Boyer v. Western Union Tel. Co.

• Decision Date: 17 August 1903
• Docket Number: 4,851.
• Citation: 124 F. 246
• Parties: BOYER et al. v. WESTERN UNION TEL. CO.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Missouri

124 F. 246

BOYER et al. v. WESTERN UNION TEL. CO.

No. 4,851.

United States Circuit Court, E.D. Missouri, Eastern Division.

August 17, 1903

E Douglas Andrews, for complainants.

Dickson Smith & Dickson, for defendant.

ROGERS District Judge.

The plaintiffs named in the bill, for themselves and for others whom they describe as the 'remaining members of Local Lodge No. 3, of St. Louis, of the Commercial Telegraphers' Union of America,' filed this bill in equity and ask for an injunction. Its prayer is as follows:

'Forasmuch therefore, as your orators have no adequate remedy in the premises except in equity, and to that end that the defendant, the Western Union Telegraph Company, may, if it can, show why your orators should not have the relief hereby prayed, and may, according to its best knowledge, information, and belief, be required to make full, true, direct, and satisfactory answer to the premises and to all the several matters hereinbefore stated and charged, as fully and particularly as if severally and separately interrogated as to each and every of said matters, but not under oath, the answer under oath being hereby expressly waived; that said defendant may be required to produce before the court on the hearing of this cause all papers, orders, and correspondence to and from said defendant and its officers and agents, or any of them, or either of them, to the other, or within their possession or control, or the possession or control of any of them, relating to any of the matters hereinbefore alleged, or leading up to the same, for 12 months last past, making full and explicit discovery and disclosure of all the matters aforesaid, according to the best and utmost of their knowledge, remembrance, and information and belief; that the hearing may be upon and touching matters of this bill of complaint alleged and charged; and that the said defendant, the Western Union Telegraph Company, its officers and agents, L. N. Boone, R. H. Bohle, and G. J. Frankel, individually and as representatives of said defendant, together with their representatives, clerks, agents, and all others who may be aiding and abetting them or either of them, may be restrained and prohibited by the order and injunction of this honorable court from discharging said employes without sufficient cause, and from in any manner coercing, persuading, inducing, or otherwise directly or indirectly preventing any of defendant's employes or other persons from joining and becoming members of said Commercial Telegraphers' Union of America, and from Lodge No. 3 of the Commercial Telegraphers' Union of America, upon said blacklist, and from maintaining said blacklist, and from in any manner interfering, directly or indirectly, with your orators or either of them, or any of said other persons hereinbefore mentioned, from obtaining employment as telegraph operators in the city of St. Louis or elsewhere, and from ordering, coercing, persuading, inducing, or influencing, directly or indirectly, any of defendant's employes or other persons from becoming members of the Commercial Telegraphers' Union of America until the further order of this court, and that upon such final hearing of this cause said order and injunction may be made perpetual, and your orators may have such other and further relief in the premises as equity may require or may seem proper, and for costs.'

A careful examination of the bill shows that the gist of it is this: That the defendant, having become aware that plaintiffs had become members of an organization known as the Commercial Telegraphers' Union of America, immediately discharged them, without notice or other cause; that 'the defendant, its officers and agents, have unlawfully combined and confederated together to destroy the said union, and intend discharging all the members of said Union from the services of the defendant, * * * and by threats, intimidation, and coercion, and otherwise, are interfering with your orators and with others of their employes for uniting with the Commercial Telegraphers' Union of America, and are seeking to prevent those discharged from obtaining employment as telegraph operators'; that defendant 'has established and maintained what is commonly known as a 'blacklist.' It is a list of persons who have been in their employ and who have been discharged by the defendant, on which are placed from time to time the names of persons incurring the displeasure of the defendant company, and its officers and chief operators; and the defendant, by methods which are not fully known to your orators, and which cannot be fully set forth herein, prevents persons whose names are on said blacklist from again obtaining employment as telegraph operators; that your orators' names have been placed on said blacklist solely because they have become members of the Commercial Telegraphers' Union of America, and it is the intention of the defendant * * * for the same reason to discharge from the employ and place upon said blacklist the names of several hundred other persons who are members of the Local Lodge No. 3 of the Commercial Telegraphers' Union of America, and thereby debar these your orators and said other persons * * * from obtaining employment at their respective locations as telegraph operators,' etc.

The first cause of complaint is that plaintiffs have been discharged without notice from the service of the defendant for no other cause than that they joined that union. But the answer to that complaint is that in a free country like ours every employe, in the absence of contractual...