Union v. Citizens' Comm. to Enforce Landis Award

• Decision Date: 20 December 1928
• Docket Number: No. 18436.,18436.
• Citation: 333 Ill. 225,164 N.E. 393
• Parties: CARPENTERS' UNION v. CITIZENS' COMMITTEE TO ENFORCE LANDIS AWARD et al.
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court

333 Ill. 225

164 N.E. 393

CARPENTERS' UNION

v.CITIZENS' COMMITTEE TO ENFORCE LANDIS AWARD et al.

No. 18436.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

Dec. 20, 1928.

Suit by certain members of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, locally known as the Carpenters' Union, against the Citizens' Committee to Enforce the Landis Award. Decree of dismissal was affirmed by the Appellate Court (244 Ill. App. 540), and Harry Jensen and others appeal.

Reversed and remanded, with directions.

Appeal from Third Branch Appellate Court, First District, on Appeal from Superior Court, Cook County; Charles M. Foell, Judge.

Hope Thompson, of Chicago, for appellants.

Sims, Welch, Godman & Stransky and George W. Miller, all of Chicago (Elwood G. Godman, James S. Handy, and James L. Coleman, all of Chicago, of counsel), for appellees.

DUNN, J.

A bill for an injunction was filed in the superior court of Cook county on October 31, 1922, by certain members of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, a voluntary, unincorporated association, in behalf of themselves and of all other members of the brotherhood in Cook and Lake counties, Illinois, who exceed 20,000 and belong to 36 subdivisions of the brotherhood called local unions, against the Citizens' Committee to Enforce the Landis Award, a corporation not for profit, organized under the laws of the state of Illinois, and 179 individual defendants. An amended bill was filed on March 1, 1924, three additional complainants being joined with the original five. The defendants answered, a replication was filed, the cause was heard, and on February 19, 1926, a decree was rendered, dismissing the bill of want of equity. This decree was affirmed by the Appellate Court for the First District, which, having made the necessary certificate of importance, allowed an appeal to this court, and four of the complainants have perfected their appeal.

The prayer of the bill was for an injunction restraining the defendants from maintaining a combination for the purpose, or with the effect, of exerting influence upon bankers, architects, or employers in the building industry in Chicago and vicinity, which in any way interferes with, obstructs, or hinders freedom of contract between such employers and complainants; from combining and conspiring in any manner to interfere with, injure, or disturb the employment of complainants, or to restrain freedom of contract between complainants and employers in the building industry in Chicago and vicinity; from coercing, soliciting, advising, inducing, or attempting to induce any person to refuse to employ complainants, or to refuse to negotiate with complainants' authorized representatives; from enforcing or attempting to enforce any agreement, which has for its purpose or effect any restraint upon freedom of contract between complainants and employers, and from soliciting or inducing any person to enter into any such agreement; from attempting to interfere with, or disturb, or prevent employment of complainants by newspaper advertisements, telephone messages, letters, circulars, notices, personal conversations, economic pressure, or any other means; from designating or referring to the Carpenters' Union as an ‘outlaw,’ and from referring to said union or its officials as ‘criminals,’ ‘grafters,’ or similar opprobrious epithets; from attempting to establish or maintain the so-called ‘open shop’ in the carpenters' trade in Chicago, or in any way to interfere with, hinder, disturb, disrupt, or injure the Carpenters' Union; from advertising for, soliciting, or inducing nonunion carpenters to come to Chicago in furtherance of said conspiracy; from assaulting, threatening, or intimidating any of complainants; from sending men upon and around buildings in the city of Chicago to represent themselves as deputy sheriffs, to wear a deputy sheriff's star, and to carry concealed weapons; from boycotting, or inducing, aiding, advising, or influencing any person to boycott, complainants, either individually or as an organization; from doing any other thing to injure or interfere with complainants or their employers; and that the court may ascertain complainants' damages by reason of the unlawful acts of defendants and may decree that defendants pay to complainants such sum as it shall find to be just, and for general relief.

