Local 74, United Brotherhood of Carpenters Joiners of America of v. National Labor Relations Board

• Decision Date: 04 June 1951
• Docket Number: No. 85,85
• Parties: LOCAL 74, UNITED BROTHERHOOD OF CARPENTERS & JOINERS OF AMERICA, A. F. OF L. et al. v. NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

341 U.S. 707

71 S.Ct. 966

95 L.Ed. 1309

LOCAL 74, UNITED BROTHERHOOD OF CARPENTERS & JOINERS OF AMERICA, A. F. OF L. et al.

v NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD.

No. 85.

Argued Feb. 26, 1951.

Decided June 4, 1951.

Mr Charles H. Tuttle, New York City, for petitioners.

Mr. Mozart G. Ratner, Washington, D.C., for respondent.

Mr. Justice BURTON delivered the opinion of the Court.

This is a companion case to No. 393, National Labor Relations Board v. Denver Building and Construction Trades Council (the Denver case), 341 U.S. 675, 71 S.Ct. 943, and No. 108, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers v. National Labor Relations Board (the Greenwich case), 341 U.S. 694, 71 S.Ct. 954.

The principal question is whether, under for following circumstances, a union engaged in an unfair labor practice within the meaning of § 8(b)(4)(A) of the National Labor Relations Act, 49 Stat. 449, 29 U.S.C. § 151, 29 U.S.C.A. § 151, as amended by the Labor Management Relations Act, 1947:¹ On the day before the effective date of that amendment, the union ordered its members, who were working on a dwelling renovation project, to engage in a strike, where an object thereof was to force the owner of the dwelling to cancel a contract for the installation of wall and floor coverings; and then for several days, on and after the effective date of the amendment, the strike was continued under the same conditions which created it and for the same objective. For the reasons hereafter stated, we hold that an unfair labor practice was engaged in on and after the effective date of the amendment.

For some years before March, 1947, Ira A. Watson Company, a Rhode Island corporation (here called Watson's), operated a general retail store in Chattanooga, Tennessee, including a department for the sale and installation of wall and floor coverings. Since that time Watson's has operated a specialty store devoted to those activities. At about the same time, Local 74, United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, A.F. of L. (here called the union), and its business agent, Jack Henderson (respectively the petitioners in the instant case), asked Watson's to enter into a closed-shop agreement with the union recognizing it as the bargaining agent of Watson's installation employees. None of its employees were members of the union and Watson's declined to enter the agreement. Thereupon, from the latter part of March until about August 28, 1947, petitioners maintained a picket in front of Watson's store carrying a placard. This announced, over the name of the union, that Watson's was 'unfair to organized labor' or later 'This store employs non-union labor.' Watson's sometimes sold wall or floor coverings without installing them and, at other times, it insisted upon installing such coverings as a condition of their sale. When the installations were made by Watson's, the work was done by nonunion men.

August 7, 1947, George D. Stanley, who owned a dwelling near Chattanooga, contracted with D. F. Parker to improve and renovate it. Parker was to furnish and supervise the workmen and select the materials. Stanley was to pay the wages of the workmen, the cost of the materials, and a ten per cent commission to Parker on both. Parker was a member of the union and he hired union members to do the carpentry work. If the wall and floor coverings desired by Stanley had been available in Chattanooga elsewhere than at Watson's, Parker would have purchased them from such source and would have employed union men to install them. However, neither Parker nor Stanley could find such coverings in Chattanooga except at Watson's and Watson's insisted on installing them as a condition of their sale. Although knowing that Watson's would use nonunion men to make the installations, Stanley, with Parker's implied consent, contracted with Watson's for the purchase and installation of the coverings. Watson's began its installation Sunday, August 17, when there were no other workmen present. Monday and Tuesday, apparently with Parker's approval, the installation continued during regular working hours. Wednesday, two of the union carpenters stopped work for half an hour because of the presence on the job of the nonunion installation workers. Parker, however, induced the carpenters to resume work. This situation came to the attention of the union and, on Thursday, August 21, Henderson came to the project and told the four union carpenters who were working there that they could not continue to work with nonunion men or where nonunion men were employed. At that hour, none of Watson's men were present but the installation of coverings contracted for by Stanley with Watson's had not been completed. The union men finished their day's work but, in compliance with the instructions thus issued by petitioners, did not return on the following days. Watson's men returned and completed their work by August 28, and the entire renovation was finished by the end of August. The unfinished carpentry work was done by two of the four union men who had been on the job and who returned without the knowledge or consent of petitioners. On August 22, 1947, § 8(b)(4)(A) took effect.²

