Portland Web Pressmen's Union v. Oregonian Pub. Co.

• Decision Date: 14 April 1960
• Docket Number: Civ. No. 60-17.
• Citation: 188 F. Supp. 859
• Parties: PORTLAND WEB PRESSMEN'S UNION LOCAL NO. 17, an unincorporated association, Plaintiff, v. OREGONIAN PUBLISHING COMPANY and Journal Publishing Company, corporations, and each of them, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Oregon

188 F. Supp. 859

PORTLAND WEB PRESSMEN'S UNION LOCAL NO. 17, an unincorporated association, Plaintiff, v. OREGONIAN PUBLISHING COMPANY and Journal Publishing Company, corporations, and each of them, Defendants.

Civ. No. 60-17.

United States District Court D. Oregon.

April 14, 1960.

Clifford D. O'Brien, Portland, Or., for plaintiff.

Manley B. Strayer, James P. Rogers, Hart, Rockwood, Davies, Biggs & Strayer, William F. Lubersky, Koerner, Young, McColloch & Dezendorf, John J. Higgins, III, Milton C. Lankton and Black, Kendall & Tremaine, Portland, Or., for defendants.

KILKENNY, District Judge.

Defendants move to dismiss plaintiff's complaint and this action on the grounds that the court lacks jurisdiction over the subject matter and that the complaint fails to state a claim upon which relief can be granted.

Plaintiff is an unincorporated association of individuals, with its principal office and place of business in Portland, Oregon. It is a labor organization, with a membership of approximately 150 individuals, and represents those persons in an industry effecting commerce as defined in the Labor Management Relations Act of 1947. Defendants are corporations organized under the laws of the State of Oregon engaged in the publication of daily newspapers in Portland. Defendants utilize substantial amounts of raw materials imported by them into the State of Oregon from other states in the union. They distribute their newspapers and other products in the states of California, Idaho, Washington and others. Such activities of defendants affect "commerce" within the meaning of the word as defined by the Labor Management Relations Act of 1947.

Approximately 120 members of plaintiff were employed as pressroom employees of one or the other of defendants, or both. The employees performed services in the production of newspapers for defendants. The plaintiff was the exclusive representative of the employees of each of defendants for purposes of collective bargaining with respect to wages, hours of work and other conditions of employment.

Effective January 1, 1958, plaintiff and defendants entered into a collective bargaining agreement governing wages, hours and working conditions of the pressroom employees of defendants, and each of them, said contract to expire on the 31st day of December, 1959. Under appropriate provisions of the agreement the parties commenced negotiations on September 28, 1959, for a new agreement and such negotiations continued until November 10, 1959, and thereafter as hereinafter recited. On November 10, 1959, Stereotypers Local Union No. 48 and the members thereof commenced a strike against each of defendants, and placed picket lines at the newspaper publishing plants of each of defendants, which picket lines have been continuously maintained by said union, and the members thereof, from the 10th day of November, 1959, to date. In said strike the said Stereotypers Union, and the members thereof, are making certain contentions. Plaintiff at all times after November 10, 1959, and until January 2, 1960, "unequivocally advised its members of its and their obligation not to strike and not to engage in work stoppages while the contract between the plaintiff and defendants remained in effect."

Notwithstanding such unequivocal advice, the individual members of the plaintiff who were and are pressroom employees of each of defendants declined to cross the picket lines maintained by the members of the Stereotypers Union and declined to report for or to perform their work in the production of the defendants' newspapers from and after the 10th day of November, 1959, until the 2nd day of January, 1960, and the said individual members of plaintiff union previously employed by defendants at the time of the commencement of said strike continued to refuse to cross such picket lines and refused to work for defendants in defendants' plants behind such picket lines. From November 18, 1959, to the filing of the complaint, no representative of either of the defendants called or requested a meeting for the purpose of conducting further negotiations with reference to the terms of a new agreement to supplant or supersede the agreement which expired on the 2nd day of January, 1960. On December 27, 1959, the plaintiff addressed a communication to each of defendants advising of the fact that the old contract would expire on December 31, 1959, and demanding a meeting of representatives for the purpose of negotiating a new contract. On December 28, 1959, defendants directed a letter to plaintiff as follows:

"* * * On November 10, 1959, the Stereotypers' Union started a strike against the Oregonian and Journal publishing companies. Your union and its members failed and refused to honor the then existing agreement between the publishing companies and Portland Web Pressmen's Union No. 17. This failure and refusal occurred notwithstanding the fact that under the agreement your union and its members had pledged themselves not to strike.

