Court Opinion

ID: 9468376
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 02:13:21.646787+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:40:50.563179
License: Public Domain

ROSENN, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent because I believe the Board proved, by clear and convincing evidence, a classic case of illegal secondary activity and deliberate violations of this court’s previous judgments and its purgation order of October 8, 1970. I have a definite and firm conviction that the Master *388was mistaken with respect to several critical findings of fact and that his conclusions of law run counter to firmly established principles governing secondary boycotts and common situs picketing. Accordingly, I would reject his recommendations and adjudicate Local 825 in further civil contempt and require it to take the steps in purgation requested in the Board’s motion.
I.

A. East Brunswick

The Union’s purported “area standards” picketing of R. H. Drukker & Co. (“Drukker”) occurred at what was to become the East Brunswick Plaza, a complex of service establishments and office buildings being developed by Robert Lehmann. The Special Master, the Union in its brief to this court, and now the majority, have all treated the entire Plaza project as a single job-site and have accordingly applied principles relevant to common situs picketing to this aspect of the case. I will discuss my views on those principles and their application in Part II of this opinion and for the moment I mention only what I consider to be a serious factual error on which the “common situs” approach is apparently predicated.
In his Finding No. 12, the Master states that “Drukker .. . was engaged in site preparation work at the East Brunswick site, under contract with, inter alia, [Hartford, Red Lobster] . . . and Robert Lehman [sic], developer and owner of the site .... ” The Master’s transcript references to this statement provide no support for the assertion that the entire Plaza tract was owned by Lehmann, and the record reveals a contrary set of facts. Both Rhine Drukker and Castongue, General Superintendent for Denny’s, testified that Lehmann did not own the entire tract, but that Denny’s and others owned their own development sites. Further, statements made by Herve Goyette, Field Superintendent for Red Lobster, are consistent with the notion that Red Lobster owned the property on which it was building its restaurant.
I therefore believe that this case centers around Union activities on no less than three worksites: Denny’s, Red Lobster’s, and Hartford. Such an approach is consistent with the geographic features of the development project. The entire Plaza tract fronted on Route 18 for 2000 feet. Red Lobster’s frontage accounted for only one-fifth of the total. Denny’s was located behind Red, Lobster and had no frontage on Route 18. The Plaza tract was divided into ten parcels (Red Lobster and Denny’s being located on two of the smallest), in addition to parcels reserved for Lehmann’s use for landscaping and water detention sites. The Hartford property, the largest parcel in the development, was 500 feet away from Red Lobster and, like Denny’s, had no Route 18 frontage.
Contracting for construction on each of the foregoing sites proceeded separately and independently. Red Lobster engaged Drukker to do the initial site preparation work for a restaurant building. Drukker commenced the work on July 5 and completed it by July 19. It thereupon moved to the Hartford site and accordingly, the Master found that “by July 19, Drukker was working on the Hartford (McIntosh Motor Inn) section of the site, behind the jughandle located approximately in the center of Route 18 frontage.” (Finding No. 13).
On July 13, Allen Jones, business agent for Local 825, while driving along Route 18, became aware of Drukker’s presence on the Red Lobster site and inquired of the job superintendent “who Drukker was,” and the nature of the operation. Leaving his business card, he left word for Drukker to get in touch with him as soon as possible; otherwise, there would be trouble. (Finding No. 14). Although Drukker’s superintendent had only a two-man crew and two pieces of equipment (Finding No. 13),1 *389when they arrived for work at the Hartford job site on July 19, there were between 50 to 70 pickets patrolling the entire 400 foot length of the Red Lobster property, including Red Lobster’s exclusive entrance to the site. The picket signs, printed in red and black lettering, but with Drukker’s name inserted lightly in ink, gave notice that Drukker’s employees “at this site are receiving less than Local 825’s area standard wages and conditions.”
Although Drukker was expected to return to the Red Lobster site in about a month to pave, it did no work for Red Lobster, nor was it scheduled to perform any work, between July 19 and July 30. Its superintendent and two employees and two pieces of equipment were engaged only on the Hartford site during this period. Nonetheless, the pickets continued to patrol each morning thereafter along Route 18 from the “jug handle” to and including the entire length of the Red Lobster site. After the first day 30 to 40 pickets appeared each morning when the men reported for work, diminishing to about 15 by 8:00 A.M. with 5 or 6 pickets at the rear entrance to the development.
