Hotel Restaurant Employees International Alliance, Local No 122 v. Wisconsin Employment Relations Board 8212 12, 1942

Citation315 U.S. 437,62 S.Ct. 706,86 L.Ed. 946
Decision Date02 March 1942
Docket NumberNo. 124,124
PartiesHOTEL & RESTAURANT EMPLOYEES' INTERNATIONAL ALLIANCE, LOCAL NO. 122, et al. v. WISCONSIN EMPLOYMENT RELATIONS BOARD et al. Argued Jan. 9—12, 1942
CourtUnited States Supreme Court

Messrs. I. E. Goldberg and Joseph A. Padway, both of Milwaukee, Wis., for petitioners.

Messrs. N. S. Boardman, of Mineral Point, Wis., and Herman M. Knoeller, of Milwaukee, Wis., for respondents.

Mr. Justice FRANKFURTER delivered the opinion of the Court.

We brought this case here from the Supreme Court of Wisconsin, 314 U.S. 590, 62 S.Ct. 65, 86 L.Ed. —-, to canvass the claim that Wisconsin has forbidden the petitioners to engage in peaceful picketing insofar as we have deemed it an exercise of the right of free speech protected by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Thornhill v. Alabama, 310 U.S. 88, 60 S.Ct. 736, 84 L.Ed. 1093; American Federation of Labor v. Swing, 312 U.S. 321, 61 S.Ct. 568, 85 L.Ed. 855. The specific question for decision is the constitutional validity of an order made by the Wisconsin Employment Reltions Board acting under the Employment Peace Act, Wisconsin Laws of 1939, c. 57, St.1939, § 111.01 et seq. In deciding this question we are of course controlled by the construction placed by the Supreme Court of Wisconsin upon the order and the pertinent provisions of the Act.

These are the undisputed facts. In June 1938, the petitioners, various unions representing hotel and restaurant employees, made a closed shop agreement for a year with the respondent Plankinton House Company, which owned two hotels in Milwaukee. After negotiations between the parties for renewal of the contract failed, the dispute was submitted to arbitration. On October 30, 1939, the Company notified the unions of its willingness to sign a contract in accordance with the terms of the arbitration. Three days later the employees of both hotels went on strike. Members of the unions picketed the hotels, and the company continued to operate the hotels with new employees. Union pickets forcibly prevented the delivery of goods to one of the hotels. For this conduct two union officials were arrested and fined. One of them returned to the picket line immediately after his arrest, assaulted one of the non-striking employees, and was again arrested and fined. Numerous other outbreaks of violence resulted in the conviction of the offending pickets and occasioned special police measures to maintain the peace.

The Company complained to the Employment Relations Board that the petitioners had committed 'unfair labor practices'. After due hearing the Board made findings of fact, not challenged throughout these proceedings. Upon the basis of these findings the Board issued the order set forth in the margin.1

In accordance with the statutory provisions for judicial review, the petitioners applied to the Circuit Court of Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, to set aside the Board's order. The Board cross-petitioned for enforcement. The Circuit Court sustained the order, and an appeal was taken to the Supreme Court of Wisconsin which affirmed the judgment and, after further elucidating the meaning of the statute and the order, denied a rehearing. 236 Wis. 329, 352, 294 N.W. 632, 295 N.W. 634.

The Wisconsin statute underlying this controversy was enacted as a comprehensive code governing the relations between employers and employees in the state. Only a few of its many provisions are relevant here. Section 111.06 provides that it shall be 'an unfair labor practice' to 'co-operate in engaging in, promoting or inducing picketing, boycotting or any other overt concomitant of a strike unless a majority in a collective bargaining unit of the employes of an employer against whom such acts are primarily directed have voted by secret ballot to call a strike', and to 'hinder or prevent, by mass picketing, threats, intimidation, force or coercion of any kind the pursuit of any lawful work or employment, or to obstruct or interfere with entrance to or egress from any place of employment, or to obstruct or interfere with free and uninterrupted use of public roads, streets, highways, railways, airports, or other ways of travel or conveyance.' The Act contains a provision expressly dealing with its construction: 'Except as specifically provided in this chapter, nothing therein shall be construed so as to interfere with or impede or diminish in any way the right to strike or the right of individuals to work; nor shall anything in this chapter be so construed as to invade unlawfully the right to freedom of speech.' § 111.15.

The central attack against the order is that, as enforced by the Wisconsin courts, it enjoins peaceful picketing. Whether Wisconsin has denied the petitioners any rights under the federal Constitution is our ultimate responsibility. But precisely what restraints Wisconsin has imposed upon the petitioners is for the Wisconsin Supreme Court to determine. In its opinion in this case, and more particularly in its explanatory opinion denying a rehearing, the Court construed the relevant provisions of the Employment Peace Act and confined the scope of the challenged order to the limits of the construction which it gave them. That Court has of course the final say concerning the meaning of a Wisconsin law and the scope of administrative orders made under it. Aikens v. Wisconsin, 195 U.S. 194, 25 S.Ct. 3, 49 L.Ed. 154; Senn v. Tile...

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  • Commonwealth v. Nelson
    • United States
    • United States State Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
    • January 25, 1954
    ...Inc., 312 U.S. 287, 61 S.Ct. 552, 85 L.Ed. 836; Hotel & Restaurant Employees' International Alliance, etc. v. Wisconsin E. R. Bd., 315 U.S. 437, 62 S.Ct. 706, 86 L.Ed. 946; Carpenters & Joiners Union of America, Local No. 213 v. Ritter's Cafe, 315 U.S. 722, 62 S.Ct. 807, 86 L.Ed. 1143; Gibo......
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    ...736, 744, 745, 84 L.Ed. 1093; and see Hotel and Restaurant Employees' International Alliance, Local No. 122 v. Wisconsin Employment Relations Board, 315 U.S. 437, 62 S.Ct. 706, 86 L.Ed. 946. The substantial issue is whether Congress has protected the union conduct which the state has forbid......
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    • United States
    • United States Supreme Court
    • May 8, 1950
    ...552, 85 L.Ed. 836, 132 A.L.R. 1200; Hotel and Restaurant Employees' International Alliance, Local No. 122 v. Wisconsin Employment Relations Board, 315 U.S. 437, 62 S.Ct. 706, 86 L.Ed. 946; Carpenters & Joiners Union of America, Local No. 213 v. Ritter's Cafe, 315 U.S. 722, 62 S.Ct. 807, 86 ......
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    • March 30, 1955
    ...Alliance, Local No. 122 v. Wisconsin Employment Relations Board, 236 Wis. 329, 294 N.W. 632, 295 N.W. 634, affirmed 1942, 62 S.Ct. 706, 315 U.S. 437, 86 L.Ed. 946. We need not stop to inquire whether such a statute, much narrower in its terms than § 17 of the Oregon Act and carrying the mea......
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1 books & journal articles
  • The Fiction of the First Freedom
    • United States
    • Political Research Quarterly No. 6-2, June 1953
    • June 1, 1953
    ...American Federation of Labor v. Swing, 312 U.S. 321 (1941); Hotel and R.Employees Inter. Alliance v. Wisconsin Employee Relations Board, 315 U.S. 437 (1942); Carpentersand Joiners Union of America v. Ritter’s Cafe, 315 U.S. 722 (1942); Bakery and P. Drivers Helpers, I. B. T. v. Wohl, 315 U.......

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