United States v. International Longshoremen's Ass'n

• Decision Date: 12 November 1971
• Docket Number: Civ. A. No. 69-B-3.
• Citation: 334 F. Supp. 976
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, by John N. MITCHELL, Attorney General, Plaintiff, v. INTERNATIONAL LONGSHOREMEN'S ASSOCIATION, an unincorporated association, et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Southern District of Texas

334 F. Supp. 976

UNITED STATES of America, by John N. MITCHELL, Attorney General, Plaintiff, v. INTERNATIONAL LONGSHOREMEN'S ASSOCIATION, an unincorporated association, et al., Defendants.

Civ. A. No. 69-B-3.

United States District Court, S. D. Texas, Brownsville Division.

November 12, 1971.

John N. Mitchell, Atty. Gen., Jerris Leonard, Asst. Atty. Gen., David L. Rose, Andrew J. Ruzicho and John W. Davis, Attys., Department of Justice, Washington, D. C., for plaintiff.

Brock & Williams, Warner F. Brock, Houston, Tex., for International Longshoremen's Ass'n, South Atlantic and Gulf Coast Dist., International Longshoremen's Ass'n, and Locals 1372, 872, 1231, 1271, 1330, 1331, 1525, 1581, 325, 1306, 1610, 851, 1225, 1241, 1245, 1281, 1723, 1818, 636, 991, 1405, 1406, 440, 1029, 1175, 341, 814, 1758 and 1763, I.L.A.

Mandell & Wright, Herman Wright, Houston, Tex., for Locals 1367, 307, 1576, 1224 and 1280, I.L.A Michael Crawford, Houston, Tex., for Local 329, I.L.A.

Dixie, Wolf & Hall, Chris Dixie, Houston, Tex., for Local 1273, I.L.A.

D. J. Lerma, Brownsville, Tex., for Local 1368, I.L.A.

MEMORANDUM

GARZA, District Judge.

On January 20, 1969, in which was probably the last case filed by the Johnson administration, then Attorney General Ramsey Clark filed the above suit under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, alleging a pattern or practice of discrimination on grounds of race, color and national origin, in violation of said Act. The Defendants included the International Longshoremen's Association (hereinafter called the I.L.A.), the South Atlantic and Gulf Coast District of the I.L.A. (hereinafter referred to as District), and thirty-seven local general cargo longshoremen's unions chartered by the I.L.A., all of whom are labor organizations within the meaning of 42 U.S.C. § 2000e(d), and all of whom are engaged in an industry affecting commerce within the meaning of 42 U.S.C. § 2000e(e). As has been stated, the United States has alleged that the Defendant unions have engaged in a pattern or practice of discrimination on the grounds of race and national origin, more particularly that the Defendants have maintained local unions, hiring halls and gangs, which were classified and segregated on the grounds of race and national origin, and that this has resulted in the denying of equal working opportunities to Negro and Mexican-American longshoremen, because of their race or national origin, and that the District, in its contract negotiations with employers, has caused such employers to also discriminate on the grounds of race and national origin. The United States asks this Court to order a merger of the segregated locals and the discontinuance of separate locals, hiring halls and gangs based upon race and national origin, and for such further steps as would be necessary and proper.

With the exception of two Negro locals, one in Galveston and one in Brownsville, both with special problems that will be referred to further on in this opinion, all Defendants are opposed to the merger of locals that the Government proposes, and deny any violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

It took some time to serve all Defendants and for answers to be filed, and with the exception of a few depositions and communications between the United States and some of the attorneys for the Defendants, very little was done in preparation for the trial of this case, until this Court, on May 12, 1970, set a pre-trial in this cause to be held in Houston, Texas, on Tuesday, June 23rd, and the trial of the same was set for Houston, as a place within this District convenient to counsel and witnesses, for July 13, 1970.

In preparation for trial, the depositions of officials of every one of the Defendants were taken.

At the pre-trial on June 23, 1970, the parties agreed to stipulate to as many facts as possible to shorten the time of trial. This was done and an extensive stipulation was filed by the parties, which has been very helpful to the Court.

