The Connecticut labor news., 1921-05-06
Ciearmakers Win Unusual
 Injunction Against Firm
United States Court Orders Com pany to Live Up to Contract With Union and Put Men Back to Work.

to Work.
 Detroit, Mich, May 6.-In a most unusual decision Circuit Court Judge Driscol this week applied the injunction to Schwartz X Sons, cigar manutactur- CTS. who were ordered to relnStatc a contract with their organized C1gar makers, to pay them their wages Ii the lockout continues, and to pay court costs.
 The court let it be understood that there is no limit to the uses ot the m- junction and that it brOadcnS out to meet the exigenCies of the times
 In the spring of last year the cigar makers raised wages $3 a thousand. The following November the firm asked that wages be reduced $3 a thousand and promised the cigar makers that they would be steadily employed and that thcre would be no other wage reduction demands for a year, if the cut was aoreed to. The cigar makers accepted the offer, and almost immediately Schwartz demanded another cut Ot $5 a thousand The workers offered to arbl- trate. and when this was refused they suspended work Schwartz then asked for an injunction to stop pcketing and to restrain the Cigar Makers Union from interfering with his business and his strikebreakers. The cigar makers filed a cross bill to restrain Schwartz from breaking his contract with them.
 Judge Drisco1l denied the employers appeal and issued the injunction request ed by the cigar makers. The court sad that Schwartz's testimony was WOeful- ly in contrast to the open and frank tes- timonv of the members of the union
 4Lo+ ;+ that his was Ito get the strong arm of the court to aid him in transferring his union shop to a nOn-uniOn shop.
 In sustaining the cigar makers plea the court said:
 Tt has been held unlawful for en- ploves to strike in breach of a contract of employment c Corpus JuriS, 572) ; it must, therefore, be held unlawful tor an employer to lock out his employees Tn breach of a contract of employment. The employees are as much entitled to the benefits of the law as are the en- poyers Plaintiffs tSchwartz) invoked the aid of this court in this case on the ground, among other things, that If they were compelled to resort to actions at law 1t would result in multiplicity Ot suits. The same right, therefore, must be open to the defendants, who are brought into court by the plaintiffs.
 "The claim that an injunction cannot issue to restrain such a breach of con- tract as this cannot be sustained. No case has been cited, ana I find none, where the right has been denied. The authorities relied on by plaintiffs coun- sel are not based on such a state of facts as this They are based on old cases where the facts are entirely different
 Equity jurisprudence is a progres, sive science. Its principles expand and develop with the expansion and develop ment of civilization. It broadens out to meet the exigenCies of the times The cases relied upon by plaintiff were de- cided long before the present stage ot development of business enterprises and labor organizatiOns-When unlike the present day, almost every employer was personally acquainted with every one of his employees.
 If the lockout continues the plaintiff (Schwartz) will have to pay them for the loss they sustain, as well as to pay those now taking their places for work which they, the locked-out employees, might be doing.
 Our supreme court has, by injunc- ton. preserved to a citizen his legal right to hunt (Hanisworth vs. Hunting club 153 M, 1851. 1 can, therefore, see no good reason why the rights of our citi- zens to work and earn their livelihood should not likewise be protected, espe- cially where, as here, they have no other full, adequate and complete remedy at law.
 "A decree will be entered granting that part of the prayer of the cross bill praying an injunction to restrain the plaintiffs from preaching the contract of employment"