately fifty to sixty pickets had been present at the store with approximately thirty of the pickets blocking the store’s entrance. Id. at 18-19. Martin stated that as customers approached the doorway to the store, the pickets would either stand “shoulder to shoulder, a couple of lines deep, to prevent any customer from entering the store,” or would “kind of swarm on the customer and surround her and form a gauntlet” thus intimidating the customer and preventing her from entering the store. Id. at 19. In addition, Martin stated that employees crossing the picket lines had received threats from the picketers. Id. at 21.

Martin also stated that in addition to standing at the front entrance, pickets were positioned at all three entrances to the parking lot, as well as the side driveway and rear dock area. Id. at 26. Martin testified that when a truck arrived, “the pickets would immediately start a mad rush throughout the parking lot and swarm on the truck and surround it, stop it and turn it away.” Id. at 21. Martin also claimed that in two sections of the store itself, he discovered two rodent traps which had been hidden and set to go off. Id. at 33. Martin [416]*416stated that the police had been called, but were unable to keep the pickets from swarming on the customers and the deliveries. Id. at 22.

Following Martin’s testimony, Dale Kane, a pizza delivery person who had delivered pizza to the Giant Eagle in Village Square during the strike, appeared as appellant’s next witness. Mr. Kane testified that after delivering pizza on April 22nd, he returned to his vehicle and began to exit the parking lot of the store. Kane stated that as he was looking to his right in an attempt to make a left hand turn, he heard something hit the truck and saw a twelve inch crack in the vehicle’s windshield. Id. at 38. Kane testified that he had been afraid to get out of the vehicle, and instead drove back to the pizza store to call the police. According to Kane, his company no longer permitted its drivers to deliver pizza to Giant Eagle because of the incident. Id.

Appellant’s fourth witness was David Trunzo, the manager of the Giant Eagle at Shakespeare street in Pittsburgh. Trunzo testified that he had observed fifty to sixty pickets blocking the entrance to the store. Id. at 45-46. A videotape confirmed this fact, and revealed a comment by a picketer about “running somebody over” who was trying to load groceries. Id. at 48. Trunzo stated that the store normally had between 20-23 thousand customers a week, but that the picket’s blockade of the entrance had resulted in those numbers dwindling to 1,500 per day.

Trunzo further testified that there were also pickets at the sides of the store entrances, in the middle of the median strip on Penn Avenue, and on the Shady Avenue and busway entrances. Id. at 49. Trunzo claimed that these pickets were blocking the cars or deliveries from coming in those entrances. Id. Trunzo also stated that he had witnessed harassment and intimidation of employees, as well as the following statement to a customer: “We know you, girl. I know where you live.” In addition, Trunzo alleged that a physical confrontation was threatened between the pickets and a customer who became upset with a picket, and stated that her husband would be back to see the picket. Id. at 49-50.

[417]*417Additionally, a bomb threat was received at the same time the pickets raced away. Id. at 50. The police were called and searched the store.

Appellant next called Melvin Schreckengost, an employee of Allied Security Company, who had been assigned to the Giant Eagle in Monroeville on the morning of April 23, 1991. He testified that he had seen a woman letting air out of the tires of a white van that was making a delivery to Giant Eagle, and that he later found a board with nails in it in the area where trucks back in and pull out. Id. at 66-67.

Appellant’s sixth witness, Charles Sholhead, testified that he worked at the Giant Eagle on the South Side of Pittsburgh as the store manager. Sholhead stated that he observed between twenty-five and fifty pickets positioning themselves in front of the store entrance, blocking the front of the store, sidewalk, parcel area and exits. Id. at 74. Sholhead also observed pickets standing in the handicapped ramps and in the fire lane. Sholhead testified that he himself had been sworn at by the pickets, and that employees of the store were harassed and taunted as they went in and out of the store. Id. at 77. In addition, he stated that customers, many of whom were elderly, were forced to walk through twenty-five to fifty pickets, whom he observed taunting people. Id. at 80.

Appellant next presented the testimony of Arlene Malky, who shopped at the Giant Eagle in Fox Chapel, and was part of the “Apples for the Student” staff at Giant Eagle’s corporate office. Ms. Malky testified that on the first morning of the strike, at about 9:45 a.m., there were approximately forty to fifty pickets. Id. at 98.

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Bluebook (online)
652 A.2d 1286, 539 Pa. 411, 1995 Pa. LEXIS 56, 149 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2620, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/giant-eagle-markets-co-v-united-food-commercial-workers-union-local-pa-1995.