Court Opinion

ID: 9467598
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 01:52:17.895794+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:40:25.620409
License: Public Domain

McMILLIAN, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
I dissent.
By interpreting the publicity proviso without considering its place in the overall statutory scheme and without considering the legislative history, the majority substitutes its judgment not only for that of the Labor Board but also for that of Congress, which clearly intended to exempt this kind of publicity from coverage as a secondary boycott.
The publicity proviso resulted from a concern that the secondary boycott provisions in the 1959 Landrum-Griffin Act, which amended the National Labor Relations Act, were overbroad in the area of the first amendment. As the Supreme Court explained in NLRB v. Fruit & Vegetable Packers, Local 760 (Tree Fruits), 377 U.S. 58, 69, 84 S.Ct. 1063, 1069, 12 L.Ed.2d 129 (1964), “the first step in the development of the publicity proviso” was an analysis prepared by Senator Kennedy and Congressman Thompson of the proposed revisions of the secondary boycott prohibitions:
The prohibition [prior to addition of the publicity proviso] reaches not only picketing but leaflets, radio broadcasts and newspaper advertisements, thereby interfering with freedom of speech.
... [0]ne of the apparent purposes ... is to prevent unions from appealing to the general public as consumers for assistance in a labor dispute. This is a basic infringement upon freedom of expression.
105 Cong.Rec. 16591 (1959), reprinted in II NLRB, Legislative History of the Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959, at 1708 (1959) (hereinafter II Legislative History).
The Senate agreed with this criticism and by resolution instructed its members of a conference committee on the LandrumGriffin Act to insist on a publicity proviso in the final bill. Sen.Res. 181, 86th Cong., 1st Sess., 105 Cong.Rec. 15905-06 (1959), reprinted in II Legislative History, supra at 1382-83. An analysis of Sen.Res. 181 by its sponsors specified, “There is to be no prohibition on truthful appeals to consumers . . . not to buy goods, because the manufacturer is involved in a labor dispute.” 105 Cong. Rec. 15906 (1959), reprinted in II Legislative History, supra at 1383. As Senator Kennedy, who chaired the conference committee, explained,
[T]he union shall be free to conduct informational activity short of picketing. In other words, the union can hand out handbills at the shop, can place advertisements in newspapers, can make announcements over the radio, and can carry on all publicity short of having ambulatory picketing in front of a secondary site.
105 Cong.Rec. 16414 (1959), reprinted in II Legislative History, supra at 1432. See also 105 Cong.Rec. 14339 (1959) (remarks of Rep. Griffin), reprinted in II Legislative History, supra at 1615; 105 Cong.Rec. 16637 (1959) (remarks of Rep. Udall), reprinted in II Legislative History, supra at 1722.
The Congressional purpose could hardly be clearer: whatever secondary objectives were prohibited by § 8(b)(4)(ii)(B), activity would not be prohibited if it consisted only *551of the kind of pure publicity in this case. (An exception exists if the speech had certain effects specified in the publicity proviso itself; no such effects are alleged in this case.) As the Supreme Court has explained, “There is nothing in the legislative history which suggests that the protection of the proviso was intended to be any narrower in coverage than the prohibition to which it is an exception, and we see no basis for attributing such an incongruous purpose to Congress.” NLRB v. Servette, Inc., 377 U.S. 46, 55, 84 S.Ct. 1098, 1104, 12 L.Ed.2d 121 (1964) (hereinafter Servette). The Board, therefore, was entirely correct in its approach to this case. Assuming the union’s conduct was within the general coverage of § 8(b)(4)(ii)(B), the conduct was still not prohibited because it involved nothing other than publicity and therefore comes under the publicity proviso.