"The refusal by the members of your union to comply with their obligations to the publishers and their refusal to carry out the instructions given them by the publishers to perform their duties have continued without interruption since November 10, 1959. The pressmen who have failed to appear for work over this long extended period are no longer employees.

"With respect to meeting for the purpose of negotiating a new contract, we are ready to meet with you at any time you can establish that you represent a majority of our employes in an appropriate unit. * * * Signatures."

After receipt of said letter, plaintiff addressed a night letter to said defendants, which reads as follows:

"This acknowledges on behalf of Portland Web Pressmen's Local 17 receipt late today of your letter of December 28, 1959, in which you take the position that pressroom employees governed, along with you, by our current agreement which remains in effect through December 31, 1959, are no longer employees of your two newspapers. Local 17 emphatically disagrees.

"If you had a grievance in this respect since November 10, you should have resorted to the settlement procedures provided for in our joint and effective agreement.

"Local 17 hereby refers the differences between the parties arising out of your said letter of December 28, 1959, to the Joint Standing Committee, and requests a meeting on these emergency issues forthwith. Certainly, there is no occasion for either the publishers of the union to take refuge in the `within five days' provision to delay such a meeting beyond sometime on the 29th day of December, 1959.

"Our Standing Committee members stand ready to meet with the publisher members of the same committee upon the shortest telephone notice to the undersigned at or through CH 4-8359."

Neither of defendants responded to such night letter. On January 2, 1960, plaintiff declared itself and its members on strike against defendants, and each of them, under the claim that defendants had refused to bargain with the plaintiff as the exclusive representative of the pressroom employees of the defendants with reference to wages, hours and other conditions of work, and also to enforce plaintiff's proposals for a new contract to supplant and supersede the agreement between the parties. On January 4, 1960, plaintiff addressed another communication to defendants, the material portion of which reads as follows:

"* * * The undersigned, Union appointed members of the Joint Standing Committee, hereby call upon the newspaper appointees of the same committee to meet with them without further delay to deal with the above mentioned differences between the parties to the basic agreement. Those differences having arisen prior to January 1, 1960, and having been referred to the Joint Standing Committee prior to that date, the Union position is that the entire adjustment of differences procedures which are provided for in the basic agreement remain available and applicable to the parties, and obligatory upon them until the differences have reached final determination through utilization, and, if necessary, exhaustion of those procedures.

"The undersigned are ready to meet at your call upon any short but reasonable notice. You are earnestly requested to arrange a Joint Standing Committee meeting to handle these differences. Should you fail to arrange such a meeting to be held prior to Monday, January 11, 1960, the undersigned and the Union for its protection and the protection of its members will be obligated to take such legal actions as are indicated in the premises."

On January 11, 1960, defendants directed a communication to plaintiff, which reads as follows:

"The Oregonian and the Oregon Journal have received and given careful consideration to your letter of January 4 addressed to the attention of Messrs. Morrish and Haines, and do not agree with the positions you have taken. It therefore appears that no useful purpose would be served by complying with your request."

Plaintiff claims that a justiciable controversy exists between the plaintiff and the defendants and that the court has jurisdiction over the subject matter of the suit under the provisions of the Labor Management Relations Act of 1947, 29 U.S.C.A. § 185.

Among other provisions, the contract between the parties contains the following:

"Section 3(a). The Union is recognized as the collective bargaining agency for employes engaged in the operation of all web presses, * *

* * * * * * "Section 4. A joint Standing Committee, composed of two representatives of the parties of the first part and two representatives of the party of the second part shall be appointed, * * * To this committee shall be referred all questions which may arise concerning the construction to be placed upon any clause of this contract or alleged violation thereof which cannot be settled otherwise * * *. The standing committee shall have jurisdiction to determine whether the disputed issue is

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