Source: https://secondcircuit.lexroll.com/a-h-bull-s-s-v-seafarers-internatl-union-250-f-2d-326-2nd-cir-1957/
Timestamp: 2019-04-24 05:52:56+00:00

Document:
A.H. BULL STEAMSHIP CO., Plaintiff-Appellee. v. SEAFARERS’ INTERNATIONAL UNION OF NORTH AMERICA, ATLANTIC AND GULF DISTRICT, AFL-CIO, Defendant-Appellant.
No. 123, Docket 24840.United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit.Argued October 8, 1957.
Seymour W. Miller, Brooklyn, N.Y., for defendant-appellant.
James V. Hayes, of Donovan, Leisure, Newton Irvine, New York City (A.V. Cherbonnier, of Satterlee, Browne Cherbonnier, and Theodore S. Hope, Sidney P. Howell, Jr., and Helmut J.F. Furth, of Donovan, Leisure, Newton Irvine, New York City, on the brief), for plaintiff-appellee.
Before CLARK, Chief Judge, and LUMBARD and MOORE, Circuit Judges.
of substantial scope against continuance of the strike. Its opinion is reported in D.C.E.D.N.Y., 155 F. Supp. 739. This appeal from the order of injunction followed.
a strike over wages constitutes a breach of the agreement. We do not decide this issue because we hold that in any event the trial court exceeded its jurisdiction in issuing the preliminary injunction.
This case involves an impasse in renegotiation of wages. The Union maintains that the no-strike clause has no application to a strike for this purpose. Bull contends otherwise. But the basic controversy concerns wages — terms or conditions of employment — and thus, under § 13(c), this is a labor dispute. Nothing in the Act makes its provisions inapplicable where, after a labor dispute arises, one party takes action which constitutes a breach of a contract between them. It is immaterial that the strike might be a breach of the Union’s duty under the collective bargaining agreement or that the controversy itself might be determined by reference to it. W.L. Mead, Inc. v. International Broth. of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers of America, 1 Cir., 217 F.2d 6; In re Third Avenue Transit Corp., 2 Cir., 192 F.2d 971; Alcoa S.S. Co. v. McMahon, D.C.S.D.N.Y., 81 F. Supp. 541, affirmed 2 Cir., 173 F.2d 567, certiorari denied 338 U.S. 821, 70 S.Ct. 65, 94 L.Ed. 498. Hence under § 4 of the Act, if still applicable, the trial court would lack jurisdiction to issue its preliminary injunction in the present labor dispute.
employer refused, and the union brought an action under this statute in the federal district court to compel the employer to arbitrate. The district court concluded that it had jurisdiction and ordered the employer to comply with the arbitration provision. The Court of Appeals reversed this determination and the Supreme Court reversed the Court of Appeals. The Supreme Court held that § 301 “authorizes federal courts to fashion a body of federal law for the enforcement of these collective bargaining agreements and includes within that federal law specific performance of promises to arbitrate grievances under collective bargaining agreements.” 353 U.S. 448, 451, 77 S.Ct. 912, 915.
But this case does not say that § 301 authorizes federal courts to issue injunctions when that remedy is clearly prohibited by the Norris-LaGuardia Act. The Court does hold, after an analysis of legislative history, to reach the conclusion just quoted, that the issuance of an order compelling arbitration was not prohibited by the Norris-LaGuardia Act. The Court reasoned that refusal to arbitrate is not protected conduct under § 4, 29 U.S.C. § 104, and is not the kind of conduct which had given rise to abuse of the power to enjoin. Indeed the Court found that § 8, 29 U.S.C. § 108, indicates a congressional policy favoring the settlement of labor disputes by arbitration. The Court next dealt with § 7, 29 U.S.C. § 107. This section, in addition to § 4, deprives federal courts of jurisdiction to issue injunctions in cases involving labor disputes unless the court makes specific findings of fact and follows prescribed procedural requirements. Citing Judge Magruder in Local 205, United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE) v. General Elec. Co., 1 Cir., 233 F.2d 85, 92, affirmed General Elec. Co. v. Local 205, United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (U.E.), 353 U.S. 547, 77 S.Ct. 921, 1 L.Ed.2d 1028, the Court found these procedures “inapposite” and concluded that: “The congressional policy in favor of the enforcement of agreements to arbitrate grievance disputes being clear, there is no reason to submit them to the requirements of § 7 of the Norris-LaGuardia Act.” 353 U.S. 448, 458, 77 S.Ct. 912, 919.
