United States v. International Longshoremen's & Warehousemen's Union

334 F. Supp. 329
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. California
DecidedNovember 5, 1971
Docket71 1935
StatusPublished

This text of 334 F. Supp. 329 (United States v. International Longshoremen's & Warehousemen's Union) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. California primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. International Longshoremen's & Warehousemen's Union, 334 F. Supp. 329 (N.D. Cal. 1971).

Opinion

FINDINGS OF FACT AND CONCLUSIONS OF LAW AND ORDER

SWEIGERT, District Judge.

An order to show cause re civil contempt was issued by this Court on October 28, 1971, upon the application of the United States Attorney on behalf of the plaintiff; the Court held hearings on such order to show cause on Friday, October 29th and Saturday, October 30th, and Tuesday, November 2, 1971.

Said order to show cause involves the temporary restraining order of this court, dated October 6, 1971 and the preliminary injunction of this Court, dated October .20, 1971.

The following parties were represented by their counsel of record: The plaintiff by James L. Browning, Jr., United States Attorney, William B. Spohn, Assistant United States Attorney, and A. Theodore Giattina, Trial Attorney, Department of Justice; the defendants International Longshoremen’s and Warehouse-men’s Union and Local No. 10 thereof, by Richard Gladstein and Norman Leonard; Local No. 13 of said International by Ben Margolis; and Pacific Maritime Association, and certain of its member employers, by Richard Ernst and Dennis Daniels.

Upon completion of plaintiff’s case on October 30, 1971, the Court, finding that *330 the plaintiff had made a prima facie ease of civil contempt by certain of said defendants, and that the urgent existing situation required an appropriate interim order of the Court, made such interim order in open court; said interim order has been in effect up to this time and apparently all parties have complied with it.

Evidence was introduced and all parties rested and submitted the case to the Court for decision upon the record at the time of submission; the Court heard argument by counsel on the basis of the Court’s proposed findings, conclusions and order.

It has been argued (for diverse purposes) that the collective bargaining contract, which expired June 30, 1971, is the measure of the rights and obligations of the parties under the temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction.

It must be borne in mind, however, that the authority for the preliminary injunction is, not that contract but, rather, Title 29 U.S.C. § 178 — the law of the land — which outlaws strikes and lockouts during a limited 80 day period.

Although the preliminary injunction contemplates and encourages, as does this Court, resumption and continuance of ship loading operations in accordance with established pre-June 30th contract practices, that contract must be interpreted — at least during this 80 day period— in the light of the overriding purpose of the federal statute.

The Court now makes its findings, conclusions and orders as follows:

AS TO THE UNIONS

Longshoremen’s and Warehousemen's Union Locals No. 13 and No. 10 have been in civil contempt of the temporary restraining order issued by this Court, dated October 6, 1971, and the preliminary injunction issued by this Court, dated October 20, 1971, in the following respects:

A. Local 13

1) During the period October 6th to October 30th, steady men members of Local No. 13, in number about 174, who prior to June 30, 1971, had been working as steady men for certain employers in the Los Angeles area (among them Marine Terminals Corp., Container Stevedoring Company, Inc., Los Angeles Container Terminal, Matson Terminals, Inc., Metropolitan Stevedore Company, Crescent Wharf and Warehouse Company, and Overseas Shipping Company), have been resigning and withdrawing from their status as so-called steady men members of that Union and have been otherwise failing and refusing to report for work as steady men; that said resignations, withdrawals and refusals have not been individual, voluntary quittings by individual steady men (within the meaning of the exception set forth in said temporary restraining order at page three, paragraph two) but have been, on the contrary, collective, concerted resignations and withdrawals by members of the Union with the purpose and effect of interrupting and slowing down the loading and unloading operations here involved; that said collective, concerted resignations, withdrawals and refusals have been brought about by the acts and conduct of Local 13 hereinafter described.

2) Local No. 13 and its officers and members, have both directly and indirectly (by threats, coercions, penalty, instructions, suggestions, advices, membership votes, telephone messages, oral persuasion and otherwise) interfered with the right of individual members of said Union to become and remain steady men, as they had individually decided, advising steady men to “voluntarily” resign in mass or in groups and in other ways coercing steady men.

B. Local 10

1) During the period October 6th to October 28th, certain steady men, members of Local No. 10, in number about 7, who prior to June 30, 1971, worked as steady crane drivers for the Container Stevedoring Company, Inc., in the San Francisco area, have been resigning and/or withdrawing from their status as steady-man members of that Union and otherwise failing and refus *331 ing to report for work as steady men; that said resignations, withdrawals and refusals have not been individual voluntary quittings by individual steady men (within the meaning of the exception set forth in said temporary restraining order and said preliminary injunction), but have, on the contrary, been collective and concerted resignations, withdrawals and refusals by members of the Union with the purpose and effect of interrupting and slowing down the operations here involved; that said collective, concerted resignations, withdrawals and refusals have been brought about by the acts and conduct of Local No. 10 as hereinafter described.

2) Local No. 10, its officers and members, have both directly and indirectly (by threats, coercion, penalty, instructions, advices, suggestions, membership votes, oral persuasions and otherwise) interfered with the right of individual members of said Union to work as or remain as steady men, as they had individually decided, advising steady men to “voluntarily” resign in mass or in groups and in other ways coercing steady men.

3) On October 29th, Union Local No. 10, acting upon its own initiative, arranged for the reporting to work of said 7 steady men and in so doing went a long way toward purging itself of the previous civil contempt hereinabove found.

4) The acts and conduct of said Unions, their officers and members, amounted to a strike, within the meaning of the temporary restraining order and the preliminary injunction, to the extent that it resulted in an interruption with and slow-down of the operation here involved.

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

Related

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
334 F. Supp. 329, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-international-longshoremens-warehousemens-union-cand-1971.