Wisconsin Employment Relations Board v. Chauffeurs, Teamsters & Helpers Local 200

66 N.W.2d 318, 267 Wis. 356, 1954 Wisc. LEXIS 317, 34 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2884
CourtWisconsin Supreme Court
DecidedOctober 5, 1954
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 66 N.W.2d 318 (Wisconsin Employment Relations Board v. Chauffeurs, Teamsters & Helpers Local 200) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Wisconsin Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Wisconsin Employment Relations Board v. Chauffeurs, Teamsters & Helpers Local 200, 66 N.W.2d 318, 267 Wis. 356, 1954 Wisc. LEXIS 317, 34 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2884 (Wis. 1954).

Opinion

Fairchild, C. J.

On September 15, 1952, the circuit court for Milwaukee county granted judgment enjoining the [360]*360Chauffeurs, Teamsters & Helpers Local 200 of the I. B. of T. C. W. and H. of A., A. F. L., and Frank Ranney from picketing the National Warehouse Corporation’s place of business. That decision was based upon a prevailing policy in this state relating to control of labor disputes. Since that decision, and on December 14, 1953, the supreme court of the United States decided, in the case of Garner v. Teamsters Union (1953), 346 U. S. 485, 74 Sup. Ct. 161, 98 L. Ed. 228, that the National Labor Relations Board had exclusive jurisdiction in certain cases involving interstate commerce. Because of that ruling, we hold that the circuit court for Milwaukee county lacked jurisdiction in the case involved here on appeal, and therefore, reverse the decision of that circuit court. See also Grimes & Hauer, Inc., v. Pollock (Ohio, 1954), 119 N. E. (2d) 889.

However, in view of possible developments in the proceedings before the National Labor Relations Board, should proceedings before that body be had, we call attention to the following per curiam ruling by the supreme court of the United States of January 18, 1954, in the case of Building Trades Council v. Kinard Construction Co. (1954), 346 U. S. 933, 74 Sup. Ct. 674, 98 L. Ed. 423, on petition for writ of certiorari to the supreme court of Alabama:

“Per Curiam: The petition for writ of certiorari is granted, and the judgment is reversed. Garner v. Teamsters Union, 346 U. S. 485. Since there has been no clear showing that respondent has applied to the National Labor Relations Board for appropriate relief, or that it would be futile to do so, the court does not pass upon the question suggested by the opinion below of whether the state court could grant its own relief should the board decline to exercise its jurisdiction.”

The National Labor Relations Act, 29 USCA, sec. 151 et seq., as originally enacted in 1935 is commonly referred to as the “Wagner Act” and was enacted under the powers vested in the federal government by the commerce clause of the federal constitution for the primary purpose of protecting [361]*361th§.'interest of the public so as to relieve it from the evils attendant upon strikes and work stoppages which obstruct the free flow of the national commerce. A considerable segment of public opinion came to the conclusion that the Wagner Act was “one-sided” in favor of labor. As a result of this, congress, in 1947, amended the Wagner Act by the Labor Management Relations Act, 61 U. S. Stats, at L. 136, in an effort to' equalize the position of labor and management in labor disputes covered by the act. The preambles to both the original and the amended act contain the following finding:-

“Experience has proved that protection by law of the right of employees to organize and bargain collectively safeguards commerce from injury, impairment, or interruption, and promotes the flow of commerce by removing certain recognized sources of industrial strife and unrest, by encouraging practices fundamental to the friendly adjustment of industrial disputes. . .

Picketing is one of the traditional labor techniques incidental to the achievement of collective bargaining, and therefore, if lawful, is protected by the act. It makes no difference that, as in the instant case, the picketing takes the form of “stranger picketing,” i. e., picketing of a primary employer by a union which represents other units in the same industry than the unit being picketed. In the course of development of labor law, the area of a labor dispute has been extended from that of employer and employee in a single unit of an industry or craft to the entire industry or craft. In 1921, Mr. Chief Justice Taft, speaking for the United States supreme court in American Steel Foundries v. TriCity Central Trades Council (1921), 257 U. S. 184, 209, 42 Sup. Ct. 72, 66 L. Ed. 189, said:

“To render this [their] combination at all effective, employees must make their combination extend beyond one shop. It is helpful to have as many as may be in the same [362]*362trade in the same community united, because in the competition between employers they are bound to be affected by the standard of wages of their trade in the neighborhood. Therefore, they may use all lawful propaganda to enlarge their membership and especially among those whose labor at lower wages will injure their whole guild.”

In Bayonne Textile Corp. v. American Federation of Silk Workers (1934), 116 N. J. Eq. 146, 157, 172 Atl. 551, the New Jersey court went still further, saying:

“And it is manifestly not essential to the legality of a [labor] combination that it be confined to the same community.”

It will be seen, then, that there existed a bona fide “labor dispute” in the instant case arising from “stranger picketing” of the primary employer; and the definition of “labor dispute” in the act itself makes this fact clear when it says that a “labor dispute” includes “any controversy concerning terms, tenure, or conditions of employment, or concerning the association or representation of persons in negotiating, fixing, maintaining, changing, or seeking to arrange terms or conditions of employment, regardless of whether the disputants stand in the proximate relation of employer and employee.” (Sec. 2 (9) of the act as amended, 29 USCA App., sec. 152(9).)

When the instant case was before the Wisconsin State Board, that board found that its business “substantially affects the free flow of commerce between states” inasmuch as the company “annually receives for storage from outside of the state merchandise valued substantially in excess of $1,000,000 and exports merchandise stored in its warehouse directly to ports outside of the state of Wisconsin in substantial amounts.” (Finding No. 13.) There is no doubt that the National Warehouse Corporation is a link in interstate commerce. The question of how much its business “affects commerce” within the meaning of the act arises in [363]*363connection with certain new standards adopted by the National Labor Relations Board, which is the quasi-judicial body created under the original act, and continued under the act as amended, to administer the act. It has the power to make its own rules and regulations and change them from time to time.

On June 30, 1954, and July 15, 1954, and subsequent to the findings and order of the Wisconsin State Board, this body adopted new standards to be used as measuring sticks of its jurisdiction, with a view to relieving itself of many applications involving labor disputes in interstate-commerce businesses too small to substantially affect the commerce of the nation. Sec. 2 (7) of the act, 29 USCA App., sec.

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Bluebook (online)
66 N.W.2d 318, 267 Wis. 356, 1954 Wisc. LEXIS 317, 34 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2884, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wisconsin-employment-relations-board-v-chauffeurs-teamsters-helpers-wis-1954.