91 136 Unemployment Compensation Commission of Territory of Alaska v. Aragan

• Decision Date: 09 December 1946
• Docket Number: No. 25,25
• Citation: 329 U.S. 143,67 S.Ct. 245
• Parties: . 91 L.Ed. 136 UNEMPLOYMENT COMPENSATION COMMISSION OF TERRITORY OF ALASKA et al. v. ARAGAN et al. Re
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

329 U.S. 143

67 S.Ct. 245.

91 L.Ed. 136

UNEMPLOYMENT COMPENSATION COMMISSION OF TERRITORY OF ALASKA et al.

v ARAGAN et al.

No. 25.

Reargued Nov. 13, 1946.

Decided Dec. 9, 1946.

[Syllabus from pages 143-145 intentionally omitted] Mr.Marshall P. Madison, of San Francisco, Cal., for petitioners.

Mr. Herbert Resner, of San Francisco, Cal., for respondents.

The CHIEF JUSTICE delivered the opinion of the Court.

In May, 1940, the individual respondents filed claims for unemployment benefits with the Unemployment Compensation Commission of the Territory of Alaska. After an initial determination by an examiner and after decision by a referee the Commission held that the claimants were disqualified from receiving benefits for a period of eight weeks since their unemployment was due to a labor dispute n active progress within the meaning of the Alaska Unemployment Compensation Law.¹ The United States District Court affirmed the Commission's holding in all particulars. The Circuit Court of Appeals reversed, one judge dissenting. We granted certiorari because of the public importance of the questions involved.²

Among the petitioners are three corporations engaged principally in the business of salmon fishing, canning, and marketing. One of the companies owns canneries and other facilities at Karluk, Chignik, and Bristol Bay, Alaska. The other two companies operate only at Bristol Bay. Catching and canning salmon is a seasonal activity.³ The companies customarily hire workers at San Francisco at the beginning of the season, transport them to the Alaskan establishments, and return them to San Francisco at the season's end. Similar operations are carried on by other companies out of other west coast ports, notably Seattle and Portland. The individual respondents are all members of the Alaska Cannery Workers Union Local No. 5, and each worked in Alaska for one of the three companies during the 1939 season. Local No. 5 is the recognized bargaining agent of the cannery workers in the San Francisco area.

In 1939, as had been the practice for some years, the union entered into a written agreement with the companies covering in considerable detail the matters of wages, hours, conditions of employment, and the like. After the end of the 1939 season, the companies terminated the agreement then in effect, which made necessary the negotiation of a new contract for the 1940 season. Consequently, on March 6, 1940, the companies through their authorized agent, Alaska Salmon Industry, Inc., invited the union to enter into negotiations for a new agreement. In a series of meetings held shortly thereafter, serious disagreement appeared which quickly developed into an impasse on the question of wages. The union demanded wages equal to or in excess of those paid under the terms of the 1939 agreement. The companies offered wages which for the most part were below those paid in 1939. On April 1, 1940, the union caused the negotiations as to the wage issue to be transferred from San Francisco to Seattle where an attempt was being made to effect a coastwide agreement to cover all west coast companies carrying on salmon operations in Alaska. Local No. 5, however, refused to sign a 'memorandum' agreement incorporating such terms as might result from the concurrent Seattle negotiations.

On April 3, the companies notified the union that if operations were to be carried on in Karluk and Chignik during the 1940 season, an agreement with respect to the former would have to be reached by April 10 and with respect to the latter by April 12. Although negotiations proceeded up to the deadlines, the parties arrived at no understanding, and on April 22 Alaska Salmon Industry, Inc., formally announced that no operations would be carried on in Karluk and Chignik during 1940. Meetings continued, however, in an effort to come to an understanding with respect to Bristol Bay before the arrival of the May 3d deadline which had been set for those operations. Although federal mediators intervened in an attempt to d scover a suitable compromise, the deadline date passed without agreement. It appears that after May 3, negotiations continued in Seattle where a contract affecting only canners and workers operating out of ports other than San Francisco was finally executed on May 29. The companies and union which are involved in this case were specifically excluded from the terms of the 1940 Seattle agreement.

