Cuneo v. LOCAL 472, ETC.

• Decision Date: 30 March 1959
• Docket Number: Civ. No. 14-59.
• Citation: 175 F. Supp. 131
• Parties: John J. CUNEO, Regional Director of the Twenty-second Region of the National Labor Relations Board, for and on behalf of the National Labor Relations Board, Petitioner, v. LOCAL 472, INTERNATIONAL HOD CARRIERS' BUILDING AND COMMON LABORERS' UNION OF AMERICA, AFL-CIO; Local 147, Compressed & Free Air, Foundations, Tunnels, Caissons, Subways, Cofferdams, Sewer Construction Workers of New York and New Jersey States and Vicinity, affiliated with International Hod Carriers, Building and Common Laborers' Union of America, AFL-CIO; Local 825, International Union of Operating Engineers AFL-CIO; and Local 11, International Association of Bridge, Structural and Ornamental Iron Workers, AFL-CIO, Respondents.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of New Jersey

175 F. Supp. 131

John J. CUNEO, Regional Director of the Twenty-second Region of the National Labor Relations Board, for and on behalf of the National Labor Relations Board, Petitioner, v. LOCAL 472, INTERNATIONAL HOD CARRIERS' BUILDING AND COMMON LABORERS' UNION OF AMERICA, AFL-CIO; Local 147, Compressed & Free Air, Foundations, Tunnels, Caissons, Subways, Cofferdams, Sewer Construction Workers of New York and New Jersey States and Vicinity, affiliated with International Hod Carriers, Building and Common Laborers' Union of America, AFL-CIO; Local 825, International Union of Operating Engineers AFL-CIO; and Local 11, International Association of Bridge, Structural and Ornamental Iron Workers, AFL-CIO, Respondents.

Civ. No. 14-59.

United States District Court D. New Jersey.

March 30, 1959.

Alvin Lieberman, Washington, D. C., for petitioner, William J. Davis, Newark, N. J., Charles B. Slaughter, Washington, D. C., of counsel.

Andrew F. Zazzali, Newark, N. J., for Locals 472 and 11.

Michael Breitkopf, Newark, N. J., for Local 825, John J. Mooney, of the New York Bar, of counsel.

FORMAN, Chief Judge.

This petition is filed by the Regional Director of the Twenty-second Region of the National Labor Relations Board, for and on behalf of that Board, pursuant to Section 10 (l) of the National Labor Relations Act.¹ Petitioner seeks a temporary injunction to restrain the commission of certain acts alleged to be violations of Section 8(b) (4) (D) of the Act,² pending the Board's adjudication of a dispute presently before it. That section provides that:

"(b) It shall be an unfair labor practice for a labor organization or its agents—

* * *

"(4) to engage in, or to induce or encourage the employees of any employer to engage in, a strike or a concerted refusal in the course of their employment to use, manufacture, process, transport, or otherwise handle or work on any goods, articles, materials, or commodities or to perform any services, where an object thereof is: * * *

(D) forcing or requiring any employer to assign particular work to employees in a particular labor organization or in a particular trade, craft, or class rather than to employees in another labor organization or in another trade, craft, or class, unless such employer is failing to conform to an order or certification of the Board determining the bargaining representative for employees performing such work: Provided, That nothing contained in this subsection shall be construed to make unlawful a refusal by any person to enter upon the premises of any employer (other than his own employer), if the employees of such employer are engaged in a strike ratified or approved by a representative of such employees whom such employer is required to recognize under this subchapter; * * *"

The petition names as respondents Local 472, International Hod Carriers' Building and Common Laborers' Union of America, AFL-CIO (hereinafter called Laborers); Local 147, Compressed Free Air, Foundations, Tunnels, Caissons, Subways, Cofferdams, Sewer Construction Workers of New York and New Jersey States and Vicinity affiliated with International Hod Carriers, Building and Common Laborers' Union of America, AFL-CIO (Sandhogs); Local 825, International Union of Operating Engineers AFL-CIO (Engineers); and Local 11, International Association of Bridge, Structural and Ornamental Iron Workers, AFL-CIO (Iron Workers).

The alleged violations are picketing of the Ernest Renda Contracting Co., Inc., the charging employer, and its subcontractors, the D. J. O'Connor Construction Co. and Renda-Pillon Construction Co., Inc., at various job sites, all within New Jersey.

Local 147, the Sandhogs, did not file an answer to the petition, nor did it appear at the hearing, at which the evidence adduced was substantially as follows:

In April 1958 the Somerset-Raritan Sewerage Authority awarded a contract for the construction of an interceptor sewer to serve the Boroughs of Somerville and Raritan and the Township of Bridgewater, all located within New Jersey, to the Ernest Renda Contracting Co., Inc. That contract exceeds $800,000. Mr. E. Renda testified that he did over $550,000 and $438,000 worth of business outside of New Jersey in 1958 and 1959 respectively and that in 1959 $100,000 worth of material came from outside this state for use on New Jersey jobs. He subcontracted the tunnel work to the D. J. O'Connor Construction Co. and the meter and siphon work to the Renda-Pillon Construction Co., Inc., and all other work was apparently reserved to the Renda Co.