At the pre-trial, the Defendants urged this Court to dismiss the cause of action on the grounds that the attempt by the United States to merge the local long-shoremen's unions was a violation of their constitutional right of association under the First Amendment. The Court took the motion to dismiss on these grounds under consideration, and said it would carry it along with the case. The motion to dismiss on these grounds is now denied.

The Court heard testimony in this cause from July 13th through July 17, 1970, and from September 9th to September 17, 1970. During the trial, hundreds of exhibits, some of them rather bulky, were received in evidence, and the Court has had to read the same and assimilate their contents. The parties, at the conclusion of the trial, were allowed to file briefs, and a schedule was set up, which, at the request of counsel, had to be extended. In the meantime, some of the Defendants asked to reopen the record for the filing of additional exhibits, all of which requests were granted.

The Defendants in this cause of action represent longshoremen and warehousemen who load and unload ships at warehouses in ports along the Texas Gulf Coast, at Orange, Beaumont, Port Arthur, Galveston, Texas City, Houston, Freeport, Port Lavaca, Corpus Christi and Brownsville. The membership of each local union in these ports is totally segregated on the basis of race or national origin. Of the thirty-seven local unions which are party Defendants, sixteen locals were for White longshoremen and have no Negro members, and nineteen were for Negro longshoremen and have no White members, and two locals are composed predominantly of Mexican-American longshoremen.

Because of the Texas Right-to-Work Law, all the locals service and refer many non-members. In fact, it was surprising to find that many, many of the longshoremen are not union members, but they work through the local union hiring halls. Under the contracts with the employers, the union gets a certain amount from the employer for every longshoreman, be he union member or not, some of this money going to the pension and welfare funds, and the balance to the coffers of the unions, and even non-union members are entitled to attain seniority as longshoremen and to participate in their pension and welfare plans.

While attempts were made to prove to this Court that a Negro could apply for membership in a White local and vice versa, it is obvious that a Negro does not apply to a White local, and a White does not apply to a Negro local for membership. Negro longshoremen have to be referred out of a Negro local hiring hall, and White longshoremen are referred out of a White longshoremen's hiring hall. While there may have been exceptions in the past, they have been few and far between. The evidence shows that some coastwise general cargo locals have been merged with some deep-sea general cargo locals in their respective ports. The Negro coastwise general cargo locals have been merged with Negro deep-sea general cargo locals, and the White coastwise general cargo locals have been merged with White deep-sea general cargo locals, this happening since the filing of this action.

It has been stipulated that the I.L.A. chartered the locals on the basis of race, and there is no question that it has maintained these locals on the basis of race, has at all times been aware of their segregated nature and has done nothing to seek their merger, or to charter integrated locals since the passage of the Civil Rights Act.

Negro union officials who testified before the Court have urged the Court not to order a merger. They say that by the maintenance of "sister locals" in every port, the Negroes, by having their own unions and their own union officials, have been able to better themselves by being able to hold high positions in their locals, and have been recognized in the community as a separate, powerful voice for the Negro communities, and has attained for them and the Negro people of the community, a standing which they could not have otherwise attained. The Court believes that they are correct in this assumption, but the ultimate issue before the Court is whether this pattern or practice of having segregated locals is keeping longshoremen, be they Black or White, from equal working opportunities on account of a longshoreman's race or national origin. With the exception of the port of Brownsville, generally the longshoremen's work is divided between the White and Negro locals on a fifty-fifty basis. On its face, this would seem to be a fair shake for the races, but this does not tell the whole story. If in any port there are one hundred Whites available to work on the waterfront as longshoremen and two hundred Negroes, and the work is divided fifty-fifty between the locals, it is obvious that the one hundred Whites will work more hours than the Negroes. The fifty-fifty rule would be ideal if there were an equal number of White longshoremen to Negro longshoremen in every port, but this is not the case. The same situation would exist if instead of one hundred White and two hundred Negro longshoremen, there would be two hundred White and one hundred Negro longshoremen in a given port. In that situation, the Black longshoremen would work more hours than the White. While the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed to aid Negroes and other minorities, it was passed to help Whites as much as Negroes, if their civil rights are being violated, and this Court can foresee where in many situations, now and in the future, the Whites will be asking for the protection of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

The Defendants opposing the proposed merger of the "sister locals" have argued vehemently that the Negroes, whom the Government assumes to protect by this cause of action, are...