Englund v. Chavez

• Decision Date: 29 December 1972
• Docket Number: S.F. 22934--22941
• Citation: 105 Cal.Rptr. 521,8 Cal.3d 572
• Court: California Supreme Court
• Parties: , 504 P.2d 457, 82 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2180, 70 Lab.Cas. P 52,970 R. T. ENGLUND et al., Plaintiffs and Respondents, v. Cesar CHAVEZ et al., * Defendants and Appellants. L.A. 30046. In Bank

Page 521

105 Cal.Rptr. 521

8 Cal.3d 572, 504 P.2d 457, 82 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2180,

70 Lab.Cas. P 52,970

R. T. ENGLUND et al., Plaintiffs and Respondents, v. Cesar CHAVEZ et al., ^* Defendants and Appellants.

S.F. 22934--22941.

L.A. 30046.

Supreme Court of California,

In Bank.

Dec. 29, 1972.

Haight, Lyon & Smith, George C. Lyon and Harold H. Brown, Los Angeles, for plaintiffs and appellants.

Cohen, Denison, Carder & Engelhardt and William H. Carder, Salinas, for defendants and appellants and for defendants and respondents.

Abraham & Church, Pioda, Stave, Bryan, Ames & McInnis, Robert H. Ames, Noland, Hamerly, Etienne & Hoss and James D. Schwefel, Jr., Salinas, for plaintiffs and respondents.

BY THE COURT

The numerous actions consolidated before our court in the instant proceeding arose out of union organizational activities among agricultural field workers in California's Salinas and Santa Maria Valleys in the summer of 1970. Although the factual details of the resulting labor disputes in the two geographically distinct valleys vary in some respects, all of the cases present a common legal question as to the proper application of California's Jurisdictional Strike Act. The issue is whether an employer who grants exclusive bargaining status to a labor organization which he knows does not actually represent a substantial number of his workers may thereafter obtain injunctive relief against concerted activities of a competing union. The two superior courts which ruled on this question in the cases before us reached conflicting conclusions as to the availability of the Jurisdictional Strike Act remedy in this situation, and we granted a hearing to settle this novel and important question of state labor law.

For the reasons discussed more fully below, we have concluded that the Jurisdictional Strike Act (hereafter the Act) does not authorize injunctive relief under these circumstances. We shall point out that although the Act was generally intended to protect an employer caught between the conflicting demands of two competing unions, the Legislature, in drafting its provisions, was aware of the danger that an employer might attempt to convert the Act from a defensive shield against improper union rivalry into an affirmative weapon which could be utilized selectively to eliminate the less favored or more feared of the two competing unions. To preclude such a perversion of the Act's operation, the statutory provisions, building on the federal model, withhold the state's injunctive power whenever an employer has 'financed,' 'dominated,' 'controlled' or 'interfered with' either of the competing labor organizations.

In interpreting such language in the federal act, the federal courts have uniformly held that an employer's recognition of a minority union as the exclusive bargaining agent of his employees constitutes an improper 'interference with' a labor organization proscribed by federal law. In light of the similarity of the language and underlying policy of the state provision, we have determined that the Legislature intended an equivalent interpretation of the Jurisdictional Strike Act. We therefore conclude that in order to obtain relief under the Jurisdictional Strike Act an employer must maintain a strict neutrality between competing unions, and that he can resort to the Act after recognizing one union as the exclusive bargaining agent of his employees only if, at the time of recognition, he entertained a reasonable, good faith belief that such union was in fact the desired representative of his employees.

1. The facts of the instant proceeding.

The present consolidated proceeding encompasses 9 separate actions, commenced by more than 35 growers and shippers of agricultural products against the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee (hereafter UFWOC or Farm Workers) and several of UFWOC's individual officers, including Cesar Chavez. Eight of these actions, instituted by 27 growers from the Salinas Valley in the Superior Court of Monterey County, involve virtually identical facts and will hereafter be referred to collectively by the title of the lead case of this group, Englund v. Chavez. The ninth action, Furukawa Farms, Inc. v. Chavez, filed in the Superior Court of Santa Barbara County, arose out of union organizational activities in the Santa Maria Valley. Although the events in Santa Maria occurred contemporaneously with the Salinas Valley activities, the histories of the two labor disputes differ in several respects. We begin with a description of the Salinas Valley matter.