When Goyette, Red Lobster’s job superintendent, arrived at the Red Lobster site on the morning of July 19, he sought Jones out and informed him that Drukker’s work was complete “at that time” and that it was no longer working on the Red Lobster site. When Rhine Drukker, a principal of Drukker, learned of the picketing on July 19, he arranged to meet Jones the following day. At that time Jones asked Drukker about the extent of its work on the East Brunswick development and if he, Jones, could put some of his own men to work. When Drukker indicated concern for the jobs of his employees, Jones said it “would really be impossible” for Drukker’s employees to gain admission to Local 825 and that the work would have to be performed by their members. Drukker claims and Jones denies that Jones thereupon gave Drukker a copy of the Local 825 labor contract and requested him to sign it. Although the Master found there was such a' meeting between Drukker and Jones, he made no findings as to what was discussed. Nor did he make any findings concerning Drukker’s unchallenged testimony that later that morning Jones again asked Drukker to sign a contract with Local 825.
Picketing continued daily until July 30. Goyette again spoke to Jones on July 30 and inquired whether Red Lobster could proceed with the installation of the foundations for its building if it did not employ non-union labor. Jones replied in the affirmative but warned that he would “throw pickets up” once he saw any non-union workers on the Red Lobster site. Thus, with this parting admonition, construction of the Red Lobster building commenced on July 30.2
Red Lobster’s masonry subcontractors, scheduled to lay the foundations for the building during this period, were unable to perform any work on the job site from July 19 until July 30 because of the picketing. Although the Master made this finding, he also found (Finding No. 22), in the face of evidence to the contrary, that there is “an absolute void in the record on the part of the Board to prove that some violation on the part of Local 825 resulted in the failure of the masonry contractor to appear.” However, Goyette testified that the mason*390ry contractor was unionized and that he would not cross the picket line “and even if he did, then he would be unable to receive any concrete.” Goyette also testified that on the morning of July 25, while he was in the trailer office, he was threatened by a large man from the picket line who swore at him and verbally abused him. Because of his fear of bodily injury, he did not return to the job site the next day and remained away until July 30. Goyette conceded that when he showed up on the job site on July 26, the pickets permitted him to pass through, although they did administer a verbal tongue lashing. One of the pickets on the Red Lobster premises called Goyette a “bald headed queer bastard and you come outside and I’m going to beat your goddamn head in.” On July 25, public utility vehicles arrived at the Red Lobster site to make the electrical installation. “[T]he pickets converged on the two vehicles and they pulled off onto the shoulder of Route 18” and after waiting a half hour they decided to leave without entering the site.
On July 11, 1979, CBR Developments, a wholly owned subsidiary of Denny’s, broke ground on the East Brunswick development for a new facility. The work was to be performed by subcontractors but Drukker was not one of them; it had not performed any work for Denny’s. The Denny’s site was about 300 feet from the Red Lobster property. On July 19, pickets also appeared at the Denny property and returned daily to picket. Concrete, door frames, and other material bound for the Denny construction were turned away. On July 27 Denny’s job superintendent, Castongue, spoke to Jones and asked him “what it would take” for Denny’s to be able to “proceed with the project.” Although Denny’s had no relationship whatsoever with Drukker, Castongue testified that Jones told him that the only way Denny’s was going to do any work was if it “used union people on the job. He was very adamant about that and repeated that we would have to be union all the way.”
Although the Master found that “Local 825 had a labor dispute at the East Brunswick site only with Drukker,” (Finding No. 28), the Master concluded that there was no credible evidence that the pickets were responsible for the turning away of Denny’s suppliers. He reached this conclusion by holding that direct evidence of what the pickets said to the truckdrivers was necessary to find inducement. After Castongue agreed to use union labor only, Denny’s masonry subcontractor commenced work on Denny’s site for the first time since the picketing began.

