Evening star., 1950-02-14
Mine Union May Face
Heavy Penalties for
Violating Injunction
Ruling Cited to Show
Strikers Have No Right
To Defy Court Order
Bv David La10rence

Dp DUTfU LULDF eUCc
The United Mine Workers Un-
ion may face heavy penalties fol-
violating the pending injunction
unless bona fide efforts to bring
the miners back to work have been
instituted this week.
There is no legal right to strike
by concerted action in defiance OF
a court order. Individuals may
quit work of their own accord
but public statements in the press
by local union officers inducing or
persuading members to stay away
from the mines, and failure of the
headquarters of the national union
to bring the men back to work
will most certainly be held viola
ton of the Injunction.
The law in this type of situa-
ton has been laid down by
Justice Goldsborough in District
Court. He made it plain that he
did not recognize the possibility OF
a spontaneous" strike in defiance
of the orders of a well-disciplined
union. In his oral opinion on April
10, 1948. when charges were that
a temporary restraining order was
being violated by the will of the
workers rather than their leaders
he said:
"As long as union is func-
tioning as union, it must be held
responsible for the mass action OF
It's members. 1t is perfectly OBJ
vious not only in objective reason.
ing but because of experience that
men don't act collectively with
out leadership. The idea of sug-
geSting that from 250,000 to $780,
600 men would all get the same
idea at once, independently of
leadership. and walk out of the
mines, is of course, simply ridic-
ulous.
Responsible for Mass Action.
$50 that, in general, this court
announces a principle of law. The
court has no means of knowing
whether higher courts will adopt
the principle or not, but the court
has no doubt about It's soundness,
not any-that a union that is
functioning must be held respon-
Sible for the mass action of it's
members =.
$50 that the rule of law which
I have announced is the only rule
which will preserve the unions,
because if the plan is adopted
throughout the country of trying
to use wink, a nod, code, in
stead of the word strike and if
that sort of maneuver is recog-
nized as valid by the courts, then
you will have among the unions
lawlessness. chaos, and ultimate
anarchy. And then the unions will
have to be socialized. In other
words, they will have to be de-
stroyed."
The Supreme Court has since
upheld the Goldsborough opinion,
SO that for all practical purposes
the foregoing quotation is the
constitutional law of the land
today. The judiciary itself has
the constitutional power to punish
any concerted action by workers
or by any other group which seeks
to defy an order of the Federal
courts.
Key Words In Telegram.
The wink or nod" in this case
might possibly be found in the
language used by the mine work
ers' chief in his telegram last
week to the locals, wherein he
said:
This Office, therefore, by
reasons of the requirements of
this injunction, has no alternative
other than to instruct you and
all other agents of our union
similarly situated. which I hereby
do, to take all appropriate action
as may be necessary to insure
that the instructions Of the court
are carried out"
The key words may have been,
"this office has no alternative. +"
But whether there is or is not
a code whereby local unions keep
their men from going back to
the mines, there can be no doubt
that local officers who furnish
information of any kind to work
ers which induces them to re-
frain from work would be violat-
ing the Injunction.
The whole issue is no longer
whether 1t was right or wrong
to have issued the Injunction,
but whether any group of citizens
will refuse to obey a court order
issued to them through a respon-
sible union which has always been
able heretofore to obtain it's will
and administer discipline. II
would seem probable. that after
a bit of demonstrating along the
Spontaneous strike" idea, the
miners will go back to work before
many days have elapsed.
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