Le Bus v. Locals 406, 406 A, 406 B, & 406 C, International Union of Operating Engineers

145 F. Supp. 316, 38 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2737, 1956 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2598
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Louisiana
DecidedOctober 5, 1956
DocketCiv. A. No. 6118
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 145 F. Supp. 316 (Le Bus v. Locals 406, 406 A, 406 B, & 406 C, International Union of Operating Engineers) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Louisiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Le Bus v. Locals 406, 406 A, 406 B, & 406 C, International Union of Operating Engineers, 145 F. Supp. 316, 38 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2737, 1956 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2598 (E.D. La. 1956).

Opinion

J. SKELLY WRIGHT, District Judge.

This proceeding is before the court on a petition filed by the Regional Director of the Fifteenth Region of the National Labor Relations Board seeking an injunction against respondents restraining them from engaging in secondary boycotts within the meaning of Section 8(b), Subsection (4) (A) and (B), of the National Labor Relations Act, 29 U.S.C.A. § 158(b) (4) (A, B). The Act empowers the Board, upon the filing of appropriate charges, to issue, hear and determine complaints that employers or labor organizations have engaged in or are engaging in unfair labor practices within the meaning of the Act,1 and, pending such proceedings before the Board, the proper officer of the Board is authorized 2 to petition any district court of the United States for injunctive relief wherever preliminary investigation by him of the charges provides reasonable cause to believe that the charges are true and that a complaint should issue. The court in such instance is not called upon to decide whether in fact the charge of unfair labor practices is true. Once petitioner has shown that there is reasonable cause to believe the charge is true, the temporary injunction should issue. The ultimate determination of the truth of the charge and the existence of a violation of the Act affecting commerce is reserved exclusively to the Board, subject to review by the appropriate Court of Appeals, pursuant to Section 10(e) and (f) of the Act.

The Regional Director of the Board, after investigation, concluded that there was reasonable cause to believe that respondents here have committed unfair labor practices affecting commerce and, therefore, seeks in these proceedings an injunction to restrain further commission of these practices until the question of their legality may be passed on in due course by the Board. He predicates his conclusion on the following facts.

Jahncke Service, Inc., a Louisiana corporation whose operations admittedly bring it within the purview of the National Labor Relations Act, is engaged in, among other things, the manufacture, sale and distribution of ready-mixed concrete, concrete pipe and concrete products. It maintains several locations in and about New Orleans, in addition to an [319]*319office building, where its operations are conducted. The truck drivers and certain other employees of Jahncke are represented by Local 270 of Teamsters, AFL-CIO. The balance of Jahncke employees are nonunion. The attempt on the part of the defendants herein to organize the crane and dragline operators employed by Jahncke gives rise to these proceedings.

On August 30, 1956, pickets from Local 406 began following Jahncke trucks making deliveries of ready-mixed concrete to contractors at construction projects. While the placards carried by the pickets showed that the union’s dispute was with Jahncke, the legend on the placard so indicating was in much smaller print than the large word “picket” which occupied the space across the top of the placard. The construction sites were picketed whenever a Jahncke truck came on the premises, the pickets standing sometimes in close proximity and sometimes as much as 600 feet away. In addition to the placard, the pickets also carried handbills which explained that the union’s differences were with Jahncke and not with the contractor on the construction site. These handbills were available on request, the pickets generally making no effort otherwise to distribute them.

When the pickets arrived on the construction sites, the employees of the secondary employers refused on many, but not all, occasions to perform their duties while the Jahncke trucks were on the premises. The business agent of Local 406 sought to have the contractors refuse to handle Jahncke concrete. With reference to at least one contractor, where the request was unheeded, work stoppages followed whenever Jahncke trucks appeared thereafter. As a result of the picketing and other activities of the union, seven of the eight general contractors using Jahncke concrete ceased so doing after picketing of the construction sites began.

Petitioner contends that, as a result of the picketing by respondents, Section 8 (b), Subsection (4) (A) and (B), of the Act have been violated in that the object of the picketing, which resulted in the concerted refusal of employees of secondary employers to perform the duties under their employment, was to force the secondary employers to cease using the products of Jahncke and to force Jahncke to recognize or bargain with respondents who have not been certified as representative of Jahncke’s employees under the provisions of Section 9 of the Act, 29 U.S.C.A. § 159.

Respondents maintain that ambulatory picketing is lawful where it conforms to the criteria outlined in the Moore Dry Dock case.3 They argue that where, as form to that criteria, damage to the business of the secondary employer resulting from the refusal of its employees to cross the picket line is incidental and subject to the right of the union to publicize its dispute with the primary employer.

Congress, in Section 8(b), Subsection (4) (A) and (B), while recognizing the right of labor organizations to bring pressure to bear on primary employers in labor disputes, has sought to shield neutral employees from damage resulting from labor disputes not their own. In these subsections of the Act, Congress has made it unlawful for a union to engage in or to encourage strikes or work stoppages among employees of neutral employers where the object thereof is to force the neutral employers to cease doing business with the struck employer. In attempting to implement the Congressional mandate, the National Labor Relations Board has sought in its decisions to outline the conditions under which picketing affecting secondary employers would be considered lawful. These conditions are outlined in Moore Dry Dock, supra.4

[320]*320 Recently the Board has sought-to add an additional condition to be met before picketing on the premises of neutral employers would be approved. The new condition is that where the primary employer has a place of business at which its employees may. be reached by the union’s picketing and publication of its labor dispute, ambulatory picketing on or near the premises of neutral employers comes under the proscription of Subsection (4) (A) and (B).5 In fact, the Board has finally held, and its representative here contends, that failure to comply with its new condition is a per se violation of the Act. In re Teamsters Local No. 659, 116 N.L.R.B. 65. The Board, instead of attempting to determine in each case, as required by these subsections of the Act, whether the object of the picketing of the secondary employer is to persuade it, through strikes of its employees, not to do business with the primary employer, has sought a formula which may be used as a guide in making this determination. Unfortunately, no formula or other mechanical means can produce the right answer in every case. It is “ ‘the objective of the unions’ secondary 'activities * * * and not the quality of the means employed to accomplish that objective, which was the dominant factor motivating Congress in enacting that provision.’ ” International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 501, A. F. of L. v. National Labor Relations Board, 341 U.S. 694, 71 S.Ct. 954, 959, 95 L.Ed. 1299. All the facts of each case must be studied in order to determine the legality of the union’s secondary activities.

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145 F. Supp. 316, 38 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2737, 1956 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2598, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/le-bus-v-locals-406-406-a-406-b-406-c-international-union-of-laed-1956.