B. The Jackson Township School Site

In the spring of 1979, Leeds, a non-union contractor, commenced plumbing and drainage work and Ogren, a general contractor, undertook general construction work on an addition to the Goetz School pursuant to a contract with the Township Board of Education. Because of picketing by Local 9, Plumbers and Pipefitters Union, and by Local -89- of the International Association of Heat and Frost Insulators, commenced about the end of August, Leeds set up separate entrances at the Goetz School, reserving one exclusively for Leeds and its suppliers (entrance No. 2) and designating the other entrance (entrance No. 1) for all other subcontractors and suppliers. Simultaneously, Leeds sent letters to the two locals, the school board, and the other contractors notifying them of this action and fixing the location of the gates. On August 27 Leeds wrote to its suppliers informing them of its separate entrance on the Trenton-Lakewood Road accompanied by a map and a request to use this entrance No. 2 for all deliveries. On August 29 Leeds wrote to Local 825, the school board, and all other contractors giving notice of the separate gates, and advising them that the entrance “now in use by all contractors will remain in use and be designated No. 1 to be used by all other contractors, etc., but not by D. T. Leeds, Inc.” The letter concluded with a request that Local 825 picket Leeds at entrance No. 2.
The Board’s evidence pertaining to the picketing at the school site is unrefuted; Local 825 did not present any evidence. This evidence establishes that on September *3915, Local 825 picketed the neutral gates on Patterson Drive with signs stating that Leeds did not pay Local 825 area wages and standards. When Cox, Ogren’s job superintendent, arrived at the site on the morning of September 5 and found Local 825 picketing the neutral entrance, he stopped at the picket line. White, a business agent for Local 825, came over, introduced himself, and told Cox he would be crossing a picket line if Cox went to work. Cox withdrew and returned the next day to get his tools to work elsewhere. In his absence, no work was performed by his work crew under the Ogren contract. Furthermore, Ogren’s subcontractors failed to work. When Cox returned for his tools on September 6, he again saw pickets at the neutral gate.
When Hagenbarth, an officer of Ogren, arrived at the neutral gate on September 5, he saw 15 to 20 pickets at the entrance. The pickets occupied the roadway to the entrance and thereby obstructed his ability to enter the job site. When he inquired of the pickets why Local 825 was there, he was informed that it was “supporting the plumbers’ and pipefitters’ efforts to punish the owners for hiring a nonunion contractor.” Hagenbarth drove around to the Leeds’ reserve gate and found pickets there from the two other locals. However, Local 825 never picketed this reserve gate. After September 6, four to six members of Local 825 lingered across from the main (neutral) gate without signs where they sat on their cars. Although the language on the gate signs was inartistically drafted, the undisputed evidence is that it left no confusion among the employees on the job site as to which gate they were to use. The gate signs were torn down on September 4, but were restored by Leeds’ foreman, Alessandrini, about 7:15 A.M. on September 5.
II.
The decrees entered by this court in 1963 and again in 1966 against Local 825 prohibited, inter alia, the Local, its officers, agents, and representatives from “inducing or encouraging any individual” employed by any employer to engage in a strike or refusal in the course of his or her employment to transport or otherwise handle or work on any goods or materials or perform any services; “or threatening, restraining, or coercing any employer where, in either case, an object thereof is to force or require . . . any employer or persons to cease doing business with . . . any other employer or persons.”3
On October 8, 1970, we entered a further decree against Local 825, its officers, agents, and representatives enforcing another order of the Board adjudging them in civil contempt for having violated the courts decrees entered in 1962 and 1963 and directed Local 825 to purge itself of the civil contempt. NLRB v. Local 825, International Union of Operating Engineers, 430 F.2d 1225 (3d Cir.), cert. denied, 401 U.S. 976, 91 S.Ct. 1200, 28 L.Ed.2d 326 (1970). Thereafter, on October 27, 1971, this court entered an additional decree enforcing another order of the Board issued February 13, 1967. Our order of October 27, 1971, barred Local 825, its officers, agents, and representatives from
inducing or encouraging any individual employed by . . . any . . . person engaged in commerce or an industry affecting commerce, to engage in a strike or a refusal in the course of his employment to perform any services; or threatening, coercing, or restraining ... any ... person engaged in commerce or industry affecting commerce, where, in either case, an object thereof is to force or require . . . any . . . person ... to cease doing business with . . . any other person.
*392Because of serious Congressional concern over the coercive involvement of third parties in labor disputes not their own, Congress in 1959 amended the National Labor Relations Act by adding section 8(b)(4)(B), 29 U.S.C. § 158(b)(4)(B):
This concern was focused on the “secondary boycott” which was conceived of as pressure brought to bear, “not upon the employer who alone is a party [to a dispute] but upon some third party who has no concern in it” with the objective of forcing the third party to bring pressure on the employer to agree to the union’s demands.