Shortly after May 3, the individual respondents filed claims for unemployment benefits with the Alaska Unem- ployment Compensation Commission. The Commission, acting through an examiner, held that respondents were disqualified from receiving payments for the statutory period of eight weeks under the provisions of § 5(d) of the Alaska law. At the time this case arose, that section stated in part: 'An individual shall be disqualified for benefits * * * (d) For any week with respect to which the Commission finds that his total or partial unemployment is due to a labor dispute which is in active progress at the factory, establishment or other premises at which he is or was last employed; provided, that such disqualification shall not exceed the 8 weeks immediately following the beginning of such dispute * * *'

In pursuance of the appeal provisions of the statute,⁴ respondents asked for a review of the examiner's determination. The Commission, in response to this application, appointed a Referee to pass on the disputed claims. The scope of the hearings was confined to the issue of whether the unemployment of the claimants was caused by the existence of a labor dispute. At the end of the proceedings, the Referee came to the conclusion that although there was a labor dispute in existence initially, the dispute was no longer 'in active progress' after the passing of the dates fixed by the companies for consummation of the working agreements. Consequently, the disqualification under § 5(d) with respect to each of the localities was held no longer to attach after the passage of the respective deadline dates.⁵

The Commission, on appeal,⁶ reversed the Referee's decision and held that within the meaning of the Alaska law, a labor dispute was in active progress throughout the entire eight week statutory period of disqualification beginning with the opening of the season in each locality. Consequently, no benefits were payable until the expiration of the disqualification period. The United States District Court affirmed the Commission's decision in all particulars. ⁷ The Circuit Court of Appeals, with one judge dissenting, reversed, however, on the ground that the labor dispute was not physically at the Alaska canneries where the individual respondents had been last employed.

We are met at the outset with the contention that the facts of this case do not present a 'labor dispute' within the meaning of § 5(d) of the Alaska Act. Respondents urge that the term must be narrowl construed to require a strike or leaving of employment which, in turn, calls for a presently-existing employment relation at the time the dispute arises.⁸ According to this view, the term would not cover a situation, such as presented here, where the controversy precedes the employment. Respondents would justify this restricted construction on the ground that the Unemployment Compensation Law is remedial legislation, and any provision limiting benefits under the Act should be narrowly interpreted.

The term 'labor dispute', is not defined in the statute. The term appears in the Act in one other connection, however. Section 5(c)(2)(A) provides that benefits under the Act will not be denied any individual, otherwise eligible, who refuses to accept new work 'if the position offered is vacant due directly to a strike, lockout, or other labor dispute.' The Social Security Act of 1935 ⁹ requires that the state or territorial law contain a provision to this effect before the legislation can be approved by the Social Security Board. Obviously, for the purposes of § 5(c)(2)(A), the term, 'labor dispute,' has a broader meaning than that attributed to it by respondents. Unless the Territorial Legislature intended to give a different meaning to the same language appearing in another subdivision of the same section, the term must be given a broader meaning than that contended for by the respondents, for the purposes of § 5(d) as well. We need not determine whether 'labor dispute' must in all cases be construed as broadly as it is defined in the Norris-LaGuardia Act,¹⁰ and the National Labor Relations Act.¹¹ But here there was full-scale controversy. Companies engaged in carrying on a seasonal business were ranged against a union representing seasonal workers who had been employed by the companies in the previous year. Dispute there certainly was; and the subject of that dispute consisted of matters usually contested in labor disputes as that term is normally understood.¹² Since we find nothing to indicate that the Territorial Legislature intended a contrary result, we conclude that the Commission might properly find a 'labor dispute' here presented within the meaning of § 5(d) of the Alaska Act.

We think that there is evidence in the record to support the Commission's conclusion that respondents' unemployment was 'due' to a labor dispute insofar as that holding relates to the individual respondents employed in 1939 by the Alaska Packers Association and the Red Salmon Canning Company. At the hearings before the Referee the respondents attempted to establish that the companies called off their 1940 operations for reasons other than their inability to negotiate a satisfactory labor agreement. It was argued, for example, that the companies feared a poor catch as a result of governmental restrictions on fishing applicable to the 1940 season. The evidence adduced before the Referee indicates that both of the above-mentioned companies made extensive preparations for the 1940 operations. In anticipation, equipment...