Court Opinion

ID: 9447222
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 22:29:22.296874+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:30:57.111590
License: Public Domain

TUTTLE, Circuit Judge.
This is a companion case to N. L. R. B. v. Local 450, International Union of Operating Engineers, AFL-CIO, 5 Cir., 275 F.2d 408. The Board and the respondent are here litigating with respect to somewhat similar activities of the same union on a different job site than that in the earlier case. The statement of the case by the Board, which respondent, with commendable candor, agrees is substantially correct, follows:
Briefly, the Board found that respondent, in violation of Section 8(b) (4) (D) of the Act, 29 U.S.C.A. § 158(b) (4) (D), induced and encouraged employees of Industrial to engage in a strike to force Industrial to assign certain work to members of respondent rather than to other Industrial employees. In this connection the Board found that respondent had neither a contractual claim to the work in question, nor a Board order or certification granting it representative rights with respect to the work tasks involved. The Board based its findings upon the following subsidiary facts.
About September 6, 1954, Industrial began painting oil tanks for Cities Service Oil Company. In performing this work, Industrial used four air compressors, all automatic except that they had *415to be started and stopped manually. Industrial did not assign the actual starting and stopping operation to any particular employee or employees; whoever was closest to the compressor performed this function. Industrial’s normal work force consisted of laborers and union painters.
The day after the work for Cities Service began, Earl Ford, respondent’s business representative, asked Isaac Vincent, Industrial’s superintendent, to employ one member of respondent to operate each compressor. Vincent agreed to hire one employee to perform the starting and stopping operations on all four compressors. The next day, an operating engineer, Clifford Fleming, reported to do this work.
Fleming worked all that day, and until 4:30 p. m., the end of the regular 8-hour work day, on September 9. Industrial s other employees worked until 7 p. m. both days, were paid overtime, and the compressors were shut off by them, After Fleming complained to Ford that he was not getting overtime like the other men, Ford demanded that Industrial hire an additional man to operate the comprossors and that Industrial pay Fleming overtime. Ford also asked Industrial to bank the compressors in pairs and hire a member of respondent for each pair. When Industrial refused these requests, respondent, on September 10, began picketing Industrial with signs reading “Local 450, Operating Engineers, in dispute with Industrial Painters and Sand Blasters. A few days later, Ford reiterated his demands that Industrial hire one workman for ^ each compressor and pay Fleming overtime.
The picketing continued for about 3 weeks, and no work was performed at the Fauna site during this period. The unfair labor practice charges filed in September 1954 alleged that respondent had violated Section 8(b) (4) (D), the “jurisdictional disputes” section of the statute. Pursuant to the statutory scheme for the handling of jurisdictional disputes, the Board in November 1954 and October 1955 held the hearing prescribed by Section 10 (k) to “hear and determine the dispute” out of which the charge of a Section 8(b) (4) (D) violation arose.
The Board found, on the basis of the-facts set forth, that Industrial’s assignment of the work to its employees, who were not members of respondent, was not in contravention of an order or certification of the Board, and that respondent had no contract binding Industrial to assign the disputed work to its members. Under these circumstances the Board found that respondent was not lawfully entitled to force or require Industrial to assign the disputed work to-its members rather than to other Industrial employees.
Accordingly, the Board directed regpondent to notify the Regional Director wjthin ten days whether they would corn-p]y with the Board’s determination,
Respondent having refused to comply with the Board’s decision, the General Counsel of the Board, on April 27, 1956, issued a complaint alleging a violation of Section 8(b) (4) (D) of the Act. In-eluded in the evidence adduced at the ensuing unfair labor practice hearing were the official records of the prior Section 10 (k) proceeding.
Upon the evidence thus adduced, the Board concluded, affirming the Trial Examiner, that respondent violated Section 8(b) (4) (D) by “inducing and encouraging the employees of Industrial Painters to engage in a strike or a concerted refusal * * * to perform serv¿ceg witil an object of forcing or requirjng industrial Painters to assign the work on its air compressors to the Respondent’s members rather than to Industrial Painters’ own employees who are not members of that labor organiza^on * * *•”
The Board’s order requires respondent to cease and desist from inducing and encouraging the employees of Industrial Painters to engage in a strike or other indicated conduct, where an object thereof is to force or require Industrial to assign particular work to *416members of the respondent union rather than to other employees. Affirmatively, the order directs respondent to post appropriate notices and to notify the Board's Regional Director what steps have been taken to comply with the order.
