Court Opinion

ID: 9599192
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 01:15:48.511295+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:42:09.881483
License: Public Domain

CARTER, J.
I dissent.
The construction placed by the majority on the Jurisdictional Strike Act will prevent a union from continuing to press its dispute with the employer over wages or working conditions whenever the employer calls in another union and makes the dispute jurisdictional. In my opinion it was not the intention of the Legislature that the act be so construed.
The majority holds that the demand for recognition by the association, which was not even in existence until 11 months after the strike began, converted the previously lawful picketing within the prohibitions of the Jurisdictional Strike Act. The employer is allowed by the majority holding to enjoin the picketing by the union that instituted the strike, and to negotiate solely with the second union that subsequently appeared on the scene and created the interunion conflict. The act cannot reasonably be interpreted to allow an injunction in this situation.
*388The Jurisdictional Strike Act is designed to protect employers caught between conflicting union demands. It applies when the dispute is not one over traditional and lawful union demands, such as wages and hours, but instead is over overlapping claims by rival unions to job opportunities. In the latter situation the employer is placed in a position where he will be subjected to picketing and economic coercion, no matter how willing he may be to bargain in good faith with either union. By outlawing aggressive union action in connection with controversies between several unions over the exclusive right to perform work, California has followed a general trend in state and national legislation.
California did not, however, go farther and give the employers more protection than the necessities of the problem demanded. By the phrase “arising out of a controversy between two or more labor organizations,” the application of the act is limited to cases where the forbidden concerted activity results from interunion disputes. It does not apply if the dispute is simply between an employer and a union.
In the present case, the picketing by the Bakery Workers was peaceful and for a lawful purpose when it commenced on December 7, 1948. At that time there was no basis for injunctive relief. Nearly a year later, the association appeared on the scene and informed the employer that if he signed a contract with the Bakery Workers, the association would commence picketing. The majority opinion states that thereafter the picketing by the Bakery Workers came within the act. But can it be seriously contended that a continuous course of picketing in support of a strike, existing for many months before the appearance of the second union, arose out of, resulted from, or was proximately caused by a controversy between the two unions? The employer concedes that the picketing was lawful in its inception, but argues that he “obtained a remedy” when the second labor organization presented a demand for recognition. The majority accepts this argument and gives the employer injunctive relief, not against the second union that interfered. and subjected the employer to the conflicting demands, but against the first union, that had been picketing in support of a hitherto lawful strike for the purposes of gaining recognition and reinstatement of a discharged union member. I have difficulty following the reasoning that the lawful acts of the Bakery Workers were transformed into unlawful acts by the conduct of a *389hostile labor organization, with which it has no affiliation or connection.
Other provisions of the Jurisdictional Strike Act and the Labor Code would seem to reinforce the conclusion that the words “arising out of a controversy between two or more labor organizations” made the act inapplicable at the time the injunction issued. Section 1119 provides that nothing in the act “shall be construed to interfere with collective bargaining subject to the prohibitions herein set forth. ’ ’ This provision is meaningless, if picketing may be prohibited whenever a second union makes a demand upon the employer during the existence of a bona fide dispute between the employer and the union engaged in the picketing. Absent more specific provisions in the act, this section prevents the act from being interpreted to ban concerted union action in ordinary strikes. (See International Labor Board v. Rice Milling Co., 341 U.S. 665, 673 [71 S.Ct. 961, 95 L.Ed. 1277].) Moreover, the public policy of this state, as expressed in section 923 of the Labor Code, is that individual workers shall be free to negotiate the terms of their employment, and to be free from the interference of their employers in concerted activities for the purpose of collective bargaining. The decisions of this court make it clear that a union may use concerted action to gain objectives reasonably related to legitimate interests of organized labor. (McKay v. Retail Auto. S.L. Union, 16 Cal.2d 311 [106 P.2d 373], and companion cases.)
The majority supports its construction of the act on the ground that otherwise it would be “practically never applicable, for the unions would have to act simultaneously in their demands or disputes with the employer before there • would be an interference with the employer’s business arising out of a controversy between the unions as to which should be exclusive bargaining agent.”
