Court Opinion

ID: 9450163
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 16:37:27.372589+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:32:10.824615
License: Public Domain

MATTHES, Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
The pivotal issue presented by this ^proceeding, and so recognized by the parties, is whether the refusal of the four employees to cross the picket line constituted protected activity. The majority fails to come to grips with this question but attempts to demonstrate principally on the authority of Labor Board v. Rockaway News Co., 345 U.S. 71, 73 S.Ct. 519, that even if it be conceded that the employees engaged in protected activity, nevertheless they were permanently discharged on December 8, such discharge was a complete severance of the employer-employee relationship, and respondent’s failure to reinstate the employees could provide no basis for an 8 (a) (1) violation.
First, it should be noted that in Rock-away the Supreme Court expressly declined to promulgate any sweeping abstract principles as to the respective rights of employer and employee regarding picket lines. Secondly, while the Supreme Court did not expressly hold that the involved employee had engaged in unprotected activity, it seems to me that this deduction is inescapable because of the Court’s holding that the questioned activity of the employee was in violation of the no-strike clause in the labor contract.1 It was in this context )that the Court held that there was no ¡distinction between discharge and replacement.
I would hold that the employees here involved had the right to refuse to cross the picket line, that such refusal was protected activity in that it was the exercise of the right to assist another labor organization and a right guaranteed by Section 7 of the Act. Redwing Carriers, Inc., 137 NLRB 1545, affirmed sub nom. Teamsters, Etc., Local U. No. 79 v. NLRB, D.C.Cir., 325 F.2d 1011. However, as the Board concedes, the right of the employees to engage in this protected activity was not unlimited, and under proper circumstances must yield to the respondent’s right to continue the operation of his business. Here, the respondent’s overriding right to keep its busiin operation provided justification for the course he pursued — but it does not necessarily follow that respondent had the absolute right to refuse to re*319instate employees upon their timely and unconditional application made before their jobs had been filled with permanent replacements.
I believe that the protected activity here engaged in placed the four employees in a status similar to that of economic strikers. And although economic strikers may be permanently replaced, an employer may not permissibly refuse them reinstatement if they unconditionally apply therefor prior to the time their jobs have been permanently filled. Cf. Labor Board v. Mackay Co., 304 U.S. 333, 58 S.Ct. 904; N. L. R. B. v. J. Mitchko, Inc., 3 Cir., 284 F.2d 573; N. L. R. B. v. United Brass Works, Inc., 4 Cir., 287 F.2d 689.
In view of what I regard as controlling precedent I am satisfied that under the circumstances presented by this record, the B.oard properly found that the employees were entitled to reinstatement and that respondent’s failure to recognize this right was violative of the Act.
Accordingly, I would grant enforcement of the Board’s order in its entirety.

. The Board and Respondent seem to be in agreement that the Supreme Court held that the employee had engaged in unprotected activity.