International Longshoremen's Association, Local 1575, Afl-Cio v. National Labor Relations Board

560 F.2d 439, 95 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 3180, 1977 U.S. App. LEXIS 12615
CourtCourt of Appeals for the First Circuit
DecidedJune 30, 1977
Docket76-1464
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 560 F.2d 439 (International Longshoremen's Association, Local 1575, Afl-Cio v. National Labor Relations Board) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the First Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
International Longshoremen's Association, Local 1575, Afl-Cio v. National Labor Relations Board, 560 F.2d 439, 95 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 3180, 1977 U.S. App. LEXIS 12615 (1st Cir. 1977).

Opinion

INGRAHAM, Circuit Judge.

The National Labor Relations Board found that International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA), Local No. 1575, engaged in prohibited secondary boycott activity in violation of § 8(b)(4)(B) of the National Labor Relations Act. 1 Upon petition to review and set aside, countered by cross-application to enforce, we find the Board’s order supported by substantial evidence and entitled to enforcement.

At the heart of this dispute is the application of technology to cargo shipping. Containerization was introduced into Puerto Rico in the mid-1950’s. It has revolutionized the industry but has had deleterious effects upon the work opportunities available to longshoremen. Some shipments by a single consignor from the continental United States to Puerto Rico 2 will fill a cargo container (which may be as large as 8' X 8' X 40'). Other shipments will will not fill a container. . The smaller shipments are known as “less than container loads,” “less than trailer loads,” or, in the parlance of the trade, “LTL’s.” LTL’s are brought to a freight consolidator located off the dock. The freight consolidator, which may or may not be unionized, fills (“stuffs”) a cargo container with LTL’s from a number of consignors. The container is taken to the pier and longshoremen load it on to the ship. Upon its arrival in Puerto Rico, the container is unloaded by longshoremen from the vessel and taken to a marshalling yard on or near the pier. The local office of the freight consolidator transports the container to its facility, where it unpacks (“strips'”) the container and holds the LTL’s for the various recipients. This process is more efficient than the time-honored method of hoisting small packages one by one into and out of the ship’s hold. Predictably, containerization has reduced the man-hour *441 requirements for freight handling. When employees of the freight consolidator are not organized by the ILA, the effect upon the employment of longshoremen is even more drastic.

Local 1575 is the certified representative of longshoremen in Puerto Rico. In 1968 the Local signed separate agreements with two steamship companies which used containers. The agreements included a provision requiring all containers arriving in Puerto Rico to be stripped by ILA members at the pier and restuffed before release to the freight consolidators. However, all shipments handled by freight consolidators then in existence were exempted from the requirement of stripping and restuffing. The assets of the steamship companies were subsequently acquired by the Puerto Rico Maritime Shipping Authority, which then contracted with Puerto Rico Marine Management, Inc. (PRMMI) and Maritime Transportation Management, Inc. (MTM) to operate the services formerly supplied by the private steamship company. Subsequent agreements between the ILA and PRMMI and MTM included the containerization provision.

San Juan Freight Forwarders (San Juan), International Container Express (International) and Sea Freight Express (Sea Freight) were among the freight consolidators which came into existence after the 1968 agreements. They were not protected by the grandfather clause in those agreements. However, the union did not insist upon enforcement of the containerization provision until early 1975. Until then, San Juan, which had been in existence since 1972, received containers from PRMMI without prior stripping and restuffing by ILA labor.

On February 23, 1975, union representative Ramon Moncao informed Antonio Fe-liciano, a PRMMI superintendent, that the union would prevent release by PRMMI of containers destined for San Juan Freight Forwarders unless they were stripped and restuffed by ILA members at the dockside warehouse. Feliciano called Guillermo Ortiz, Sr., the president of the local, to protest that the general practice had been to exempt San Juan from the requirement. Ortiz stressed the union’s opposition to release of the containers without stripping and re-stuffing. He warned that noncompliance would result in a strike. PRMMI stalled. It held the containers but did not permit longshoremen to strip them. Ortiz then let it be known that the issue might also be resolved if San Juan came to the ILA shapeup and hired longshoremen to go to the facility and strip the containers.

On March 11, 1975, the United States District Court in Puerto Rico ordered PRMMI to release twenty containers belonging to San Juan. When Feliciano called Ortiz to notify him of the order, Ortiz replied, “Well, I’m not a part of that order so I don’t have to comply. . . . [I]f you deliver those containers there is going to be a general strike because that’s a violation of the contract.” The next day PRMMI and the union exchanged letters in a temporary compromise which allowed the containers to be released. However, San Juan containers continued to arrive on PRMMI ships. On March 21, 1975, the district court ordered PRMMI to release an additional twenty-one containers destined for San Juan Freight Forwarders. PRMMI did not immediately comply because Ortiz reiterated that a strike would follow. On March 25th, after a hearing in the district court, a stipulation was entered into by San Juan, PRMMI and the union. The vans were delivered. However, yet another court order was required on April 21st for thirty-seven more containers. A San Juan employee picked up one of the containers that afternoon. As soon as he had left, the ILA struck PRMMI and blocked the entrances to the marshalling yards, thus preventing pickup of the remaining thirty-six containers. The work stoppage ended about an hour later when PRMMI agreed to halt further delivery of the vans. On April 24th the containers were finally released. In mid-June another exchange of letters between PRMMI and the union resulted in the release of fourteen containers to San *442 Juan. A § 10(1) 3 injunction was issued under which San Juan resumed normal business relations with PRMMI.

MTM also received communications from the union designed to prevent delivery of containers belonging to non-exempt freight consolidators. Miguel Rossy, then the MTM controller, was first contacted in late February 1975 by the union representative Moneao abut the dispatch of LTL containers to San Juan. For a couple of months Rossy had conversations with Moneao, Guillermo Ortiz, Jr., the vice-president of the local, and Ortiz, Sr. The elder Ortiz instructed MTM not to deliver containers to San Juan, Sea Freight or International unless MTM was prepared to suffer a complete stoppage of operations.

During this time Ortiz, Jr. was contacted by a local businessman whose goods were detained at PRMMI because of the wrangle. Ortiz fils told him. “Listen, there are no problems here at all except that these people — San Juan Freight — they want to handle the vans, take them to their plant and they have personnel who earn much less money than our people which means that they are hurt . . . . All we want is (for San Juan) to authorize us, we will take the vans over to their place and strip them and no sweat.”

San Juan, PRMMI and MTM each filed charges with the NLRB. These were consolidated into a single complaint. After notice and hearing, the administrative law judge found:

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Bluebook (online)
560 F.2d 439, 95 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 3180, 1977 U.S. App. LEXIS 12615, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/international-longshoremens-association-local-1575-afl-cio-v-national-ca1-1977.