This objection would be obviated if the act applies to the union'that intervened in the pre-existing dispute between the first union and the employer. The California statute is significantly different from the TafUHartley Act, which provides that when one union gains certification as the union which the employees wish to represent them, other unions cannot thereafter intervene and subject the employer to conflicting demands for work assignments. (Section 8 (b) (4) (D); see International Longshoremen's & W. Union v. Juneau Spruce Corp., 342 U.S. 237 [72 S.Ct. 235, 96 L.Ed 275]; Petro, Union Job-Seeking Aggression, 50 Mich.L.Rev., 497, *390510-520.) The California statute does not contain certification procedure, and there thus is presented a serious problem in determining in disputes between an employer and more than one union which union is entitled to carry out concerted activities so that employees may achieve the legitimate objectives of organized labor, and which unions are prevented from entering the picture and exposing an innocent employer to mutually exclusive demands by rival unions. The majority resolves this difficulty by applying the statute to all unions making claims for the right to represent the employees, regardless of the prior history of disputes and contracts between the employer and the union first representing, or claiming to represent, the employees. Further, as I read the majority opinion, there is no requirement that the unions in fact represent any of the employees: all that is required is that more than one union claim the right to represent them. The majority would thus allow the employer either to contract with the union that offers the best terms and obtain injunctive relief against other unions making more unpalatable requests, or, so long as two rival unions are present, to enjoin picketing by both unions and gain perpetual freedom from concerted labor action. To protect employers from demands by more than one union, the majority gives the right to ban picketing by all unions, even though one union may have represented the employees for many years.
The express language of the act does not support the foregoing construction. As we have already seen, the words “arising out of a controversy between two or more labor organizations” prevent the statute from being applied to the union that originally began picketing for a lawful purpose. Concededly, however, unless the statute is meaningless, the employer must be entitled to some type of injunctive relief in order to eliminate jurisdictional demands from the picketing and confine the dispute to one over traditional lawful union objectives. The employer will be fully protected and the purposes of the act carried out by giving him relief against the demand by the second union. An ordinary strike between a single union and an employer does not “arise out” of a dispute between two unions, and the act thus does not apply to picketing arising out of renewal of a collective bargaining agreement or out of an organizational strike when no other union is simultaneously making a claim that it should represent the employees. On the other hand, when an employer either has a contract with one union, or is engaged in a strike with *391a .union, and a second union intervenes and makes demands for job rights that conflict with the demands of the first union, the controversy between the second union and the employer would appear to be one “arising out of” a jurisdiciional conflict between the two unions. The action of the second union puts the employer in a position where he would face economic pressure whether he acceded to the demands of the first union, or rejected them and accepted those of the second union. The first union, however, did nothing different from what it had be.en doing before the second union appeared and, as to the first union, the picketing would, therefore, still “arise out of” the original dispute with the employer. Since the only reason there is any conflict between two unions over job rights is the interference of the second union, it would seem to follow that the employer is entitled to prevent the second union from concerted interference with his business, but that the first union is not within the prohibitions of the act.
The act as a whole is aimed at preventing a union from interfering with another union which has a dispute with the employer—to prevent the latter union from creating a situation where the employer is faced with demands from both unions for exclusive representation rights. It is, therefore, the latter union which should be enjoined from its activities because it is in the wrong. This is recognized by the act when it provides that “aiiy person” injured or threatened with injury by a violation of the act may obtain injunctive relief. (Lab. Code, § 1116.) “Person” includes a labor organization. (Ibid., § 1117.) Thus the union engaged in a dispute with the employer should be entitled to have the interfering union restrained from concerted activity on the ground that such activity merely creates an illusory jurisdictional strike where none exists.
The orders should be reversed.
Traynor, J., concurred.
Appellants’ petition for a rehearing was denied April 2, 1953. Carter, J., and Traynor, J., were of the opinion that the petition should be granted.