International Typographical Union Local 38 v. National Labor Relations Board

278 F.2d 6
CourtCourt of Appeals for the First Circuit
DecidedMay 10, 1960
DocketNos. 5509, 5510
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 278 F.2d 6 (International Typographical Union Local 38 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 Typographical Union Local 38 v. National Labor Relations Board, 278 F.2d 6 (1st Cir. 1960).

Opinion

WOODBURY, Chief Judge,

The Haverhill Gazette Company and the Worcester Telegram Publishing Company, Inc., Haverhill and Worcester or collectively the employers hereinafter, are and for years have been engaged in the business of publishing daily newspapers in their respective Massachusetts communities. Both subscribe to inter[8]*8state news services, advertise nationally sold products and enjoy annual gross revenues from their publishing operations in excess of $500,000. For a great many years the composing room employees, that is to say the printers, of Haverhill have been represented by Local 38 and the composing room employees of Worcester have been represented by Local 165 of International Typograp ica Union, AFL-CIO. Preexisting contracts between Haverhill and Worcester and the local unions representing their composing room employees having in each m-stance long expired, and in each instance attempts to negotiate new agreements having come to naught, strikes of the composing room employees of both employers ensued. At this juncture, on separate charges filed by Haverhill and Worcester, General Counsel for the National Labor Relations Board on February 6, 1958, filed separate complaints against the parent union, ITU hereinafter, and the local involved in each situation1 alleging that the respondents had been and were engaging in various acts and conduct in violation of the Labor Management Relations Act, 1947, 29 U. S.C.A. § 141 et seq., 61 Stat. 136, as amended. The cases were consolidated for hearing by order of the Regional Director and hearings in the Worcester case were held in Worcester by a trial examiner in April, 1958. At those hearings evidence was introduced and counsel stipulated for the incorporation in the record in that case of the testimony of the president of ITU adduced in the New York Mailers Case, so called, Board Nos. 2-CB-4967, 2-CB-1769 and 2-CB-1807, and of the testimony in a proceeding under § 10 (k) of the Act between ITU and Worcester. Counsel also stipulated that the record in a proceeding in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts for an injunction under § 10(j) of the Act entitled Alpert v. International Typography cal Union, D.C.Mass.1958, 161 F.Supp. 427, should constitute the record in the Haverhill case.

Qn -j-be evidence before him in both cases the trial examiner found that the respondents had engaged and were engaging in some of the unfair labor practices charged against them in the com_ plaints but had not and were not engagjng jn others, and recommended an order which he thought appropriate to his findjngS- Exceptions to the trial examiner’s irLtermediate report, with supporting briefs> were ñled by the reSp0ndents but the Board; with an exception to be noted hereinafter, affirmed the trial examiner and adop^ed his findings, conclusions and recommendations as its own. The respondents thereupon filed a petition in -¿his court to review that order and set it aside and the Board countered with a petition for enforcement of its order,

Tbere is little dispute over the facts, and the facts and issues in both cases are essentially the same. In both cases protracted negotiations for new collective bargaining agreements, in which officers of ITU participated with representatives ^be local unions and officials of the New England Daily Newspaper Assoeiation> Inc-> participated with the employers> finally broke down and in conse<Wence late in November, 1957, the locals witb ITU sanction and approval called the composing room employees of both employers out on strike. In each instance the bones of contention were much the same- Tbe representatives of the local unions backed the representatives of ITU adamantly insisted upon the incluslon of three clauses m any new contract and the representatives of the em-Ployers sa ada™antly insisted that the clauses were ilIeffal and tbat no contract woldd be entered into in which the clauses were included. Moreover, regarding inclusion of the clauses as “key” issues both the employers’ and the unions’ representatives declined seriously to explore economic issues such as hours, overtime, [9]*9pensions, summer holidays,2 etc., until agreement should be reached on the clauses they regarded as crucial.

The three clauses on which the negotiators deadlocked were the jurisdiction, foreman 3 and general laws clauses which may as well be briefly described at this P°int-

The jurisdiction clause, on which the unions in both instances insisted, covered persons engaged in a number of new processes and operations, in addition to those covered by the jurisdiction clauses of the old contracts, which new processes and operations the unions considered substitutes for the processes and operations traditionally performed in the composing room by printers but which, with two exceptions, the employers were not using and did not contemplate installing in their plants.4 The foreman clause provided that the composing room foreman, who had the power to hire, fire and process grievances, had 5 to be a member of the union although he would be exempt under certain circumstances from union discipline for activities on behalf of management. The general laws clauses provided that the General Laws of the International Typographical Union in effect on January 1, 1956 (or in another version at the time a contract was signed), if not in conflict with state or federal law, should govern relations between the parties on those subjects concerning which no provision was made in the contracts.

The trial examiner found that the unions were genuinely desirous of securing contracts with Worcester and Haverhill but that the evidence clearly showed that they insisted upon the acceptance of the jurisdiction, foreman and general laws clauses as written as a condition preeedent to the execution of any collective bargaining agreements. But, believing the clauses illegal, the examiner concluded that by insisting that the employers agree to them the unions had refused to bargain collectively with the employers in violation of § 8(b) (3) of the Labor Management Relations Act, 1947.6 He also found that the primary object or purpose of the strikes called by the unions and their agents against the employers was to force the latter to accede to the unions’ demand for inclusion of the three clauses he thought illegal and from that finding concluded that the unions had violated § 8(b) (2)7 of the Act in that they had attempted to cause the employers to encourage union membership by discrimination in regard to hire, tenure, terms or conditions of em[10]*10ployment. As to the foreman clause, he thought they had also attempted to coeree the employers in the selection of their representatives for the purpose of adjusting grievances in violation of § 8 (b) (1) (B) to be considered hereinaftir.

The Jurisdiction Clause

The Board neither agreed nor disagreed with the trial examiner’s conclusion that the unions had violated § 8(b) <2) by striking for the inclusion of the jurisdiction clause in future collective bargaining agreements.

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278 F.2d 6, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/international-typographical-union-local-38-v-national-labor-relations-ca1-1960.