NLRB v. Local 825, International Union of Operating Engineers, 400 U.S. 297, 302-03, 91 S.Ct. 402, 405-06, 27 L.Ed.2d 398 (1971) (footnotes omitted).
Local 825 ostensibly picketed the Red Lobster and Denny’s construction sites to inform Drukker’s employees and the public, according to the picket signs, that workers “operating power driven construction equipment at this job site are receiving less than Local 825’s area standard wages and conditions.” But there is no evidence in this record that Local 825 had any reliable basis for this information. It failed to verify with Drukker or any reliable source the information it was disseminating.4 Furthermore, Denny’s had not engaged Drukker to do any work for it; it had no contract with Drukker. None of Drukker’s equipment was on Denny’s property, nor were any of its employees. If the picketing was purely informational and not intended to induce or encourage anyone performing services for Red Lobster or Denny’s to cease doing so, picketing nevertheless continued at the Red Lobster site even after Drukker had completed the first phase of its work there and had removed all of its equipment. For the following period of 11 days, a period when only the masonry subcontractor, Troy Stifler, was scheduled to lay the foundations, the pickets appeared daily en masse. If this was simply innocent informational picketing, one must ask how Local 825 can account for 50-75 pickets massed along Red Lobster’s 400 foot front, particularly when the primary contractor and his employees were no longer there? Even if they were, the presence of 50-75 pickets reveals more than an informational purpose, especially when the employer had only two employees and a supervisor on the site to be informed. The picketing effectively shut down the Red Lobster and Denny’s construction as the subcontractors refused to work and the suppliers refused to cross the picket line.
As alluded to earlier, I believe the Master, the Union, and the majority rely improperly on principles applicable to common situs picketing in gauging the legality of the Union’s actions in this case. The picketing at East Brunswick Plaza affected ongoing work at no less than three independently owned jobsites, each of which was under development by separate general contractors. Two of those contractors and owners had no contacts with the primary employer during the time the pickets were patrolling their jobsites. To sustain the legality of the Union activity affecting Red Lobster and Denny’s is no different, in my view, from announcing a rule of law authorizing a labor organization to shut down construction on a group of homes being built separately by individual owners merely because the Union has a dispute with an electrician wiring someone else’s home across the street. It requires little sustained consideration, and no citation of authority, to realize that such a result completely frustrates Congress’ intent in enacting section 8(b)(4)(B).
However, even if application of Moore Dry Dock5 standards were appropriate to this case, and there had been compliance with them, where the activities or state*393ments of the union reveal any illegal secondary purpose, such conduct is unlawful. Texas Distributors, Inc. v. Local Union No. 100, 598 F.2d 393, 398 (5th Cir. 1979); Local Union No. 369, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, 229 N.L.R.B. 68, 72 (1977). First, Local 825 did not comply with the Moore Drydock standards because at the time of the picketing — July 19 to July 30 — Drukker, the primary employer, was not engaged in any business activity on the Red Lobster or Denny’s site. That being so, the picketing on these properties could not have been within the sight of employees of the primary employer to persuade them. Thus the only reasonable conclusion to be drawn is that the purpose of the picketing was to apply pressure to the neutral employers. “A picket line is a potent instrument.” Superior Derrick Corp. v. NLRB, 273 F.2d 891, 896 (5th Cir. 1960), and in the long history of the trade union movement, “it has a special message of its own. To a loyal unionist it is both a spontaneous plea not to engage in any business activity with those behind the picket curtain and an instantaneous branding of ‘unfairness’ on those engaged in activities behind the picket line.” Id. at 896. In the instant case, this is illustrated by Red Lobster’s masonry contractor’s refusal to cross the picket line and his recognition that even if he did, concrete suppliers would not.
Picketing Denny’s premises, when the primary contractor Drukker was neither there nor under contract, and the Red Lobster’s premises after the primary employer had, as the Master found, moved his equipment and employees to the motel site, could not have been informational. The picketing amounted to a direct application of pressure on vulnerable neutral companies to induce them — at the very least, to encourage them — to cease or refrain from doing business with Drukker.6
The intended breadth of the words “induced or encouraged” in section 8(b)(4)(A) is emphasized by their contrast with the restricted phrases used in other parts of section 8(b) .... The scope of “induced” and especially of “encouraged” goes beyond each of them.