The appellants will be referred to as complainants, the appellees as defendants, and the United Brotherhood as the Carpenters' Union, the name by which it is commonly known in the counties of Cook and Lake.

On June 1, 1918, and for many years before, there existed in Chicago an organization of employers of carpenters, known as the Carpenter Contractors' Association, and on that date an agreement was made between it and the Carpenters' Union, to continue in force until May 31, 1921, covering working rules and conditions and wages. Before the expiration of this agreement, the Carpenter Contractors' Association merged with the mason contractors and other organizations forming a new association called the Associated Builders. There was also another association of contractors, known as the Building Construction Employers' Association, and besides these association contractors there were from 1,000 to 1,200 independent contractors employing carpenters. Before the expiration of the agreement the joint arbitration board for which it provided met for the purpose of making a new agreement, but was unable to agree upon its terms, one of the subjects of disagreement being the rate of wages, which the contractors insisted should be $1 an hour, while the carpenters demanded $1.25 an hour, the rate which they were then receiving. The union did, however, make new agreements for one year from May 1, 1921, on their own terms, with many independent contractors.

Practically all the carpenters working in Chicago were members of the Carpenters' Union. Agreements, which had been made with many other trades engaged in building construction, through their respective organizations, also expired in the spring of 1921, and some of these were not renewed. Because of the failure of agreement between the Carpenters' Union and the Associated Builders, as well as the expiration of agreements with other trades engaged in the building industry, among other causes, much uncertainty existed in the building trades, which operated to curtail greatly building construction. The Building Construction Employers' Association was an organization of employers representing 23 trades and about 16 trade organizations. It had about 600 members who were individual contractors, including also the trade organizations represented. The Building Trades Council was an organization composed of trade organizations in the building industry in Chicago, including laborers. The Carpenters' Union was affiliated with the Building Trades Council. The Employers' Association, in the latter part of April, on account of the expiration on May 1 of the agreements in some trades, particularly the carpenters and bricklayers, hoisting engineers, and laborers, took action, declaring that the organization did not deem it advisable for the employers to continue employing labor in those trades until arrangements had been made respecting the wage rate for 1921, and the members of the association did not continue employing mechanics in the building trades after May 1, after the agreements expired, and generally ceased building operations on May 1.

After that time conferences were held by the Employers' Association and the Trades Council with reference to a settlement of the differences between the employers and the various trades. These resulted in an agreement dated June 10, 1921, between the Employers' Association and the Trades Council, both for themselves and all of the respective affiliated associations and unions, whereby it was ‘mutually agreed that for the purpose of effecting the immediate adjustment of the existing controversy respecting the rate of wages to be paid employees in building construction and to consummate satisfactory working agreements by the construction industry, that the entire subject-matter in all of its phases shall be referred to an umpire, with full power and authority to act and decide all questions involved.’ The umpire selected was Judge Landis, of the United States District Court. Judge Landis would not accept the position unless the men were directed to resume work at the old rate of wages until he made his decision. The contractors immediately ordered the men back to work at the old rate. The Carpenters' Union, though affiliated with the Trades Council, refused to take any part in the arbitration, or recognize the submission. Judge Landis' award was announced on September 7, 1921. The award stated:

‘The following trades are not in this arbitration: Carpenters, elevator constructors, plasterers, sheet metal, painters, glaziers, fixture hangers. Early in the arbitration a tentative carpenters' agreement was submitted. That document is at variance with the new uniform agreement in several particulars. It provides double time for all overtime; it requires eight hours' pay for seven hours' work, shift time; the work covered by the agreement harbors jurisdictional disputes with other trades; it provides that should any other trade under control of the party of the first part do any work claimed by the carpenters, then that work shall cease until the matter is taken up by the joint arbitration board. Should this agreement be rewritten according to the uniform agreement, uniform suggestions and principles, the wage would be fixed on the same scale as others, at one dollar per hour.’

The award contained provisions conditionally fixing also the wages of the other trades mentioned as not in the arbitration. The award contained also the following statement: ‘Some of the trades, such as the carpenters, plasterers and painters, have seen fit to hold aloof from the...