In the case at bar the Union’s conduct comes squarely within § 4 of the Norris-LaGuardia Act. This is a lawful and peaceful strike which Congress said a federal court may not enjoin. The Supreme Court in Lincoln Mills was concerned with a refusal to arbitrate — conduct not protected by § 4 and at odds with congressional policy. It did not involve a strike — the issue here. The ultimate question in Lincoln Mills was whether or not Congress by § 301 of the Taft-Hartley Act authorized the federal courts to compel arbitration. The question here is whether or not Congress by that same provision intended to repeal the Norris-LaGuardia Act pro tanto. This is not the question which was before the Supreme Court.
Prior to the Supreme Court’s decision in Lincoln Mills both this Circuit and the First Circuit had agreed that § 301 did not impliedly repeal the Norris-LaGuardia Act. Alcoa S.S. Co. v. McMahon, supra, 2 Cir., 173 F.2d 567, certiorari denied 338 U.S. 821, 70 S.Ct. 65, 94 L.Ed. 498; W.L. Mead, Inc. v. International Broth. of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers of America, supra, 1 Cir., 217 F.2d 6; Local 205, United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE) v. General Elec. Co., supra, 1 Cir., 233 F.2d 85, affirmed General Elec. Co. v. Local 205, United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (U.E.), 353 U.S. 547, 77 S.Ct. 921. Two reasons for this conclusion were stressed. First, Congress in enacting § 301 did not expressly withdraw the restrictions of the Norris-LaGuardia Act and such withdrawal cannot be implied, particularly since in other sections of the same Act, viz., §§ 101(h), 208(b), and 302(e), 29 U.S.C. § 160(h), 178(b), and 186(e), Congress expressly lifted the bar of the Norris-LaGuardia Act to vest certain injunction powers in the courts when the National Labor Relations Board initiated the court proceedings. Thus, see Alcoa S.S. Co. v. McMahon, supra, D.C.S.D.N.Y., 81 F. Supp. 541, 543, affirmed 2 Cir., 173 F.2d 567, certiorari denied 338 U.S. 821, 70 S.Ct. 65; and see also McCarroll v. Los Angeles County District Council of Carpenters, Cal. 1957, 315 P.2d 322. Second, it is an accepted canon of construction that repeals by implication are not favored, especially where the previous statute (the Norris-LaGuardia Act) is not stale or forgotten, but is a “significant and tremendously important piece of legislation which the Congress evidently had specifically in mind when it came to enact the Labor Management Relations Act in 1947.” W.L. Mead, Inc. v. International Broth. of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers of America, supra, 1 Cir., 217 F.2d 6, 9.
a no-strike clause in a collective bargaining agreement. But this does not follow. The presence of the clause might make it easier to find a breach by a strike, but it can have no effect on the problem of statutory construction. The cases cited above involved strikes which allegedly breached collective bargaining agreements, and the recitals of legislative history therein contained are relevant to our problem here.