International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers v. NLRB, 341 U.S. 694, 703, 71 S.Ct. 954, 959, 95 L.Ed. 1299 (1951). Thus, an allowance of picketing of neutral employers, regardless of how peaceful the picketing may be, “would be to open the door to the customary means of eliciting the support of employees to bring economic pressure to bear on their employer.” Id. It would be destructive of the purpose of section 8(bX4). Implicit in the 1959 amendment to section 8(b)(4) of the Taft-Hartley Act, 29 U.S.C. § 158(b), is a Congressional recognition of the devastating effect secondary picketing can have on a neutral employer.
The objective of the picketing can shed considerable illumination in ascertaining whether Local 825 induced or encouraged employees, subcontractors, and suppliers of Red Lobster and Denny’s to refuse to work on their construction. The statute and our previous judgments forbid any activity which seeks to induce or encourage a person not the primary employer or an employee of his to take some action as to refuse to perform services or to do business with the primary employer.
The cases recognize the very practical fact that, intended or not, sought for or not, aimed for or not, employees and neutral parties do take action sympathetic with strikers and do put pressure on their own employers.
Seafarers International Union v. NLRB, 265 F.2d 585, 590 (D.C.Cir.1959). One of the most effective means of applying such pressure is to picket a neutral place of business, relying on the union adherent’s traditional aversion to crossing a picket *394line. The purpose of our decrees, as it is of the statute, is to protect unoffending employers from this extraordinary pressure.
The Master concluded that Local 825 engaged in lawful area standards common situs picketing of Drukker from July 19 to July 30, but he made no attempt to analyze the purpose of the picketing at the Red Lobster and Denny’s properties. Some questions that immediately confront us and to which the Master provided no answers are: first, could it truly have been area standards informational picketing when Jones had no information on what Drukker was paying his employees or what their standards of employment were? Jones says he relied for this information on what one of his pickets told him. Second, considering that Drukker merely had a bulldozer and compactor operated by only two employees, did it require 50 to 75 pickets to patrol 400 feet of Red Lobster property for informational purposes, particularly when Red Lobster had an exclusive entrance to its property? Third, if this was simply informational picketing and not an appeal for a secondary boycott, was massive picketing required at the Red Lobster property when in fact Drukker had no equipment or employees there?
The Master found that the large number of pickets was required because they were patrolling 2,000 feet along the highway. However, the only construction on that 2,000 feet at that time was on the Red Lobster property. There is no evidence of any construction at the time of any other site fronting on Route 18 in the development. The Master saw no impropriety because Red Lobster had a contract with Drukker for performance of additional work at some subsequent time. But how can the existence of such a contract lend credence to informational picketing when the primary employer has no employees on the premises of the neutral employer to be enlightened? Furthermore, Drukker had no contract with Denny’s, had never done any work for them, and none of its employees were on Denny’s property. Nonetheless, Denny’s was still the victim of Local 825’s campaign for enlightenment. The Master gave these facts no consideration whatsoever and makes no allusion to them. The conclusion is inescapable that the picketing campaign had the planned and expected effect of denying the services of all union workmen and suppliers of the neutral employers unless they committed them-' selves to disassociate then and in the future from Drukker or other non-union workmen. As soon as this illegal objective of the picketing had been achieved, the pickets were removed.
There are other factors, also ignored by the Master, which point to Local 825’s calculated plan to violate this court’s decrees and which do not support the Local’s claim of innocent, informational picketing. First, if its activities were merely informational, no explanation is offered for Jones’ insistence to Drukker that the work to be performed be rendered by Local 825 members and that membership was not available for Drukker’s employees in this local. “The result is that [Local 825’s] picketing in order to attain its ultimate purpose, must have included among its objects that of forcing [Red Lobster] to terminate [the] subcontract.” NLRB v. Denver Building and Construction Trades Council, 314 U.S. 675, 688, 71 S.Ct. 943, 951, 95 L.Ed. 1284 (1951).
Second, on July 30 J^pes withdrew Local 825 pickets from the Red Lobster property when their project superintendent assured Jones he would use only union labor to lay the foundation. Jones, however, threatened to “throw pickets up” if any non-union workers appeared at the site. This definitely demonstrates that Jones was interested in cutting off business with non-union contractors, not the mere dissemination of information.