Here, as in the companion case, the principal contention by respondent is that the Section 10(k) hearing did not comply with the requirements of the statute in that the Board did not arbitrate the dispute and assign the work of starting and stopping the compressors to either the respondent or to Industrial's employees. For the reasons stated in that case we hold that this argument is not sound.
The further contention is made here that the strike was not a jurisdic~ tional strike at all but was a strike to protest the refusal of the employer to give overtime work to Fleming to enable him to stay on the job two and a half hours longer to shut the motors off. We think this is a fact issue and that it has been resolved on a full record by the Board which said:
"The real crux of this dispute, in our opinion, is this insistence by the Respondent that the Employer assign a member of that Union on a full-time basis to a function that had been performed by the Employer's own laborers on the basis of less than 30 minutes a day."
The fact that Industrial had voluntarily agreed to hire one member of respondent's union to perform this brief task does not change the fact that the strike was for the purpose of coercing Industrial to hire additional members of Local 450 to perform the duties that were still being done by other employees of Industrial. We think the language of the Fourth Circuit case, N. L. R. B. v. Local Union No. 9, Wood, Wire & Metal Lathers Union, 4 Cir., 255 F.2d 649, 652, is apposite:
"An effort to recast the controversy into a different form does not change its substance."
Respondent text contends that the Board erred in not permitting the charge to be dropped at the voluntary request of Industrial, the charging party. The General Counsel of the Board opposed the dismissal by the Trial Examiner, and the Board approved the action of the Examiner in denying the motion to dismiss. The Board said:
"It is well settled that a private settlement is not binding on the Board where not consonant with the public interest. Nor does it render the dispute moot. See Local 74, United Broth. of Carpenters & Joiners of America, A. F. of L. v. N. L. R. B., 341 U.S. 707, 71 S.Ct. 966, 95 L.Ed. 1309; N. L. R. B. v. Mexia Textile Mills, Inc., 339 U.S. 563, 567-568, 70 S.Ct. 833, 94 L.Ed. 1067; N. L. R. B. v. Pool Mfg. Co., 339 U.S. 577, 70 S.Ct. 830, 94 L.Ed. 1077; United Ass'n of Journeymen, etc., 115 N.L.R.B. No. 223."
We cannot hold that the Board erred in not giving effect to the private settlement in a matter in which it was within the province of the Board to find that the public interest was opposed to such disposition of the proceeding.
Finally, respondent complains about the scope of the order of the Board asserting that it deprives respondent of sufficient knowledge of the acts which are prohibited. The Board made the following finding in this respect:
"On the basis of evidence adduced at the hearing in the proceeding conducted pursuant to Section 10(k) of the Act in Case No. 39-CD-14, and summarized by the Trial Examiner in the Intermediate Report, it appears that the Respondent has on several occasions in the past committed violations of the Act similar to the unfair labor practices herein, but involving employers other than W. J. Hedrick and H. W. Marschall, Jr., d/b/a Industrial Painters and Sandblasters. Moreover, it appears that the Respondent is likely to continue to commit such viola*417tions when situations similar to those in the instant case occur within its territorial jurisdiction. Accordingly, we shall modify the Trial Examiner’s recommended cease and desist order, which we otherwise adopt in its entirety, by enlarging its scope so as to enjoin the Respondent from the commission of similar illegal actions not only with respect to the Company, but also with reference to any other employers.”
Although the Board in its conclusion used the word “enjoin,” it effectuated its conclusion in its cease and desist order. Of course, only the Court has the power to issue an injunction. We recognize that in the use of this word the Board was not speaking in a technical sense, It enlarged the order to cause respondent “to cease and desist from inducing and encouraging the employees of Industrial Painters or any other employer to engage in a strike or a concerted refusal, etc.”1 This order is in all respects similar to those made by the Board in the other Local 450 case just decided, as to the terms of which no objection was made by the Union. We think the finding by the Board that respondent had committed several similar violations and that it was likely it would do so in the future is fully justified on the record and by the evidence of these three violations with which we are here dealing. We think that the terms of the injunction are fully justified in light of these circumstances. See N. L. R. B. v. United Mine Workers of America, Dist. 31, and Locals Nos. 4050, 4346, 1379, 2338, 4047 and 8327, 4 Cir., 198 F.2d 389. And cf. Central State Drivers Council v. N. L. R. B., 105 U.S.App.D.C. 338, 267 F.2d 166, certiorari denied 361 U.S. 833, 80 S.Ct. 85, 4 L.Ed.2d 75, rehearing denied 80 S.Ct. 366.
The petition for enforcement of the order is granted.
Order enforced

. The entire paragraph of the order complained of follows:
“1. Cease and desist from inducing and encouraging the employees of Industrial Painters or any other employer to engage in a strike or a concerted refusal in the course of their employment to perform services, whore an object thereof is to force or require Industrial Painters or any other employer to assign its air compressor work to Respondent’s mombers rather than to its own employees who are not members of that labor organization, unless and until Respondent is certified by the Board as the bargaining representative of the employees performing such work.”