NLRB v. Laundry, etc., Drivers Local No. 928, 15947.

• Decision Date: 18 December 1958
• Docket Number: No. 15947.,15947.
• Citation: 262 F.2d 617
• Parties: NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, Petitioner, v. LAUNDRY, LINEN SUPPLY & DRY CLEANING DRIVERS LOCAL NO. 928, Affiliated With International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers of America, and Local No. 52, Laundry & Dry Cleaning Workers International, AFL-CIO, Respondents.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit

262 F.2d 617 (1958)

NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, Petitioner, v. LAUNDRY, LINEN SUPPLY & DRY CLEANING DRIVERS LOCAL NO. 928, Affiliated With International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers of America, and Local No. 52, Laundry & Dry Cleaning Workers International, AFL-CIO, Respondents.

No. 15947.

United States Court of Appeals Ninth Circuit.

December 18, 1958.

Jerome D. Fenton, Gen. Counsel, Thomas J. McDermott, Associate Gen. Counsel, Marcel Mallet-Prevost, Asst. Gen. Counsel, Frederick U. Reel, James A. Flynn, Attys., N. L. R. B., Washington, D. C., for petitioner.

Stevenson & Hackler, Charles K. Hackler, Herbert M. Ansell, Los Angeles, Cal., for respondents.

Before FEE, BARNES and JERTBERG, Circuit Judges.

BARNES, Circuit Judge.

This is a petition of the National Labor Relations Board for the enforcement of its order against the two respondent unions, under § 10(e) of the National Labor Relations Act, charging the unions with unfair labor practices. The Board had jurisdiction over the unions, and this Court has jurisdiction of the petition since the practices in question occurred in Long Beach, California. 61 Stat. 147, 29 U.S.C.A. § 160(e) (1952).

The Board found that respondents, by picketing customers of Southern Service Company, Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Southern), with the object of forcing the customers to cease doing business with Southern, induced and encouraged the employees of these customers, and the employees of suppliers to these customers, to engage in a strike or concerted refusal to work, in violation of § 8(b) (4) (A) of the Act. 61 Stat. 141, 29 U.S.C.A. § 158(b) (4) (A). These findings are based on facts which are for all practical purposes undisputed by either party.

Southern is a non-union laundry operating some 30 plants throughout California, including several in Long Beach. The unions have for many years tried unsuccessfully to organize Southern, and at the time of the picketing in question Southern was the only major non-union laundry remaining in Southern California. Southern's plants have not been picketed in recent years, but both unions admit that the company was still the main target of their organizational efforts. Both respondents at this time were members of a group called "Southern Service Organizing Committee," whose purpose is apparent from the name.

Failing in their attempts to organize Southern by appeals to the Southern employees, the unions tried a new approach. Many of Southern's customers were retail establishments like barber shops, beauty shops, hotels and restaurants. A union representative approached these establishments and asked them to cease doing business with Southern and to change to a union laundry and linen service. The unions warned the firms using Southern's service that if they continued to use Southern linens a picket line would be placed in front of their places of business.

Between August 13 and 18, 1956, while the state AFL-CIO convention was being held in Long Beach, the unions sent pickets to patrol outside various Long Beach restaurants. The sign carried by these pickets read:

"NOTICE TO THE PUBLIC This Establishment's Linens are Being Processed By a Non-Union Laundry"

The words at the top were changed to read "Notice to Patrons" after this litigation was initiated. The picketing stopped after August 18, but was resumed at a single restaurant on October 8, 1956 and was continuing at the time of the hearing. Although the picketing was largely confined to mealtimes, it continued at one restaurant all day. Deliveries of suppliers to these places occur all during the day so that some deliveries were made while the picketing was going on, during meal hours. At some of the restaurants the unions only picketed the customer's entrances and did not picket the delivery entrances; however, at three of them where the entrances were used by both the customers and deliverymen the unions picketed these entrances without regard to this fact. The pickets were instructed not to tell restaurant employees and deliverymen that they were free to cross picket lines, but on the contrary were told not to answer any inquiries, but to hand the inquirer a card with the telephone number of the union's representative.

Because of the picket lines there were four or five instances where deliverymen, members of various other unions, refused either entirely or for several hours or several days to make deliveries to the restaurants because they were under the mistaken impression that to do so would require them to cross a picket line and might subject them to a $100 fine from their own unions for such action. The picket lines crossed the place where the deliveries would have to be made so that the deliverymen refused to make such deliveries. At Madsen's restaurant a Carnation Dairy driver refused to make a delivery, and it was later made by the Carnation Company in a private car. Several of Madsen's suppliers called the firm and told them that they could not deliver because of the picket lines, although after checking with various unions on this point, deliveries later resumed. At one of the other restaurants, Grisinger's, similar events happened, and in fact the restaurant owner was forced to pick up the supplies himself because of this. Several suppliers called and told the Grisinger firm that they could not make deliveries because of the picket lines. At all three of the restaurants in question, the pickets definitely crossed the area where the deliveries would have to be made, albeit of necessity since this was also the customer entrance. The unions claim that the picketing was directed solely at customers of the restaurants and not the employees of the restaurants or their suppliers.

Apparently in all of the cases of refusal to deliver, the problem was ultimately straightened out by phone calls and conferences with various unions, and deliveries eventually were resumed. Also, aside from several cases where the restaurant employees questioned whether they could go to work, it likewise appears that none of the restaurant employees refused to work, or refused to cross the picket line.

Upon the foregoing facts the Board found that the unions' action of picketing entrances used by both customers and deliverymen, induced not only customers, but also employees of the restaurants and their suppliers, not to cross the picket line. The Board also found that such response constituted a concerted refusal to work within the meaning of § 8(b) (4) (A) of the Act. 61 Stat. 141, 29 U. S.C.A. § 158(b) (4) (A). As the admitted object of the picketing was proscribed by the Act — namely forcing the restaurants to stop doing business with Southern — the Board concluded that this action of the unions violated § 8(b) (4) (A).

Basically, the question here presented is whether the conduct of...