LeBaron v. Printing Specialties and Paper Con. Un.

• Decision Date: 03 February 1948
• Docket Number: No. 7859.,7859.
• Citation: 75 F. Supp. 678
• Court: U.S. District Court — Southern District of California
• Parties: LEBARON v. PRINTING SPECIALTIES AND PAPER CONVERTERS UNION, LOCAL 388, AFL, et al.

75 F. Supp. 678

LEBARON v. PRINTING SPECIALTIES AND PAPER CONVERTERS UNION, LOCAL 388, AFL, et al.

No. 7859.

District Court, S. D. California, Central Division.

February 3, 1948.

Robert N. Denham, General Counsel. David P. Findling, Associate General Counsel, and Winthrop A. Johns, all of Washington, D.C., George H. O'Brien, of Los Angeles, Cal., and Dominick Manoli, of Washington, D. C., for National Labor Relations Board, Twenty-First Region.

Robert W. Gilbert, of Los Angeles, Cal., Clarence E. Todd, of San Francisco, Cal., and Allan L. Sapiro, of Los Angeles, Cal., for respondents.

McCORMICK, District Judge.

Sealright Pacific Ltd., manufacturers of paper milk bottle caps and closures and sanitary food containers (hereinafter called Sealright), under the authority of Section 10(b) of the National Labor Relations Act, as amended by § 101 of the Labor-Management Relations Act, 1947, 29 U.S.C.A. § 160(b) (hereinafter referred to as the Act), filed with the National Labor Relations Board (hereinafter called the Board) a charge that Printing Specialties and Paper Converters Union, Local 388, A.F.L. (hereinafter called the Union), had engaged in "unfair labor practices" within the meaning of Section 8(b), subsection 4(A) of the Act, 29 U.S.C.A. § 158(b) (4) (A), affecting commerce within the terms of Section 2(6) and (7) of the Act, 29 U.S.C.A. § 152 (6, 7).

The charge was duly referred to the Regional Director of the Board for investigation.

Howard F. LeBaron, the accredited and designated officer of the Board, has officially investigated such charge and as the result of his preliminary investigation he avers in a petition pending before the court his belief in the verity of the charge preferred by Sealright and he asseverates that a complaint based upon such charge should issue against the Union and its secretary-treasurer.

In line with the expressed Congressional purpose and policy of the amendment to the National Labor Relations Act as legislatively declared in Section 1(b) of the Act and conformable to the rewritten Findings stated in the Act, Title 29 U.S.C.A. § 151(b), and as required by the terms of Section 10(l) thereof, the accredited Regional Director, upon his supplementary factual ascertainment on behalf of the Board, petitions this court for appropriate injunctive relief against the Union and its above named officer pending final adjudication of the charge of Sealright against the Union.

In his verified petition the investigating Regional Director specifies as the basis and reason for his belief that injunctive process of this court is necessary as an aid and co-operative instrumentality to the Board during its consideration, and until its decision in the matter of Sealright's charge of unfair labor practices by the Union, the following factual situation concomitant to the dispute between Sealright and the Union:

"(a) Sealright Pacific Ltd. is a corporation organized under and existing by virtue of the laws of the State of California. Its principal office and place of business is located at 1577 Rio Vista Avenue, Los Angeles, California, where it is engaged in the manufacture, sale and distribution of paper food containers and milk bottle caps. In the course and conduct of its business, it purchases and causes to be transported to its Los Angeles plant from points outside the State of California, paper, steel, shipping cases, etc., all valued at an excess of $1,000,000.00 annually. Its finished products comprising milk bottle caps, milk bottle closures and food containers, are valued at an excess of $1,000,000.00 annually and more than 50 per cent of such products are shipped outside the State of California.

"(b) Los Angeles Seattle Motor Express, Inc., (hereinafter called L. A. Seattle), 1147 Staunton Avenue, Los Angeles, is a common carrier operating motor trucks between Los Angeles and points in the Pacific Northwest. It has carried Sealright's products for a number of years.

"(c) On November 13, 1947, respondent Walter J. Turner (vice-president) of Local 388, advised L. A. Seattle that if it continued to handle Sealright's products, L. A. Seattle would be picketed by Local 388.

