Evening star., 1948-05-03
ELRB. Court Support
Urged for 7 Rulings
On Right 10 Work
Examiners Found Unions
Guilty Of Violence, AnotheI
Of Secondary Boyeottine
By David Laurence

~SJSStsuS
By David Laurence
The right TO work-unmolested
by threats or acts of violence on the
picket line-may find new affirma-
tton II some decisions Just rendered
by trial examiners are upheld by
the National Labor Relations Board
and the courts.
When the Taft Hartley Act was
passed there were suggestions that
coercion against individual workers
by other workers or unions was
prohibited, but not until the case
Just handed down by a trial ex-
aminer for the labor board has the
issue been raised.
Specifically, Martin 8. Bennett,
trial examiner, held that two labor
unions were jointly guilty of "coerc-
ing and restraining employees" in
connection with a labor dispute at
Salem, Ind. He ruled that the
coercion was manifested "by the
carrying of sticks or clubs by pick
cts, the threatening of employees,
the blocking of the plant entrances
by railroad ties, automobiles and
raised gutter plates, the piling of
bricks for use by pickets, and the
assaults upon employees Of the con-
pany."
Other acts Of violence enumerated,
for which Mr. Bennett held the
unions guilty, included "overturning
a nonstriker's automobile as he
was leaving the plant and an
assault upon q nonstriker and his
family while they were driving
along the highway"
Union Held Responsible.
The trial examiner says a union
and It's officers cannot escape
responsibility for what its pickets
do. He declares:
BY the very appointment of these
men to Office, the organizations have
manifested an intent to be repre-
sented by these officials and are
bound by their activities In the sb-
sence Of any evidence to the con-
trary. When duly-Selected officials
and representatives of labor organi-
zations engage In conduct forbidden
by the act, the only inference to be
drawn is that they are acting within
the scope, actual or apparent, of
their employment and that their CO.
participants have likewise been au-
thorized to so act. . . This conduct
OF these officials and their CO.
participants must perforce be held
attributable to the respondents
(unions)."
This Is the first time that any
Federal statue for many years has
covered violence on the picket lines.
This is something that the employ
ers and unions heretofore have had
to deal with under State laws and
injunctions. But inasmuch as the
Wagner Labor Relations Act utilized
the Federal police power to punish
coercion" and restraint" on the
part of employers versus workers,
now the Taft-Hartley Act comes
along to punish coercion when ap-
piled by workers or unions versus
workers.
Secondary Boycott Is Issue.
Another trial examiner, Sidney
Lindner, has ruled that a union be
required to stop even peaceful pick
citing when it is in support of a Sec
ondary boycott, which Is specifically
banned by the Taft-Hartley Act.
This occurred in a case in Mont
gomery, Ala, where strike OF a
department stores carpenters was
called to force the company to cease
doing business with a building con-
tractor who was employing nom
union carpenters on a renovation
project for the store.
Mr.. Lindner rejected the conten-
ton of the union that the carpen-
ters actually quit their jobs and
gave up their status as employees
since all but one of the strikers took
Jobs elsewhere. The examiners
opinion said:
There is wide distinction be-
tween a worker quitting his Job for
any reason Or no reason, on the
one hand, and concerted cessation
OF production by workers who seek
to win point from management on
the other hand. In the instant case
it is abundantly clear, as heretofore
found, that the respondents
(union's) members corlcertedly ceas-
ed their work upon the respondents
instructions. Such situation leads
to only one conclusion, there was
strike by the respondent union
and its members"
The two foregoing decisions of
trial examiners will go before the
National Labor Relations Board.
Under Wagner Act cases, this almost
always meant board approval, but
the majority of the present board
is still stepped in Wagner Act preju-
dices which have regarded unions as
sacroSanct even when they commit
ted acts of violence. 1t will be inter-
esting to see If the two decisions are
upheld. If they are, new era has
dawned on the labor front, the work.
ers of America have truly been
emancipated, and the right to work
has been reaffirmed.
(Reproductlon RiEhts ReservedD