The majority rests its conclusion to the contrary upon a reading of the words of the publicity proviso apart from the legislative history or statutory purpose. See at 547 550. This kind of literal reading is not appropriate in interpreting the National Labor Relations Act. NLRB v. Allis Chalmers Manufacturing Co., 388 U.S. 175, 179, 87 S.Ct. 2001, 2005, 18 L.Ed.2d 1123 (1967). The ‘“familiar rule, that a thing may be within the letter of the statute, and yet not within the statute, because not within its spirit, nor within the intention of its makers’ ” has “particular application in the construction of labor legislation ...” National Woodwork Manufacturers Ass’n v. NLRB, 386 U.S. 612, 619, 87 S.Ct. 1250, 1255, 18 L.Ed.2d 357 (1967), citing Church of the Holy Trinity v. United States, 143 U.S. 457, 459, 12 S.Ct. 511, 512, 36 L.Ed. 226 (1892). For example, under a literal reading, the secondary boycott provision, § 8(b)(4), would apply not only to secondary activity; the language read literally would also reach primary strikes by employees against their own employer. Local 761, IUE v. NLRB, 366 U.S. 667, 81 S.Ct. 1285, 6 L.Ed.2d 592 (1961). The statute is not read literally because the Congressional intent expressed through the legislative history and statutory scheme was not to prohibit primary strikes. Id. In this case the majority rests its interpretation of the publicity proviso entirely on the statutory words, contrary to the teaching of Muniz v. Hoffman, 422 U.S. 454, 469-70, 95 S.Ct. 2178, 2186, 45 L.Ed.2d 319 (1975), NLRB v. Allis Chalmers Manufacturing Co., supra, 388 U.S. at 179, 87 S.Ct. at 2005, and National Woodwork Manufacturers Ass’n v. NLRB, supra, 386 U.S. at 619, 87 S.Ct. at 1254. In doing so, the majority arrives at an interpretation of the act at odds with the Congressional purpose that the publicity proviso would remove pure speech from coverage under the secondary boycott prohibitions.
The majority rests its conclusion on a reading of the word “produced” in the publicity proviso. The publicity proviso, the majority contends, would apply only to publicity about goods “produced” by Hussmann, and in the majority’s view it is unreasonable to find that Hussmann is a producer of Pet’s other subsidiaries’ goods. At 549. First, the majority asserts that the relationship between Hussmann and the other subsidiaries involves only contribution of profit to Pét. Id. at 549. Although the majority recognizes that this profit might be employed in productive activities of other subsidiaries, the relation is too attenuated in the majority’s view to involve production of other subsidiaries’ goods by Hussmann. Secondly, the majority appears to take the view that the Supreme Court in Servette confined the meaning of the word “produced” in the publicity proviso to its definition under other labor acts, i. e., ultimately “produced” means “worked on” in some fashion. At 549, citing Servette, supra, 377 U.S. at 55-56, 84 S.Ct. at 1104.
The majority’s reading of the statute is not compelled by Servette. In that case the Supreme Court explained that Congress meant something broader by “produced” than the word means in ordinary usage. The Court suggested that Congress had in the Fair Labor Standards Act likewise used the word “produced” to mean something broader than in ordinary usage. But the Supreme Court in Servette did not incorpo*552rate the Fair Labor Standards Act definition to limit or restrict the meaning of the word “produced” under the publicity proviso. Instead, the Court approved a broad interpretation of the publicity proviso to cover any publicity which absent the proviso would be covered by § 8(b)(4)(ii)(B). The Court said it found “no basis” for “incongruous” interpretation of the publicity proviso’s language to be “any narrower” than the prohibition on secondary activity of § 8(b)(4)(ii)(B). Id. at 56, 84 S.Ct. at 1104.