Watson's promptly filed a charge with the National Labor Relations Board based upon the continuance of the above strike by petitioners on and after August 22. The Regional Director issued a complaint charging the union and Henderson with engaging in an unfair labor practice as defined in § 8(b)(4)(A).³ Pursuant to § 10(l),⁴ the Regional Director petitioned the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee for injunctive relief. This relief was denied on the ground that the conduct complained of took place before August 22 and was at that time lawful. Styles v. Local 74, United Brotherhood of Carpenters, D.C., 74 F.Supp. 499.

After hearings before an examiner, the Board, with one member dissenting, affirmed the rulings of its examiner, attached his intermediate report to its decision, 80 N.L.R.B. 533, 540, and adopted his findings, conclusions and recommendations with additions and modifications. It ordered the union and Henderson to 'Cease and desist from engaging in or inducing the members of Local 74 to engage in a strike or a concerted refusal in the course of their employment to perform services for any employer, where an object thereof is to require any employer or other person to cease doing business with Ira A. Watson, doing business as Watson's Specialty Store.' Id., at 539.

The dissent was on the ground that the effect of the actions complained of upon interstate commerce was so remote and insubstantial and the controversy was so local in character that it was undesirable for the Board to exercise federal power in relation to it. Id., at 540. On a review under § 10(e),⁵ the Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ordered enforcement of the order. 181 F.2d 126. We granted certiorari. 340 U.S. 902, 71 S.Ct. 277. See National Labor Relations Board v. Denver Building and Construction Trades Council, 341 U.S. 682, 683, 71 S.Ct. 948.

1. Petitioners contest the jurisdiction of the Board on the ground of the insufficiency of the effect of the actions complained of upon interstate commerce. We conclude that the findings in the intermediate report, adopted by the Board and accepted by the court below, are sufficient to sustain the Board's jurisdiction. Denver case, 341 U.S. 683—687, 71 S.Ct. 949, 950. From March to September, 1947, Watson's purchased about $93,000 worth of goods. Thirty-three percent was shipped to it in interstate business. Thirty percent more had been manufactured outside of Tennessee. Watson's sales and installation jobs came to about $100,000 of which eight percent represented sales and installations outside of the State. The Board also referred to the fact that Watson's operated a system of 26 or 27 retail stores in seven different states, of which the Chattanooga store apparently was an integral part.

2. The complaint was not against the picketing at Watson's store from March to August 28, 1947. See National Labor Relations Board v. International Rice Milling Co., 341 U.S. 665, 71 S.Ct. 961. The complaint was directed against petitioners' extension of their activities to the Stanley project by there ordering a strike, or concerted cessation of work, on the part of Stanley's union carpenters⁶ with an object of forcing Stanley to cancel his installation contract with Watson's. Section 8(c)⁷ is not applicable. This strike was ordered by Henderson in person. The union and he both engaged in and ordered the strike. The carpenters as individual employees are not charged with an unfair labor practice. The charge is confined to the actions of the labor organization and its agent in engaging in, ordering and continuing a strike for a proscribed object after Congress had made such conduct an unfair labor practice.

3. As determined in the Denver case, it is enough that one of the objects of the action complained of was to force Stanley to cancel Watson's contract. It does not immunize such action from § 8(b)(4)(A) to show that it also had as an object the enforcement of a rule of the union that its members should not work on a project on which nonunion men were employed.⁸ The statute did not require the individual carpenters to remain on this job. It did, however, make it an unfair labor practice for the union or its agent to engage in a strike, as they did here, when an object of doing so was to force the project owner to cancel his...