Bull contends that these authorities are in error. It maintains that the legislative history of § 301, especially as quoted in Lincoln Mills, requires the conclusion that Congress intended to repeal the Norris-LaGuardia Act to the extent that federal courts do have jurisdiction to enjoin violations of agreements not to strike. In that case, 353 U.S. 448, 452-456, 77 S.Ct. 912, 915-917, Justice Douglas quotes passages from Senate and House Reports indicating that Congress intended to make collective bargaining agreements enforceable on unions as well as employers. Bull finds other congressional statements to the same effect. These statements, however, shed little light on how these agreements are to be enforced; and each is consistent with an interpretation that Congress intended merely to provide employers with a monetary recovery for a union’s breach of a no-strike agreement and to impose certain sanctions against employees such as loss of status. Even though the Court found that an agreement to arbitrate is the quid pro quo for an agreement not to strike, this does not mean that because the former is specifically enforceable the latter is also. The Court found statements of congressional policy favoring the specific performance of arbitration agreements. Here we have a significant statute opposed to enjoining peaceful strikes.
“The Senate amendment contained a provision which does not appear in section 8 of existing law. This provision would have made it an unfair labor practice to violate the terms of a collective bargaining agreement or an agreement to submit a labor dispute to arbitration. The conference agreement omits this provision of the Senate amendment. Once parties have made a collective bargaining contract the enforcement of that contract should be left to the usual processes of the law and not to the National Labor Relations Board.” H.R.Rep.No. 510, 80th Cong., 1st Sess. 41-42.
jurisdiction to enjoin breaches of collective bargaining contracts, including strikes.
“Section 302(e) of the House bill [the House’s original form of § 301] made the Norris-LaGuardia Act inapplicable in actions and proceedings involving violations of agreements between an employer and a labor organization. Only part of this provision is included in the conference agreement.” H.R.Rep. No. 510, 80th Cong., 1st Sess. 66.
The Report then goes on to say that the provision remains only in § 301(e), which relates to the determination of the question of agency. If the House provision had stayed in the bill, the trial court undoubtedly would have had jurisdiction to enjoin the strike. But it was deleted without explanation, thus supporting the conclusion that Congress intended the Norris-LaGuardia Act to be applicable to suits brought under § 301.
The mandate of § 4 of the Norris-LaGuardia Act has been an expression of national policy for many years. If this policy is to be changed it should be changed by Congress, and not by judicial legislation or inventiveness. It is our conclusion that Congress did not repeal § 4 of the Norris-LaGuardia Act by the enactment of § 301 of the Taft-Hartley Act. Under these circumstances the injunction order must be set aside.
Order reversed; action remanded for proceedings by the district court consistent with this opinion.
Defendant objects to the scope of the injunction as to parties defendant, as well as plaintiff, and to the findings incorporated in the opinion as made without a hearing for the presentation of testimony. We do not reach these issues.
“(e) That the public officers charged with the duty to protect complainant’s property are unable or unwilling to furnish adequate protection.
“Basically, it is the language and background of the Norris-LaGuardia Act itself which point to the conclusion that the restrictions of § 7 do not have to be met as a prerequisite to jurisdiction to grant an order compelling arbitration. Section 7 requires certain preliminary allegations and findings: a threat of unlawful acts leading to substantial injury to property, greater injury to complainant in denying relief than to defendants in granting it, and the inability of the public officials charged with protection of property to furnish adequate protection. Procedural requirements include notice to said public officials and an undertaking for reimbursement by complainant and a surety. These provisions were obviously aimed to limit injunctions to cases involving violent or destructive acts. See also § 9. The enumerated requisites, which draw a logical line in relation to union conduct in strikes and picketing (and perhaps to some employer activities), are not at all compatible with the situation where one party merely demands that the other be compelled to arbitrate a grievance in accordance with a contract provision for arbitration, in which latter situation the required findings seldom, if ever, could be made either affirmatively or negatively. They just do not sensibly apply. We do not believe Congress intended § 7 in any case to be a snare and a delusion, holding out the possibility of jurisdiction but demanding for its exercise sworn allegations of inapposite facts.” 233 F.2d 85, 92.
 Thus the California Supreme Court, per Judge Traynor, recently concluded in a post-Lincoln Mills decision that § 301 did not repeal the Norris-LaGuardia Act. McCarroll v. Los Angeles County District Council of Carpenters, Cal. 1957, 315 P.2d 322.

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