The Board’s broad interpretation of the word “produced” results in coverage of the publicity proviso in harmony with the Congressional purpose. The Board’s interpretation also does not involve an unjustifiable reading of the word “produced.” The majority, at 549, mischaracterizes the Board’s position; the Board did not say that Hussmann’s only connection with the other divisions is to contribute profits to Pet. The Board said Hussmann contributed not only profits, but also “goodwill” and “diversification.” See id. at 549, citing the Board’s opinion in this case, United Steelworkers of America, 244 N.L.R.B. No. 6 (1979). The majority does not say why the Board erred in finding a contribution of goodwill and diversification, or why the Board erred in finding that the goodwill and diversification were at least tangentially a part of the production process of Pet’s other divisions. Instead, the opinion asserts — -pointing to absolutely no support in the record — that “Should Pet sell Hussmann tomorrow, Pet would manufacture, distribute, and promote its products the same way it is doing now.” Id. at 549. This assertion simply contradicts the Board’s belief that Pet’s other divisions would have greater difficulty operating in the absence of the goodwill and diversification and profits contributed by Hussmann. In the end, this is an arguable question, and without demonstrating any particular error in the Board’s approach, the majority merely substitutes the opinion of the court for that of the Board.
The majority’s approach also infringes upon the Board’s responsibilities in a less obvious but more serious way. The Board assumed (without deciding) that § 8(b)(4)(ii)(B) was applicable to the union conduct in this case and reached only the publicity proviso issue. This approach left open the important question whether picketing (or other activity besides pure publicity) directed against Pet subsidiaries other than Hussmann would be secondary activity under § 8(b)(4)(ii)(B). Under the Board’s view (and mine), this important question involves the “secondary” nature of activity other than publicity, because it was not Congress’ intent to prohibit pure publicity. By ruling the publicity proviso inapplicable to the pure publicity in this case, the majority forces the Board to interpret the coverage of § 8(b)(4)(ii)(B) in a case that does not involve picketing or other activity other than mere speech. In my view, the Board was correct in finding this case an inappropriate one for resolving this important question of labor relations.
The Board avoided deciding whether a union on strike against one division of a “conglomerate” corporation could picket the whole corporation or must confine strike activities to the division. This difficult problem raises fundamental labor relations issues. An employee organization in one division may, as an economic fact, be up against the entire conglomerate. On the other hand, in some circumstances the conglomerate organizational structure may in fact be loose enough that picketing or other action involving the whole conglomerate could be considered in part secondary activity. It is unfortunate that the majority requires resolution of this important question in a case where the dispute remains in the realm of speech; I would leave the Board free in this sensitive area to await a more suitable case involving picketing or other coercive activity with non-speech components.
Ironically enough, the majority may have decided sub silentio the issues it remands to the Board. As noted above, the Supreme Court in Servette and the legislative history of the publicity proviso compel the conclusion that the publicity proviso applies to all pure publicity that would otherwise come under the coverage of § 8(b)(4)(ii)(B). In *553other words, mere publicity apart from picketing is covered by the publicity proviso, unless (1) it is not pure publicity in that it involves a threat or the like, or (2) the publicity is not within § 8(b)(4)(ii)(B) because it is not covered secondary activity. No other conclusion is consistent with the Servette understanding that the publicity proviso is just as broad as the prohibition on secondary activity. In this case no one claims that the publicity falls outside the realm of pure publicity. Therefore, the publicity falls outside the publicity proviso only if it is not secondary activity covered by the statute. Although the majority derives its conclusion from a reading of the publicity proviso in isolation and remands for a decision on the applicability of the secondary boycott prohibition, in my view the majority has decided that question, because the publicity proviso and the prohibition on secondary activity have the same breadth of coverage. Furthermore, the majority’s decision may well also determine that the publicity in this case would not be prohibited if carried out by picketing. That is, if the publicity is not the kind of secondary activity prohibited by § 8(b)(4)(ii)(B), it would not be covered whether carried out by leaflet or picketing.
I do not necessarily disagree with the conclusion that there was no secondary activity in this case. But Congress in the publicity proviso sought to put pure publicity on a different footing than other activity, and this case which involves pure publicity is not appropriate for determining the substantive sweep of § 8(b)(4)(ii)(B). I would deny the petition for review.