National Labor Relations Board v. United Ass'n of Journeymen & Apprentices of the Plumbing & Pipefitting Industry

320 F.2d 250
CourtCourt of Appeals for the First Circuit
DecidedJuly 15, 1963
DocketNo. 6087
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 320 F.2d 250 (National Labor Relations Board v. United Ass'n of Journeymen & Apprentices of the Plumbing & Pipefitting Industry) 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
National Labor Relations Board v. United Ass'n of Journeymen & Apprentices of the Plumbing & Pipefitting Industry, 320 F.2d 250 (1st Cir. 1963).

Opinion

HARTIGAN, Circuit Judge.

This is a petition of the National Labor Relations Board for enforcement of its order issued on July 16, 1962, against respondents, following the usual proceedings under the Act. The Board found that respondents violated Section 8(b) (4) (i) and (ii) (B) of the Act — the so-called “secondary boycott” section of the statute. The facts giving rise to the alleged violations are as follows.

Phoenix Urban Corp. was engaged by Charles River Park “A”, Inc. — a developer — as general contractor in the construction of an apartment house project in Boston, Massachusetts. The record indicates that in developing the plans and specifications for the project, Charles River and Phoenix decided that gas stoves would be used in the project. Incident thereto, on August 22, 1960, Charles River entered into - a contract with the Boston Gas Company, a Massachusetts public utility corporation, providing that the latter, in consideration of the use of gas appliances in the project, would run gas service pipes from the gas main in the public ways up to and through the foundation wall of the apartment buildings. At all times here relevant this agreement was in effect and became part of the principal contract between Phoenix and Charles River. Under this latter agreement, Phoenix’s obligations were to insure that the gas lines were installed on the site and supervise their installation.

Respondent Local 12 of the Plumbers Union, hereinafter referred to as the Plumbers, and Local 22 of the International Hod Carriers, Building and Common Laborers Union, hereinafter referred to as the Laborers, each had members working on the Charles River construction project for various employers other than Boston Gas. The Plumbers and the Laborers Unions were, in turn, members of respondent Building and Construction Trades Council' of the Metropolitan District, hereinafter referred to as the Council.1

The employees of Boston Gas have been represented by District 50 of the United Mine Workers of America since 1936. Neither the Council, the Plumbers, nor the Laborers represented Boston Gas employees. None of those three organizations had a collective bargaining agreement with Boston Gas, and none of them made any effort to organize Boston Gas employees.

About October 6, 1961, John Tobin, business agent of the Plumbers, asked Boston Gas to have its work on the Charles River project done by members of the Plumbers’ Union. Boston Gas was [252]*252noncommittal in its reply. About October 13, Tobin spoke to Cyrus Smith, vice-president of Phoenix and project manager for the Charles River development. Tobin told Smith that any gas piping work that was done on the site and off the public streets, was within the jurisdiction of the Plumbers. Smith told Tobin that Phoenix intended to proceed with Boston Gas employees and Tobin replied that if Boston Gas “came in on the property, he would pull the Plumbers off the job.” Shortly thereafter, Boston Gas started excavating near the construction site. The next day Tobin again told Smith that if Boston Gas came on the property Tobin would take his men off the job.

On October 19 Tobin contacted Charles O’Reilly, manager of Safety and Legal Services for Boston Gas, stating that he wanted Boston Gas to recognize the Plumbers. O’Reilly replied that Boston Gas had a contract to install the piping through the foundation walls and was going to proceed with its own employees. Tobin then informed O’Reilly that Boston Gas would find itself in serious trouble and would encounter opposition from the Laborers and Hoisting Engineers Union. In the same conversation, Tobin told O’Reilly, “[W]e will use pressure on all the building trades to stop you from doing that work.”

About October 23 Tobin and John Deady, secretary-treasurer and general agent of the Council, met, with Smith. There followed several meetings between officers of the interested parties looking towards an accord. The net result of these meetings was an apparent agreement under which the Plumbers agreed to allow Boston Gas to lay pipes in the “public way” section of the project areas as a result of Smith’s concession that when Boston Gas reached the Charles River property, he would stop the job, and Phoenix would do the rest of the work with the Building Trades. Boston Gas in turn agreed that it would lay the pipe in the public way only, and that work within the private property lines would either be done by Phoenix, or would be sub-contracted by that company.

Boston Gas began work on November 7 in the area which Smith had referred to as the public way. In the course of the morning Deady and one Pietrangelo, business agent of the Laborers, went to Smith’s office where they were later joined by Tobin. Deady told Smith that the job was going to shut down because Boston Gas was working on what Deady considered to be Charles River’s property. About this time the union steward for the laborers on the project instructed certain of the laborers who were employed by Phoenix not to resume work after lunch time.

After the lunch period about twenty to thirty laborers, all of whom were members of the Laborers Union, and a number of whom worked for sub-contractors of Phoenix, did not resume work. The laborers congregated outside Smith’s office. After they had been there about, fifteen or twenty minutes, Smith asked Boston Gas to remove its men from the job because “we had-a strike on our hands.” Immediately thereafter, Boston Gas directed its employees to stop working and informed Smith that it had done so.

After Boston Gas informed Smith that it had withdrawn its employees from the project Deady asked Pietrangelo to see if all the Boston Gas employees had left the job and report his findings to Deady. Pietrangelo investigated and found that Boston Gas had left. The strikers thereupon returned to work.

Boston Gas did not resume laying pipe into the buildings until an injunction was issued under Section 10(1) of the Act by the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts on November 22, 1961; the court enjoined interference with the work pending final adjudication of this matter by the Board.

On the basis of the foregoing facts, the Board concluded that respondents violated Section 8(b) (4) (ii) (B) of the Act by threatening, coercing or restraining Phoenix with an object of fore-[253]*253ing Phoenix, or Charles River, or any other employer to cease doing business with Boston Gas. The Board further found that, with the same object, respondents, in violation of Section 8(b) (4) (i) (B), induced or encouraged the employees of Phoenix and of other employers having contracts with Phoenix at the Charles River development to engage in a strike or a refusal in the course of their employment to perform services for their respective employers.

We believe that substantial evidence, on the record considered as a whole, supports the Board’s findings. Section 8(b) (4) of the Act, as amended by the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959 provides, in pertinent part, that it shall be an unfair labor practice for a union or its agents:

“(i) to engage in, or to induce or encourage any individual employed by any person engaged in commerce or in an industry affecting commerce to engage in, a strike or a refusal in the course of his employment * * * to perform any services; or (ii) to threaten, coerce, or restrain any person engaged in commerce or in an industry affecting commerce, where in either ease an object thereof is—

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320 F.2d 250, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/national-labor-relations-board-v-united-assn-of-journeymen-apprentices-ca1-1963.