National Labor Relations Board v. Lafayette Building and Construction Trades Council, Afl-Cio

445 F.2d 495, 77 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2737, 1971 U.S. App. LEXIS 9177
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
DecidedJuly 1, 1971
Docket29722
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 445 F.2d 495 (National Labor Relations Board v. Lafayette Building and Construction Trades Council, Afl-Cio) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
National Labor Relations Board v. Lafayette Building and Construction Trades Council, Afl-Cio, 445 F.2d 495, 77 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2737, 1971 U.S. App. LEXIS 9177 (5th Cir. 1971).

Opinion

RONEY, Circuit Judge;

This is an application for enforcement of an order of the National Labor Relations Board arising out of union activities at Texaco, Inc.’s Henry Gas Processing Plant near Erath, Louisiana. In a consolidated case based upon two distinct matters, the Board found that respondent Lafayette Building and Construction Trades Council, AFL-CIO (Council) had violated Section 8(b), 4(i) and (ii) (B) of the National Labor Relations Act, as amended, and that Plasterers and Cement Masons Local Union No. 685, AFL-CIO (Plasterers) had violated Section 8(b), (4) (ii) (B) of the Act. 1 We enforce the Board’s order.

*497 1. Lafayette Building and Construction Trades Council

For about 2 or 3 weeks in October, 1967, a picket was parked in a truck at the corner of Parish and Boston Roads, Erath, Louisiana. A sign in the truck window read: “We are protesting substandard wages and conditions of Dresser Engineers, Lafayette Building and Trades Council.” Dresser Engineering was the general contractor at the Henry Gas Plant expansion. The Henry Gas Plant was located between ]4 to Vfe mile down Parish Road from the truck with the sign. A majority of workers at the construction site would pass the intersection at which the truck was parked. Dresser had a separate gate for its workers and suppliers. There was sufficient room for persons to picket at that gate and in fact pickets had done so.

Based upon these largely undisputed facts, the trial examiner found that the Council “elected to address its inducement to employees at a point passed by employees of employers other than Dresser and by so doing fell within the interdiction of the Act.” The Board agreed with this finding. 2

Section 8(b) (4) meets “the dual congressional objectives of preserving the right of labor organizations to bring pressure to bear on offending employers in primary labor disputes and of shielding unoffending employers and others from pressures in controversies not their own.” N. L. R. B. v. Denver Building & Construction Trades Council, 341 U.S. 675, 692, 71 S.Ct. 943, 953, 95 L.Ed. 1284 (1951). It reflects a positive policy which developed as a result of the “great public dissatisfaction with the hapless predicament of the secondary employer caught in the middle.” Superior Derrick Corp. v. N. L. R. B., 273 F. 2d 891 (5th Cir. 1960), cert. den., 364 U.S. 816, 81 S.Ct. 47, 5 L.Ed.2d 47 (1960).

It has previously been pointed out that “the line between primary and secondary activity is relatively easy to draw where the primary and secondary employers have separate work-sites.” A more difficult problem is presented here where two employers are performing separate tasks on common premises. Markwell and Hartz, Inc. v. N. L. R. B., 387 F.2d 79, 86 (5th Cir. 1967) (dissenting opinion).

In order to evaluate whether picketing is permissibly primary or improperly secondary, the Board has developed criteria relating to conduct at a common situs. Sailor’s Union of the Pacific (Moore Drydock Co.), 92 NLRB 547 (1950). Thus the Board stated:

“In the kind of situation that exists in this case, we believe that picketing * * is primary if it meets the following conditions: (a) The picketing is strictly limited to times when the situs of the dispute is located on the secondary employer’s premises; (b)’ At the time of the picketing the primary employer is engaged in its normal business at the situs; (c) The picketing is limited to places reasonably close to the location of the situs; and (d) The picketing discloses clearly that the dispute is with the primary employer.” Id. at 549.

Since a common situs is involved here, the Moore Drydock rules are applicable. The trial examiner found, and the Board agreed, that the picketing did not conform to the Moore Drydock criteria in that the picketing should have been confined to the Dresser gate. Since there is undisputed evidence that Dresser had a separate gate and that there was sufficient room for picketing there, the decision of the Board is supported by substantial evidence. 3 The picketing was not “conducted in such a way that the normal appeal of the picket line [was] overcome” and was not “done *498 so that all secondary employees will know that the primary union does not seek what the law forbids — pressure on the primary employer through pressure from the secondary employer because of concerted pressure of secondary employees on that secondary employer.” Superior Derrick Corp. v. N. L. R. B., supra, 273 F.2d at p. 897; Brown Transport Corporation v. N. L. R. B., 334 F.2d 30 (5th Cir. 1964).

II. Plasterers and Cement Masons Local Union No. 685

DuBois Concrete Works, Inc. supplied concrete to Dresser for use on the expansion of the Henry Gas Plant. From June 23, 1967 to August 8, 1967, the concrete was delivered to the Gas Plant by DuBois’ trucks. At about that time Local 106, Plumbers, began picketing at the Dresser gate of the Henry Gas Plant. Thereafter DuBois made no deliveries to the Gas Plant, but instead Dresser would send its trucks to DuBois’ facilities to obtain concrete, a procedure called “batching out.”

Thereafter occurred a conversation between Lifey DuBois, owner of DuBois Concrete Works, and Harry Delahous-saye, business agent for Plasterers. DuBois testified that Delahoussaye came to his office between September 6 and 12, 1967, to inquire if DuBois had quit batching out. DuBois stated that Dela-houssaye said that if DuBois had not stopped batching out he was going to be sorry. He further testified that Dela-houssaye then mentioned different things that could happen, such as men refusing to finish cement and that other people had gone out of business for doing the same thing.

Delahoussaye testified that the conversation took place around August 29, 1967. He told DuBois that the men were disturbed about the batching of concrete for Dresser and asked his future intentions. DuBois indicated he was going to continue batching out. De-lahoussaye testified that DuBois then asked what would happen if he continued batching and DuBois answered his own question by saying that the cement finishers would refuse to finish cement. Mrs. DuBois then asked if that wasn’t against the law, to which Delahoussaye replied that the men could refuse as individuals but that the union could not refuse to supply men.

The trial examiner found no unfair labor practice. He thought that any violation depended almost exclusively upon the testimony of DuBois. To him the testimony was unclear and incoherent because it was given in a patois with an accent unfamiliar to the examiner. The trial examiner credited Delahoussaye’s testimony.

The Board disagreed with the trial examiner, did not find the testimony of DuBois unclear and did not believe that the violation rested exclusively upon his testimony.

The question for this Court is whether on the record as a whole there is substantial evidence to support the Board’s findings. Universal Camera Corp. v. N. L. R.

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Bluebook (online)
445 F.2d 495, 77 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2737, 1971 U.S. App. LEXIS 9177, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/national-labor-relations-board-v-lafayette-building-and-construction-ca5-1971.