Court Opinion

ID: 9550559
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 18:37:07.3114+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:21:46.381592
License: Public Domain

WADE, Justice
(dissenting).
Section 42-2a-5, U. C. A. 1943, which should be controlling in this case, provides:
“An individual shall be ineligible for benefits * * *:
“(d) For any week in which * * * his unemployment is due to a stoppage of work which exists because of a strike involving his grade, class, or group of workers at the factory or establishment at which he is or was last employed.
*549“(1) If * * * a strike has been fomented by a worker of any employer, none of the workers of the grade, class, or group of workers of the individual who is * * * a party to such plan, or agreement to foment a strike, shall be eligible for benefits; * *
The language of (d) is clear and unambiguous that in order for a workman to be ineligible for benefits thereunder his unemployment must be due to a work stoppage caused by a strike at the factory or establishment where he was employed. This language clearly does not make two grounds for ineligibility but states only one ground which has several qualifications and unless all the qualifications stated exist the worker is not disqualified for benefits, and one of those conditions stated is that there must be a strike causing the unemployment at the factory or establishment where such worker was employed. I cannot agree with the contention which the prevailing opinion seems to make: That this provision intended to require only that his grade, class or group of workers must be at the factory or establishment where he was previously employed and did not intend to require that the strike causing the unemployment be at such factory. Such construction seems to be contrary to the clear and obvious meaning of the language used. Also, if such were the intent, then the words “at the factory or establishment where he is or was last employed” add nothing whatever to the meaning of this provision, for if his unemployment is caused by a strike such strike must involve his grade, class or group of workers at the plant where he was employed because if it did not involve such group, it could not cause his unemployment. There is nothing in (1) of the statute which justified the majority construction.
I agree with the prevailing opinion that the 1935 and 1936 amendments were intended to refine and clarify the disqualification provision. The amendment makes it crystal clear that the disqualification provision requires a strike at the plant where the worker was previously employed. Prior to the amendment a worker who “left or lost his em*550ployment due to a trade dispute involving the employer by whom he was employed,” was not entitled to benefits “so long as such trade dispute continues”. A “trade dispute” is a much broader term than a “strike at the factory or establishment” where the worker was last employed. A strike contemplates that the employees by concerted action stop work but a trade dispute requires only that there is a dispute or disagreement between the employer and employees. If, as the prevailing opinion contends, the amendments were intended to clarify and refine the meaning, the legislative intention must have been to make it clear that the disqualification provision should apply only where the workers’ unemployment is due to a strike at the factory or establishment where he was last employed. Otherwise the amendment had the effect of creating confusion and uncertainty rather than refinement and clarity.
The cases from California relied on in the prevailing opinion are distinguishable from our statute in that the wording in their statute is similar to ours before the amendments, where the terms construed were a trade dispute and not a strike at the factory or establishment where the worker was last employed, but even under such a statute three judges out of seven dissented, McKinley v. California Employment Stabilization Commission, 34 Cal. 2d 238, 209 P. 2d 602. Also, the case of Members of Iron Workers’ Union of Provo v. Ind. Comm., 104 Utah 242, 139 P. 2d 208, relied on in the prevailing opinion has no bearing whatever on our problem here. There, all of the employees involved worked at the same plant and a strike was called by the employees of that plant. We merely held that members of a rival union belonged to the same grade, class or group where they did the same kind of work.
HENRIOD, J., not participating.