Twin Grill Co. v. Local Joint Executive Board

60 Pa. D. & C. 379, 1947 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 34

This text of 60 Pa. D. & C. 379 (Twin Grill Co. v. Local Joint Executive Board) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Lackawanna County primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Twin Grill Co. v. Local Joint Executive Board, 60 Pa. D. & C. 379, 1947 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 34 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1947).

Opinion

Hoban, J.,

This is a bill in equity-

seeking to enjoin defendants from picketing and boycotting plaintiffs’ places of business in the City of Scranton. The bill avers that plaintiff companies have a valid and existing collective bargaining agreement with the Greater Scranton Employees Association, an independent vertical union, including in its membership all of plaintiffs’ employes, and that there is no dispute between plaintiffs and the association; that defendant unions do not have any member employes of plaintiff companies, but nevertheless defendant unions have caused plaintiffs’ places of business to be picketed, as well as boycotted by various other unions, purveyors of merchandise and transportation agencies by intimidation and coercion; that under the circumstances these activities are illegal and made in an attempt to coerce the plaintiffs to violate the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Act of June 1, 1937, P. L. 1168, as supplemented and amended, by attempting to procure the disregard, breach and violation of a valid subsisting agreement between plaintiffs and the Greater Scranton Employees Association, and that all this has resulted in irrevocable damage to plaintiffs and will continue to cause such damage unless enjoined.

A rule to show cause why a preliminary injunction should not be granted was issued and hearing held on the rule before the undersigned as chancellor on June 18, 1947. Arguments on the evidence were held and some supplemental testimony was placed in the record on July 10,1947. To understand this controversy some recital of the prior litigation must be made. In case no. 163, year 1946, before the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board, the Greater Scranton Employees Association petitioned the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board for an investigation and certification of the employes of Martha Company, averring that a dispute had [381]*381arisen as to the proper bargaining agency between Martha Company as the employer and its employes. The Martha Company then included the employes of the Twin Grill Restaurant, subsequently organized as a separate corporation, in its employ. The board, by a nisi decision on January 16, 1947, found as a fact that a valid contract existed between Greater Scranton Employees Association and Martha Company, dating from May 15, 1942, which is still in effect, and that the Martha Company still recognizes the association as the collective bargaining representative of all its employes, and that no question existed concerning representation which required determination of the board under section 7, subsection (c), of the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Act. The petition was dismissed, exceptions to the order were dismissed and the decision and order were made final on February 26,1947.

In case no. 174, year 1946, before the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board, the joint executive board of Scranton Locals 558 and 134 filed charges of unfair labor practices against the Martha Company. By the final decision, dated February 26, 1947, Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board found as facts that the employer and the officers thereof had not in any way dominated the Greater Scranton Employees Association, in addition to the same findings of fact in case no. 163, with reference to the validity of the collective bargaining agreement, but did issue a cease and desist order against certain practices by the employers which were designed to facilitate the holding of meetings, etc., by the association on the employers’ premises. The board refused reargument and reconsideration of this order in a decision handed down by the board on March 11,1947.

The local joint executive board brought a petition for the review of the decisions and orders of the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board in these two cases to the court of common pleas of this county. At the same [382]*382time plaintiffs brought a petition asking for enforcement of the rulings of the board and an injunction against the picketing practices which the board had criticized in its opinion in case no. 174. These proceedings were to no. 697, April term, 1947. Both the petition brought by the companies and the appeal brought by the local joint board were dismissed on May 28, 1947. See opinion and order by President Judge Leach. In the instant case the record of the proceedings in no. 697, April term, 1947, Court of Common Pleas of Lackawanna County, and in cases 163 and 174, year 1946, before the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board, were introduced in evidence.

Findings of fact

1. Twin Grill Company is a business corporation which operates a restaurant at 229 Washington Avenue, in the City of Scranton.

2. Martha Company is a business corporation which operátes business buildings, including the Lincoln Building, on the first floor of which Twin Grill operates its restaurant, the Liberty Building adjoining the Lincoln Building on Washington Avenue, in the City of Scranton, and another building in the City of Scranton known as Hotel Scranton, operated as a hotel.

3. The ownership of Twin Grill Company, Inc., and Martha Company are in the same hands, the Colovos family, and while different members of the family occupy differently titled offices in each company and have different duties therein, they may be considered as one family enterprise.

4. The Greater Scranton Employees Association is an independent union of the vertical type, which includes in its membership all of the employes, regardless of job classifications, of Twin Grill Company, Inc., and Martha Company. This union is not affiliated with any of the major National or international labor or[383]*383ganizations and specifically it is not affiliated with the American Federation of Labor.

5. Defendants, Local Joint Executive Board of Scranton, Locals 558 and 134; Local 558 Hotel & Restaurant Employees International Alliance, and Local 134 Bartenders National League of America, are labor organizations affiliated with the American Federation of Labor. The two locals named are members of one international union. The local joint executive board is an organization composed of delegates from both locals and is formed in accordance with the international constitution of the union, when two or more locals operate in the same territory.

6. Greater Scranton Employees Association is the recognized collective bargaining agent for the employes of plaintiff companies and as such entered into a collective bargaining agreement with the employer in 1942, which agreement, modified only by wage increases, is still in effect.

7. After its initial organization in 1942 and 1943 and the conclusion of the collective bargaining agreement with the employes, Greater Scranton Employees ■Association held no meetings and no elections until 1946.

8. In 1946 defendant unions began to picket plaintiffs’ places of business, specifically Twin Grill Restaurant, Lincoln Building and Liberty Building, by placing a single picket in front of the premises on Washington Avenue and a single picket in the rear of the premises in Dupont Court.

9. The pickets carried signs reading as follows:

“This establishment has no contract with Local Joint Executive Hotel and Restaurant Employees and Bartenders Union A. F. of L. We earnestly request our friends and sympathizers not to patronize.”

10. Defendant, Richard Roe, subsequently identified as Wasil Stelmokis, was the picket in front of the [384]*384premises.

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Bluebook (online)
60 Pa. D. & C. 379, 1947 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 34, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/twin-grill-co-v-local-joint-executive-board-pactcompllackaw-1947.