McKay v. Gleason

68 Misc. 2d 329, 326 N.Y.S.2d 116, 78 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2813, 1971 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 1140
CourtNew York Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 11, 1971
StatusPublished

This text of 68 Misc. 2d 329 (McKay v. Gleason) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
McKay v. Gleason, 68 Misc. 2d 329, 326 N.Y.S.2d 116, 78 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2813, 1971 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 1140 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1971).

Opinion

Simon J. Liebowitz, J.

Plaintiff, a labor union of licensed maritime engineers with a division of ship officers, moves for a preliminary restraining order enjoining defendant International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA), a labor union of stevedores and longshoremen, and defendant International Organization of Masters, Mates and Pilots (MM&P), a union of deck officers, from picketing the vessel M. V. Floridian in Miami, Florida, San Juan, Puerto Rico, and any other locations.

Plaintiff further seeks to enjoin defendants from interfering with the collective bargaining agreement betweeh plaintiff and Marine and Marketing International Corporation (MMIC), a new corporate operator of the vessel.

Plaintiff, in its complaint and moving papers, alleges that pursuant to its collective bargaining agreement with MMIC, it furnished the deck officers for the M. V. Floridian. The ports of call or route were limited to Miami, Florida and San Juan, Puerto Rico. When the vessel was to be loaded at the Miami port its former deck officers, members of defendant MM&P, who had been employed by a prior corporate operator, picketed the ship. The longshoremen members of defendant ILA honored the picket line and refused to load the vessel. MMIC then obtained a temporary injunction in the Circuit Court of the Eleventh Judicial Circuit in and for Dade County, Florida [330]*330against defendant MM&P restraining it from picketing. The pickets obeyed the injunction order and the ship was loaded. On its arrival at San Juan, Puerto Rico, the pickets reappeared and the longshoremen, members of one of the locals of defendant ILA, refused to unload the ship.

Subsequent to the institution of this action and the return date of this motion, ‘ ‘ a temporary restraining order was issued by a Provincial Court of Puerto Rico, restraining and enjoining the picketing by MM&P.” After the service of the order ‘ upon the MM&P pickets, the picket line came down. However, despite the fact that there was no picket line in existence, the members of the International Longshoremen’s Association were ordered and directed not to unload the M./V. Floridian ” and they are not doing so.

The crux of plaintiff’s action in this court is that defendant MM&P, a competing* union of deck officers, and defendant ILA with full knowledge of plaintiff’s collective bargaining agree- • ment conspired to illegally induce and persuade the MMIC to violate and repudiate its agreement with plaintiff and to recog*nize ‘ ‘ defendants and their members as the exclusive bargaining agent for the masters and licensed deck officers.”

The tying up of the M. V. Floridian with its full cargo in San Juan allegedly represents defendants’ unlawful means to force MMIC to do their bidding* or completely cease business and to serve notice on all ship operators that they will face a similar fate should they contract with plaintiff as the exclusive bargaining agent for deck officers.

Plaintiff thus seeks an injunction and damages against defendants claiming* that plaintiff’s existence as a trade union is threatened by defendants’ continuing* action and conspiracy. Plaintiff relies upon the alleged illegality of defendants’ conspiratorial conduct to violate plaintiff’s collective bargaining agreement as the basis for this court’s jurisdiction over the subject of this action and as the basis of removing this action from the pale of the National Labor Relations Act (Act) (U. S. Code, tit. 29, § 151 et seq.). Buttressing this contention plaintiff sets forth that a charge of unfair labor practice was filed by MMIC with the National Labor Relations Board (Board) and that the same was dismissed by the regional director upon the ground that the employees of defendant MM&P involved in the picketing* are supervisors and as such are ‘ ‘ not employees within the meaning of the Act.” Plaintiff apparently makes no claim that the picketing was accompanied by any violence or other unlawful acts as would come within the inherent jurisdiction of a State court to halt and prevent.

[331]*331Defendants have crossed-moved for judgment dismissing the complaint on several grounds. However, before this court may consider the sufficiency of plaintiff’s papers to merit the relief sought, determination must first be made as to whether the dispute herein is pre-empted by the Act and whether it comes within the exclusive jurisdiction of the Board.

The doctrine of pre-emption may be stated as the deprivation of the power of a State court to entertain any action or proceeding involving a labor dispute that is unaccompanied by violence or to consider whether a specific labor question is outside the jurisdiction of the Board. The doctrine, like a mathematical formula, may be simple of statement but under given circumstances proves difficult of application. Pre-emption is a judicially created doctrine to enforce the presumed intent of 'Congress in all of the shadow areas not illumined by the language of the Act. The Federal courts have wrestled with this doctrine and ‘ ‘ It was * <s experience— not pure logic — which initially taught that each of these methods sacrificed important federal interests in a uniform law of labor relations centrally administered by an expert agency without yielding anything in return by way of predictability or ease of judicial application ” (Motor Coach Employees v. Lockridge, 403 U. S. 274, 291). It was the ‘ ‘ watershed ’ ’ case of San Diego Unions v. Garmon (359 U. S. 236) (referred to as the Garmon case) that cleared the confusion over prior decisions by the Federal courts.

The determinative rule as laid down in the Garmon case and as later approved and expanded upon in Motor Coach Employees v. Lockridge (supra) is “ When an activity is arguably subject to § 7 or § 8 of the Act, the States as well as the federal courts must defer to the exclusive competence of the National Labor Relations Board if the danger of state interference with national policy is to be averted. ’ ’ (Garmon, p. 245.) Under the umbrella of said rule is conduct that may be protected or prohibited by the Act.

The problem here presented is whether the conduct of defendants is 1 ‘ arguably ’ ’ prohibited by the Act and thus solely within the competence of the Board to consider and determine.

Plaintiff and defendant M.M&P have had a checkered career in our State and Federal courts. In Bull S. S. Co. v. National Marine Engrs. Beneficial Assn. [this plaintiff and defendant MMSP] (250 F. 2d 332, cert. den. 355 U. S. 932), the court reversed an injunction against them for picketing in violation of their collective bargaining agreement and sustained their contention that they were not labor unions as defined under the Act (unions of supervisory employees are specifically [332]*332excluded from the definition of “labor organizations,” U. S. Code, tit. 29, § 152), and that they were therefore covered by the old Norris-La Guardia Act which deprived Federal courts of jurisdiction to enjoin peaceful strikes. That case, however, involved a direct strike by supervisors and their unions against the employer.

In ,a later action by [this plaintiff and defendant MMSP jointly]

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
68 Misc. 2d 329, 326 N.Y.S.2d 116, 78 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2813, 1971 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 1140, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mckay-v-gleason-nysupct-1971.