National Labor Relations Board v. Waterfront Employees of Washington

211 F.2d 946, 34 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2049, 1954 U.S. App. LEXIS 4061
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedApril 6, 1954
Docket13671
StatusPublished
Cited by23 cases

This text of 211 F.2d 946 (National Labor Relations Board v. Waterfront Employees of Washington) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Ninth 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. Waterfront Employees of Washington, 211 F.2d 946, 34 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2049, 1954 U.S. App. LEXIS 4061 (9th Cir. 1954).

Opinion

BONE, Circuit Judge.

The National Labor Relations Board petitions for enforcement of an order issued by it against Waterfront Employers of Washington (herein “WEW”), Local 19, International Longshoremen’s and Warehousemen’s Union (herein “Local”), and International Longshoremen’s and Warehousemen’s Union (herein “ILWU”), with which Local is affiliated. The Board’s Decision and Order embodies all of the facts of this case, and is set forth in 98 N.L.R.B. 284. The Board’s supplemental Decisions and Orders in the case may be found in 101 N.L.R.B. 195 and 101 N.L.R.B. 770. In this opinion we advert to only such facts *949 as we deem necessary to point up the issues for decision here.

The unfair labor practices found by the Board involved the execution by the parties of two hiring agreements and the operation of a Seattle hiring hall for longshoremen and dock workers pursuant to those agreements. The first of these two agreements, the “Pacific Coast Long-shore Agreement” (herein the “Coast Agreement”) was negotiated by ILWU and the Waterfront Employers Association of the Pacific Coast (now succeeded by the Pacific Maritime Association, herein “PMA”) late in 1948. The Coast Agreement named PMA and other waterfront employers associations, including respondent WEW, as parties thereto. WEW authorized the execution of the Agreement and ratified it.

The Coast Agreement was discussed in our recent case of National Labor Relations Board v. International Longshoremen’s & Warehousemen’s Union, 9 Cir., 1954, 210 F.2d 581, 583. The portions of the Agreement concerning hiring halls were succinctly summarized in that opinion as follows:

“Control of the hiring hall is vested in a Port Labor Relations Committee * * * composed of equal numbers of employer and labor representatives. Expenses are paid equally by each of the two groups. Personnel are appointed by the Committee except for the dispatchers who are selected by the International by means of elections. These dispatchers are subject to removal by the Committee for cause. The business of the hall is chiefly the dispatching of registered longshoremen upon request of the Employers, who are required to obtain all longshore help through the hall. Preference [in dispatch] is granted first to registered longshoremen who are members of the Local, second to nonunion registered longshoremen, and third to non-registered longshoremen.”

Pursuant to the Coast Agreement hiring halls are established at Seattle and other Pacific Coast ports. It is the operation of the Seattle hiring hall with which we are here concerned.

The second of the two hiring agreements involved in this case was executed by respondents Local and WEW in February of 1949 and was called the “Dock Workers’ Agreement for the Port of Seattle” (herein the “Dock Agreement”). As its title indicates, the Agreement covered dock work and dock workers in Seattle. In general, dock work consists of the movement of cargo to and from the docks; longshore work consists of the movement of cargo between ship and dock. The Dock Agreement provided for the hiring of Seattle dock workers through the same hiring hall and by the same hiring arrangement as was provided for longshoremen in the Coast Agreement.

WEW is an incorporated association of waterfront employers in the State of Washington, with its principal office in Seattle. During the times pertinent herein WEW served as paymaster for its member companies and, as indicated by its authorization and ratification of the Coast Agreement and its execution of the Dock Agreement, represented such companies for collective bargaining purposes. The Board found that WEW was an “employer” within the meaning of § 2(2) of the National Labor Relations Act, as amended, 29 U.S.C.A. § 151 et seq., (herein “the Act”), and that finding is not challenged here.

On the Port Labor Relations Committee which had charge of the Seattle hiring hall were three representatives of the employers, chosen by PMA, and three union representatives, chosen by Local, to which ILWU had delegated its rights and responsibilities under the Coast Agreement. WEW was not directly represented on the Committee, although its president, Daryl Cornell, served on the Committee as PMA representative. The day-to-day operation of the hiring hall was conducted by Chief Dispatcher Laing, who was selected by Local 19. The employers’ share of the expenses of the several hiring halls on the Pacific Coast was *950 collected by PMA from its member companies and other stevedoring companies on the waterfront. Part of these funds were deposited to the account of WEW, which in turn used them to pay the employers’ share of the Seattle hiring hall expenses.

So far as it is here necessary to state, the Seattle hiring hall was operated as follows: The Port Labor Relations Committee had control of the registration lists for the hiring hall and power to make additions to or subtractions from the lists. The names of registered longshoremen who were union members and were not members of regular longshore “gangs” were listed on a board in the hiring hall. Beside each of such names was a small hole into which a “plug” could be fitted. Each longshoreman whose name was on this board had to “plug in” each day to indicate his availability for work. There was another board where “gangs” of longshoremen who were union members were listed. Members of gangs could secure work simply by calling the hiring hall to learn if their “gangs” were to be dispatched. The gangs and individual longshoremen were each dispatched in rotation from their respective boards.

The Board found that in the course of the operation of the Seattle hiring hall two longshoremen, Albert G. Crum and Clarence Purnell, then members of Local, were discriminatorily denied dispatch. Crum had worked regularly as a longshoreman from 1936 to 1944. Thereafter he divided his time between long-shore work, a job for a stevedoring company which was outside the jurisdiction of respondent unions, and a farm which he owned in Idaho. In December of 1948 Crum was “fined” $2400 by Local for not standing his share of picket duty during a strike, and was informed that he could work for 30 days and no longer unless he paid this fine. Crum worked with the gang of which he was a member until January 27, 1949, when the entire gang was laid off. During the next few days Crum telephoned the hiring hall to find out if his gang had been dispatched. One day after the expiration of the 30-day period, when he called the dispatcher’s office, Crum was told: “Crum, there is no need of your calling up any more. There is a bug behind your name, and you won’t be dispatched with your gang until the fine is paid.” 1 Thereafter Crum requested Daryl Cornell, who was PMA Manager for Seattle, President of WEW, and a member of the Seattle Port Labor Relations Committee, to see what he could do for him on the Committee, and Cornell agreed. Crum also contacted representatives of shipping companies in Seattle, who told him he would be hired if he was dispatched by the hiring hall. On April 20, 1949, on motion of Local, the Port Labor Relations Committee can-celled Crum’s registration as a longshoreman on the ground that he was only a casual worker.

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Bluebook (online)
211 F.2d 946, 34 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2049, 1954 U.S. App. LEXIS 4061, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/national-labor-relations-board-v-waterfront-employees-of-washington-ca9-1954.