Third, when Denny’s job superintendent, Castongue, inquired of Jones on July 27 “what it would take” to be able to proceed with their construction, he was repeatedly warned by Jones that Denny’s could do so only if they “used union people on the job.” Here, too, when Denny’s agreed to use union labor, its masonry subcontractor was for the first time permitted to commence work *395since the picketing began. Again, it is obvious that the picketing was not merely informational. On the contrary, the picketing was blatantly intended to induce Red Lobster to discontinue business with Drukker, a non-union contractor, and it succeeded. The picketing had also been intended to induce or encourage Denny’s to refrain from using non-union contractors and subcontractors and there too it succeeded.
Finally, the Master completely ignored direct testimony from Castongue that he was threatened and abused as he crossed the line and while working at the Red Lobster site. This is not mere information, it is plainly and simply threats and coercion directed at a neutral employer. The picketing was intended to appeal to secondary employees not to cross the picket line or to perform services despite the lack of any presence of the primary contractor on the premises of the neutrals, and it met with obvious success. As an appeal to secondary employees, it was illegal. NLRB v. Denver Building and Construction Trades Council, 341 U.S. 675, 71 S.Ct. 943, 95 L.Ed. 1284 (1951).
III.
Local 825’s activity at the East Jackson site falls within the same proscriptions of the law and this court’s previous orders. When Leeds first encountered picketing at the school site, it immediately established two separate entrances. It reserved one for its employees and suppliers; it set up the other for employees of all other contractors and their employers. Leeds scrupulously adhered to its reserve gate. Although the signs designating the gates were not drafted precisely, they were supported by letters to all interested parties, including Local 825, that clearly identified the separate entrances.
The Master, however, found that the sign posted caused such confusion that it failed to establish a reserve gate. His references to the record, however, do not support this finding. In fact, the uncontradicted evidence is to the contrary. Cox, the construction superintendent for Arthur Ogren, Inc., the general contractor, personally refused to cross the picket line except with the consent of Local 825 to pick up his tools. He testified that the signs did not create confusion among the employees on the job site. Leeds, under cross-examination, also testified that “nobody was confused at the site.”7 The Master, obviously uncomfortable with his finding, further compounded the error with an alternate finding that even if it be assumed that a reserve gate was established “it cannot be found by clear and convincing evidence that Leeds’ employees and other contractors were not also using the neutral gate instead of the reserve gate which they attempted to establish.” (Finding No. 36). This finding incomprehensibly places the burden of proof on the Board to negatively establish what otherwise should be an affirmative defense of the Union, if it exists at all. The record is absolutely devoid of any evidence that Leeds or its contractors were using the neutral gate once the reserve gate was established.
Although the Master found that on September 5 Local 825 picketed the main entrance on Patterson Drive, (Finding No. 36), he was unable to find that the sign attempting to establish a reserve gate was posted “since there was great confusion even among the witnesses for the Board as to whether the picketing was done on September 5, or September 6, and further whether the sign attempting to establish the reserve gate was even posted at the time.” (Finding No. 36). Ochs, in charge of the picketing for the Heating and Pipefitters Local, testified to the contrary, stating *396that he observed picketing at the main gate September 5 and 6. Cox also contradicted the Master’s finding. He even sought Local 825’s permission to cross the picket line on September 6 to withdraw his tools. Hagenbarth’s testimony also contradicted the Master’s finding. No evidence in the record supports it.8
It is firmly established that in common situs construction, one contractor may establish separate gates for the purpose of ingress and egress from the job site and thereby lawfully force the union to picket only the primary gate. Local 519 v. NLRB, 416 F.2d 1120, 1125 (D.C.Cir.1969). To carry out the legislative purpose embodied in the secondary boycott amendments, a union must under such circumstances limit its picketing to areas reasonably proximate to the gate used by the primary contractor’s employees and suppliers. See Local 761, International Union of Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers v. NLRB, 366 U.S. 667, 81 S.Ct. 1285, 6 L.Ed.2d 592 (1961); Markwell and Hartz, Inc. v. NLRB, 387 F.2d 79, 81-83 (5th Cir. 1967), cert. denied, 391 U.S. 914, 88 S.Ct. 1808, 20 L.Ed.2d 653 (1968). The record in this case clearly and convincingly establishes that Local 825 picketed the neutral gate; it never picketed the gate reserved for Leeds. The absence of Leeds’ employees at the main gate is evidence of the secondary objective of the picketing. Painters District Council No. 38, 153 N.L.R.B. 797, 800-01 (1965); NLRB v. Local 254 Building Service Employees, 359 F.2d 289, 291 (1st Cir. 1966). “There is simply no excuse for picketing where the message is seen by neutral employees of neutral employers but is not seen at all by the employees of the primary employer.” Brown Transport Co. v. NLRB, 334 F.2d 30, 39 (5th Cir. 1964).
Accordingly, I would reject the recommendations of the Master and adjudicate Local 825 in further civil contempt and require that it take the steps in purgation requested in the Board’s motion.