"(d) On about November 14, 1947, representatives of Local 388 followed two trucks loaded with Sealright's products to the L. A. Seattle terminal where by forming a picket line around the two trucks containing the products of Sealright and telling the employees that the trucks contained `hot cargo' and not to `handle it,' induced and encouraged the employees of L. A. Seattle, by orders, force, threats, or promises of benefits, not to transport or handle the goods of Sealright. After November 14, 1947, as a result of the above conduct of Local 388 the employees of L. A. Seattle refused to transport or handle the goods of Sealright. Local 388 engaged in the foregoing conduct to force or require L. A. Seattle to cease handling or transporting the products of Sealright.

"(e) West Coast Terminals Co., (hereinafter called West Coast) is a public wharfinger with its docks and wharves located on Pier A, Berths 2 and 3, Terminal Island, Long Beach (2), California. On or prior to November 17, 1947, West Coast received from Panama Pacific Lines Vessel S.S. Green Bay Victory, a consignment of rolls of paper destined for Sealright's Los Angeles plant.

"(f) On November 17, 1947, while employees of West Coast were engaged in loading the rolls of paper onto freight cars consigned to Sealright in Los Angeles, a group of pickets representing Local 388 appeared at the docks of West Coast and, by forming a picket line around the freight cars being loaded with the rolls of paper for Sealright, induced and encouraged the employees of West Coast, by orders, force, threats, or promises of benefits, not to handle or work on the paper consigned to Sealright. Since November 17, 1947, as a result of the above conduct of Local 388 and the continued picketing by Local 388 of the docks of West Coast, the employees of West Coast have refused to handle or work on the goods consigned to Sealright. Local 388 engaged in the foregoing conduct in order to force or require West Coast to cease handling or transporting the products of Sealright."

Upon motion of George H. O'Brien, Esq., one of the accredited attorneys of the Board, an order to show cause has been issued directed to the Union and to Mr. Walter J. Turner, an officer thereof, requiring the showing of cause herein by them why pending final adjudication by the Board with respect to the matter of the accused unfair labor practices they should not be enjoined and restrained from continuing such activities.

Both respondents duly appeared on the return day of the order to show cause and through their attorneys, Messrs. Gilbert, Todd and Sapiro, they interposed a motion to dismiss the Board's petition for injunction upon jurisdictional grounds that the invoked sections 8(b), (4), (A) and 10(l) are violative of Amendments I, V and XIII of the Constitution of the United States.

In support of the motion the respondents filed simultaneously therewith an affidavit of Mr. Turner, recounting various steps that have occurred in a labor dispute relating to wage rates and holiday pay between the Union as the collective bargaining agency of the production employees of the Los Angeles plant of Sealright and such corporation which he avers culminated in a strike of 67 of the approximately 70 production workers in such local plant of Sealright on November 3, 1947.

The only variance between the factual situation ascertained by the Regional Director of the Board and specified in his verified petition and that attested in the affidavit of Mr. Turner is his statement that the picketing at each of the described locales was "peaceful."

While, in conformity to the rule enunciated by the Supreme Court in Hecht Co. v. Bowles, Adm'r, 321 U.S. 321, 329, 64 S.Ct. 587, 88 L.Ed. 754, we have given appropriate consideration to all of the evidential material before the court, we have concluded that under the unequivocal procedural mandates incorporated in the Act, a finding should be made, and is accordingly made, in this proceeding of the existence of "reasonable cause" for the Regional Director's belief that an "unfair labor practice" as defined in Section 8(b), (4), (A), has occurred.

Therefore it seems clear that the specific injunctive processes expressly conferred upon this court by Section 10(l) of the Act become operable upon the credible petition of the administrative agency as provided in the Act, unless some constitutional limitation supervenes to forestall the restrictive restraint which the Act provides for the situation before us in this matter. Switchmen's Union v. National Mediation Board, 320 U.S. 297, 64 S.Ct. 95, 88 L.Ed. 61; Endicott Johnson Corp. v. Perkins, 317 U.S. 501, 510, 63 S.Ct. 339, 87 L.Ed. 424; United States v. San Francisco, 310 U.S. 16, at pages 30, 31, 60 S.Ct. 749, 84 L.Ed. 1050; Securities & Exchange Comm. v. Torr et al., 2 Cir., 87 F.2d 446; Otis & Co. v. Securities & Exchange Comm., 6 Cir., 106 F.2d 579, at page 583; Walling, Adm'r, v. T. Buettner & Co., 7 Cir., 133 F.2d 306; Henderson, Adm'r, etc. v. Burd et al., ...