(a) The Englund v. Chavez cases.

The 27 Salinas Valley growers and shippers (hereafter Salinas Valley Growers or Growers) who instituted these actions are all members of the Grower-Shipper Vegetable Association of Central California (hereafter Vegetable Association), an organization certified as an appropriate multi-employer bargaining unit by the National Labor Relations Board. For many years the Western Conference of Teamsters (hereafter Teamsters) had represented the truck drivers and packing shed workers employed by each of the Salinas Valley Growers; prior to July 1970, however, the Teamsters had never represented any of the agricultural field workers of the 27 growers involved in this litigation.

The events which ultimately led to the instant lawsuits began in June and July 1970, while the Teamsters and Vegetable Association were renegotiating a truck drivers' contract which was to expire on July 15, 1970. According to the affidavits of William Grami, the Teamsters' bargaining representative, and Andrew Church, the Vegetable Association's bargaining representative, during the course of these negotiations over the truck drivers' contract, Grami indicated to Church that the Teamsters were additionally interested in negotiating exclusive industry-wide collective bargaining agreements covering all the field workers in, and beyond, the Salinas Valley. Grami's declaration explains that the Teamsters' interest in representing the field workers stemmed primarily from that union's representation of truck drivers and food processing workers, employees who would be adversely affected if the field workers went on strike; he related that 'the Teamsters intended to protect these members by protecting the flow of goods from growing through distribution.'

Although Grami's affidavit indicates that during the June and July negotiations he had cautioned the Salinas Valley Growers, in general terms, that the Teamsters 'would fight to take in the field workers,' both Grami and Church stated explicitly that neither the Teamsters nor the Growers considered the question of field workers' representation to be an issue which had to be resolved during the current truck drivers' contract talks. When the parties thereafter failed to reach an accommodation on the truck drivers' contract by July 15, the Teamsters struck--over the terms of the contract alone--and severely impaired the Salinas Valley Growers' conduct of their businesses. A week later, the Vegetable Association and the Teamsters reached an agreement on the terms of the truck drivers' contract, and the strike was terminated.

On July 23, 1970, at a general membership meeting of the Vegetable Association, the new truck drivers' contract was ratified by all of the Association members. According to the uncontradicted affidavit of Cal Watkins, the personnel manager at Inter Harvest, Inc. (a grower member of the Association) who attended the July 23d meeting, the Association members, after the completion of the ratification vote, discussed the question of Teamster representation of their field workers. The members decided to appoint a committee which was to approach the Teamsters to 'feel out' that union on the prospects of negotiating an agreement recognizing the Teamsters as the exclusive bargaining agent of the Growers' field workers. There is no suggestion in the record that the Growers, before taking such a step, attempted to ascertain whether their respective field workers desired to be represented by the Teamsters, or, indeed, that the question of their field workers' preference was even raised as a relevant consideration.

The Association committee which had been established to approach the Teamsters worked quickly. On the following day, July 24, 1970, at another general membership meeting of the Vegetable Association, the committee reported that the Teamsters had been contacted and were 'interested and receptive'; indeed, the committee informed the membership that any grower who wished could sign an immediate recognition agreement designating the Teamsters as the exclusive bargaining agent for all of his field workers. Each of the 27 Salinas Valley Growers involved in the instant litigation signed such an agreement that same day, on a form made available by the Teamsters. Once again, there is no indication that any thought was given to the possible wishes of the field workers whose interests were purportedly to be represented by the Teamsters.

The next day negotiations for formal contracts began between the Teamsters and the Growers. The Growers concede that during these negotiations the Teamsters did not claim to be authorized to represent any of their field workers; instead, they acknowledge that the union indicated only that it would thereafter assume responsibility for signing up the workers as Teamster members. ¹ Over the next week, the Teamsters and Growers proceeded to negotiate detailed contracts covering such specific subjects as wages, hours and other working conditions; although the field workers were the individuals who would primarily be affected by such provisions, these workers were never consulted during the negotiations and were never given an opportunity to examine the terms of the contracts or even to indicate whether they desired to be represented by the Teamsters. Nonetheless, by the end of July each of the 27 Salinas Valley Growers had executed...