Montana labor news., 1936-12-31
ORGANIZED LAB0R'y RIGHT TO PICKET
OIN(HED BY N. Y. COURTS DECISION
Fight of Brooklyn Bakers Union
to Patrol Employers Plant and
Advertise His Goods AS Unfair
to Labor Won After Judicial
Test Lasting Over Two Years.

lest Lasting over Two ears.
The right to picket, to advertise a
union label before places of business
of n%on-union employers and before
their customers, with signs also call
ing upon the public to purchase I'M
ion label products, was recently re-
affirmed in a bitterly contested court
action in Brooklyn, N. Y.
Local Union No. sos, Bakery and
Confectionery Workers Information
al Union of America, whose mem
bers were victims of a lockout by
the Standard Baking Company,
which began May l, 1888, has borne
the brunt of battle to come through
with a gallant victory. A strike of
union members followed the lock-
out, and the then Regional Labor
Board of the MIRA sought to settle
the strike. Although the union
agreed to proposed terms, the COM
pany refused to be bound by them
and the struggle continued.
Anti-Picketing Injunction Quashed
In May, 1884, the company brought
an action in the Supreme Court, get
ting a temporary injunction against
the Bakers Union, the infamous
Faber injunction, which aroused
much criticism throughout the nation
among those who commended that it
was an infringement on the rights
| of free speech, free press and free
assemblage, virtually imposing in
voluntary servitude. Regarded by
many as the most broad and drastic
injunction ever issued in a labor dis
pute, the Faber injunction contained
38 prohibitions on the activities of
workers who were enjoined. Among
these 80 provisions was n which
presumed to prohibit continuing the
strike and another which forbade an
nouncement by members of the I'M
ion, or those in sympathy with them,
that the Standard Baking Company
had secured an injunction. The new
Anti-Injunction Law, passed by the
New York Legislature in 1885, was
aided very materially by the massed
protests of organized labor over the
MISUNDERSTANDING Faber injunction.
Judge Meier Steinbrink of the
Brooklyn Supreme Court, On appeal
Of the union, subsequently reduced
the SO restrictions to eight. This
modified injunction specifically per-
mitted the union to have its mem
bers to walk up and down in the
vicinity of the stores and customers
of the Standard Baking Company,
bearing signs advertising the union
label and calling upon the purchas-
ing public to demand bread and rolls
bearing the union label.
An appeal was taken by the COM
pany for the purpose of having the
38 original Faber injunction provi-
sions reinstated, in which it was
claimed, among other things, that the
advertising of the label constituted
a secondary boycott" one of the
slave-driving type Of employers
usual arguments. But the union
commended that, instead of a second
airy boycott, this was merely an ex-
ercise of the right of free speech.
After a long and keenly contested
struggle, the union won its conten-
ton when the Appellate Division UNI
animously overruled the plea of the
Standard Baking Company and af-
firmed the judgment of Judge Stein
brink.
Jury Trial in Contempt Cases Upheld
An offshoot of the case was noted
when the baking company sought to
punish the union and officers for al
legged contempt of court. This proved
the first test case of the law grant
ing jury trials in labor contempt
citations, the constitutionaltiy of the
law being upheld, setting a prece-
dent which has since been widely
recognized and followed in similar
actions throughout the state. Thus
through sustained determination, the
union membership, fighting for the
Righteousness of their cause, have
not only gained victory for them
selves but they have helped to tear
down barbaric barriers that have
forever impeded the emancipation of
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