In June 1958, the Renda Co. began its work. The following month Mr. E. Renda was visited at his offices in Bound Brook, New Jersey, by Mr. William A. Smith who represented the Engineers, accompanied by Mr. Lenny Massi of the Laborers, whom he testified he had happened to meet while on the way to see Mr. Renda. Mr. Smith testified that he told Mr. Renda that he "would like to organize his job" to which Mr. Renda replied, "When I want you fellows, I'll call you. Out." Mr. Renda testified that Messrs. Smith and Massi said that "They want to get me straightened out. You never going to get the job finished if you don't get the job straightened out." To these statements Mr. Renda stated that he replied, "We don't need men. I got enough men on the job." However the conversation ended, it was the last time that Mr. Renda saw either Mr. Smith or Mr. Massi.

Mr. Robert Wallace representing the Iron Workers called upon Mr. Renda prior to June 1958, according to his testimony, at the Raritan Disposal Plant, one of several job sites. Mr. Wallace stated that at that time he "asked Mr. Renda if he intended to do the job himself or let it out on subcontract * * and left him his business card."³ According to Mr. Renda this meeting took place in September 1958 and Mr. Wallace said, "You got some iron work in the meter chambers, you got some iron work, and I like to put some of my men." sic. In answer to this Mr. Renda stated according to his testimony that he did not know whether he was "going to do the job or subcontract it out."

On November 24, 1958, Mr. Wallace, accompanied by Mr. Larry Ventura of the Laborers Union met Mr. E. Renda at the Raritan Disposal Plant. At that meeting Mr. Wallace testified that he "talked * * * about soliciting Mr. E. Renda's men, to unionize them." Mr. Wallace further testified that Mr. Renda said that "he wasn't going to do it." Mr. Renda, however, testified that Mr. Ventura did all the talking and said "We'd like to see you get yourself straightened out in this job * * * We'd like to see some of my boys get to work. We've got a lot of men out of work now * * * Pickets off the job when you get yourself straightened out."

On the same day a conversation was held at the same site between Messrs. Wallace and Ventura and Mr. Oscar Renda of the Renda-Pillon Co., Inc. Mr. Wallace stated that he "talked to Mr. Oscar Renda about organizing the men on the job. He Mr. Oscar Renda said the job was too small, and he didn't want anything to do with the unions."

According to Mr. Oscar Renda, Mr. Ventura said "he would like to have us put some of his men to work, and I said, well, we only have three or four men working on this job. There is only myself and three more employees, that we wouldn't need anybody else. Then Mr. Wallace replied if we couldn't use a couple of his iron workers to tie the iron for us, and I also replied that it was such a small amount of iron that we didn't think we could use anybody. We could do it ourselves, and that was the whole course of the conversation, and they said goodbye, and they left."

Picketing began in mid-November at the tunnel site on Route 206 where the D. J. O'Connor Co. had begun its work in mid-October 1958. Initially, according to Mr. F. J. Fella, who is chief engineer for the Renda Co., the pickets represented only the Sandhogs, but within a few days both the Laborers and the Engineers had their representatives there as well. Mr. O'Connor and Mr. E. Renda corroborated this in their testimony, although a representative of the Laborers, Mr. Andrew J. Putek, testified that his union never picketed the O'Connor job. On November 24, according to Mr. Fella, all the respondents were picketing the sewage disposal plants in Somerville and Raritan at the junction of Route 7 and the Raritan River. Mr. Fella further testified that on January 3, 1959, picketing was being conducted in Hillsboro Township, about two miles from the Raritan River; on January 4, at the heliport in Somerville; on January 9, on the Old York Road; and on January 13, by the Laborers and Engineers at the home offices of the Renda Co. on Route 22 in Bound Brook, New Jersey. Mr. Fella did not assert who conducted the picketing on January 3, 4 and 9.

Mr. O. Renda testified that picketing was carried on at the Raritan Disposal Plant on November 24, 1958, by the Laborers and Iron Workers.

Mr. Wallace testified that the Iron Workers only picketed Renda-Pillon and specifically denied that that union had picketed the Renda Co.

Mr. Smith stated that the Engineers picketed the Renda Co. at the Raritan Disposal Plant on about November 25.

Again, according to Mr. Fella, the signs carried by the pickets bore the legend, "E. Renda Unfair to Local as applicable CIO, AFofL," "E. Renda and O. Renda Unfair," and "Renda-Pillon Unfair."

Picketing at one or more places has gone on up to and including the date of the hearing herein but it has been peaceful and, except for some name calling, without event. Saving the D. J. O'Connor Co., no employees have resigned or quit their jobs. And in that case the employees were members of the Sandhogs which union did not appear at the hearing as noted earlier.

Prior to the picketing all material was delivered by the suppliers. Since the picketing, however, the drivers of American-Marietta Company, a supplier of pipe, and the concrete supplier, not otherwise identified, have refused to cross the...