Glover v. Retail Clerk's Union Local 1392

10 Alaska 274
CourtDistrict Court, D. Alaska
DecidedMay 6, 1942
DocketNo. 4771
StatusPublished

This text of 10 Alaska 274 (Glover v. Retail Clerk's Union Local 1392) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Alaska primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Glover v. Retail Clerk's Union Local 1392, 10 Alaska 274 (D. Alaska 1942).

Opinion

ALEXANDER, District Judge.

The question presented for determination in this case concerns the right of labor to picket an employer’s place of business, where the employer has no employees and claims that no labor dispute exists between it and the defendant union or its members.

The controversy arose over a demand made upon the plaintiffs by a representative of the union to sign a contract with the union to close its place of business at 5 o’clock P. M. in accord with the union’s rules or practice. This the plaintiffs refused to do, resulting in the picketing and other acts of the union of which the plaintiffs complain.

The complaint in this case alleges in substance that the plaintiffs are copartners and as such own and operate a small delicatessen store at Juneau, as “Spruce Delicatessen”; that they have no employees but do all the work themselves; that they have no contract or agreement with the defendant union nor with the individual defendants; that no labor dispute exists between themselves and said union or with the individual defendants. The complaint then alleges that the defendant Chinella, acting in his own behalf and on behalf of the defendant union and its members, summarily and arbitrarily, and without authority of law, demanded that plaintiffs make and execute an agreement with him and with said union and its members to close their store at 5 o’clock P.M. daily, and cease doing any business whatever after that hour, and threatened that unless plaintiffs did make and execute such an agreement and did so close their said store that he and the defendant union and [278]*278its members would picket the plaintiffs’ said store and would drive away plaintiffs’ customers and would prevent plaintiffs from obtaining supplies into their said store for maintenance of their said business, and would ruin plaintiffs’ said business and would break the plaintiffs financially and put them out of their said business.

“That plaintiffs refused, and still continue to refuse, to enter into any such agreement with said defendant Chinella or with said union and its members, and plaintiffs continued, and despite said threats and the acts and conduct of the defendants as hereinafter related, still continue to keep open their said store daily after 5 o’clock P.M. for the purpose of transacting business with such customers and other persons as may choose to do business with the plaintiffs.”

That in furtherance of the common purpose and design of the defendants, and to effect the objects and purposes thereof, said defendants conspired to ruin plaintiffs’ business by picketing their store daily, by walking in front of the entrance to plaintiffs’ said store carrying and displaying a sign whereon were the following words, “This store is unfair to organized labor; Retail Clerks Union Local 1392,” and by causing to be published daily, except Sunday, in “The Alaska Press” a newspaper of general circulation published in Juneau, Alaska, a large conspicuous advertisement in lettering and words as follows: “We do not patronize Montgomery Ward & Company, Proctor & Gamble, Gatner & Mattern Knit Goods, Carnation Milk Company, Spruce Delicatessen of Juneau. Central Labor Council, affiliated with A. F. of L.”; and by running an identical advertisement in “The Daily Alaska Empire,” a newspaper of general circulation published at Juneau, Alaska daily, except Sunday; and by creating a picket line through which union transport workers would not pass, coerced and induced union transport workers not to transport plaintiffs’ goods and merchandise, in consequence whereof plaintiffs have been and still are prevented from obtaining goods and merchandise for sale in their said store. That in conse[279]*279quence of defendants’ said acts and conduct the plaintiffs have been damaged as alleged.

To plaintiffs’ complaint the defendants have filed a demurrer in which three causes of demurrer are set up,

First: That said complaint fails to state facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action.

Second: That this court has no jurisdiction of the persons of the defendants or of the subject matter of the action; and

Third: That there is a defect of parties defendant.

However, only the first ground of demurrer was urged at the argument or in the briefs filed by the parties; the second and third grounds being either waived or wholly ignored. We shall therefore address our attention solely to the first ground of the demurrer.

Broadly stated, the position taken by the plaintiffs in their brief is that in the absence of any labor dispute between themselves and the defendants, the defendants have no right to demand that they close their business at 5 o’clock P.M., or any other time, or to picket or otherwise interfere with the operation of their business upon their failure or refusal to comply with the defendants’ demand.

On the other hand, the defendants maintain that they and their officers and members have a direct, substantial and legitimate interest in and a right to demand that the plaintiffs close their business at 5 P.M. in accordance with union regulations and practices, and that upon plaintiffs’ failure so to do that they have a right to picket and employ the other means complained of by plaintiffs to enforce their demands, and that, since they are employing means which are entirely lawful, that plaintiffs have no legal grounds for action against them.

The history of the law governing the right of working men to combine in order to bargain for better working conditions is marked with much divergence of opinion, with many changes through the years. This development has slowly but steadily progressed to the point where the courts [280]*280now hold that even an intentional, interference with the advantageous economic relations of others by the members of labor organizations is not tortious unless violence is used or the obj ect sought to be accomplished has no reasonable relevance to labor conditions.

Therefore, the issues in the present controversy present mainly two questions: (1) Whether the specific activities carried on by the defendants are peaceful and (2) Whether there is any legal justification for their conduct, in view of the objects which they seek to obtain.

It now appears to be well settled that workmen may associate themselves together and exert various forms of economic pressure upon employers, provided they act peaceably and honestly.

The usual means of exerting this economic pressure which have been held lawful, are the strike (with which we are not concerned here) the boycott, both in primary and secondary, Parkinson Co. v. Bldg. Trades Council, 154 Cal. 581, 98 P. 1027, 21 L.R.A.,N.S., 550, 16 Ann.Cas. 1165, Pierce v. Stablemen’s Union, 156 Cal. 70, 103 P. 324; and the picket Lisse v. Local Union, 1935, 2 Cal.2d 312, 41 P.2d 314; In re Lyons, 27 Cal.App.2d 182, 80 P.2d 745.

By the great weight of authority, peaceful picketing, so long as it does not in fact involve fraud, intimidation, breach of the peace or coercion has been sustained in many cases. People v. Harris, 104 Colo. 386, 91 P.2d 989-991, 122 A.L.R. 1034; Pope Motor Car Co. v. Keegan, C. C., 150 F. 148; Steffes v. Motion Picture Mach. Operators Union, 136 Minn. 200, 161 N.W. 524; Bayonne Textile Corp. v. American Fed. of Silk Workers, 116 N.J.Eq. 146, 172 A. 551, 92 A.L.R.

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Bluebook (online)
10 Alaska 274, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/glover-v-retail-clerks-union-local-1392-akd-1942.