. Drukker’s two pieces of equipment (a bulldozer and compactor) were parked along the Route 18 frontage when the pickets arrived but they were moved later in the day to the Hartford site where they remained for the period between July 19 and July 30. Although the Master made a finding to this effect (Finding No. 13), he subsequently made an inconsistent *389finding “that defendant continued to have his equipment on the job site (July 27).” (Finding No. 24).

. The Master confused Goyette’s conversation on July 30 with Goyette’s earlier conversation with Jones on July 19. The pickets did not leave this site on July 20 as erroneously found by the Master. (Finding No. 20). Furthermore, the Master’s finding that Goyette falsely represented that Drukker had no more work to perform for Red Lobster “since Drukker and Red Lobster had merely pretended that there was no contract between them” was irrelevant. The issue, entirely overlooked by the Master, was whether Drukker had completed its work, at least phase one, and had removed its employees and equipment from the Red Lobster site. There is no evidence in this record that Drukker did any work on the Red Lobster site during the period in issue. On the contrary, there is evidence that Drukker performed no work there between July 19 and July 30.

. This court enforced a broad order entered in 1963 against Local 825, NLRB v. Local 825, International Union of Operating Engineers, 322 F.2d 478 (3d Cir. 1963), when general counsel for the NLRB excepted to the narrower order of the trial examiner in the proceedings reported in Local 825, International Union of Operating Engineers, 138 NLRB 279 (1962). The Board agreed with General Counsel that a broad order was necessary “because of the extent to which [Local 825 and the named officers] have demonstrated a proclivity to engage in unlawful secondary activities in furtherance of their disputes with these and other primary employers.” Id. at 280 (footnotes omitted).

. The Master’s finding that Local 825 engaged in area standard picketing was predicated on the testimony of the business agent Jones that several of his pickets, none of whom he could identify, told him that Denny’s was not paying the area standard. Jones admitted that he “never spoke to Drukker at all before putting up the picket lines.”

. Sailors’ Union of the Pacific, 92 N.L.R.B. 547 (1950); see maj. op., at 384.

. The Union apparently draws solace from testimony of Denny’s Castongue that his company had no intention of doing business with Drukker. The Union apparently believes that such testimony necessarily precludes attribution of an illegal object to the picketing because Denny’s, as a neutral, had no way of pressuring Drukker. In light of the Denny’s picketing, however, the clear import of Jones’ statements to Castongue was that if any non-union workers, especially Drukker, appeared on the Denny’s site, operations would be shut down.

. This testimony is further supported by the testimony of David Ochs, in charge of the picketing on this development for the International Association of Heat and Frost Insulators, Local 89, that his local picketed Leeds at the main entrance to the project on September 4 and 5. But after those dates they picketed only at “the restricted gate” on the Trenton-Lak.ewood Road. For the remainder of their picketing, they never picketed the main gate although Ochs appeared there to observe what was going on. At the main gate the only picketing he observed was by Local 825 pickets carrying signs and by no other union.

. In a feeble effort to support his finding, the Master seized upon a small portion of Cox’s testimony given under cross-examination that the signs had been torn down before Cox reported for work and were not present thereafter. Cox’s amplified testimony, however, revealed that he personally did not observe the signs being tom down since he did not report for work until about a half hour after the signs had been restored by Alessandrini, Leeds’ plumbing foreman. The record shows that the gate signs were torn down during the day of September 4 and that Alessandrini replaced them on September 5 about 7:15 A.M. immediately after starting his work. Cox testified that he was almost 100% certain that the signs were up when he arrived for work at 7:45 A.M. on September 5 and he described seeing it behind White, the business agent, as he spoke to him. This testimony is uncontradicted, and there is no testimony to indicate that the sign identifying the main gate was not posted on September 6. In substance, the Master’s finding depends on Cox’s testimony concerning an entry in his log indicating “no signs on main entrance” on September 6. Cox explained, however, that this entry referred not to a gate sign, but to picket signs.