Garner v. Teamsters, Chauffeurs & Helpers, Local Union No. 776
Garner v. Teamsters, Chauffeurs & Helpers, Local Union No. 776
Dissenting Opinion
Dissenting Opinion by
Plaintiffs, who are engaged in the trucking and storage business in Harrisburg, sought and obtained an injunction restraining a union, its officers. and agents, from peacefully picketing its platform facilities at a railroad station where the plaintiffs operated a local freight pick-up and delivery service. The picketing caused tremendous losses and irreparable damage to the plaintiffs. Some of plaintiffs’ business was' inter-state.
The Courts of Pennsylvania have hitherto always taken jurisdiction in cases involving alleged irreparable damage or injury, including cases involving labor-industrial disputes, and have then decided each particular case on its own facts and merits. The basic
Defendants contend that the picketing was peaceful and was conducted solely for organizational purposes, namely, to persuade plaintiffs’ non-union employees to join the union. Peaceful picketing for a lawful purpose conducted in a lawful manner, is protected by both our State and Federal Courts: Wortex Mills, Inc. v. Textile Workers Union, 369 Pa. 359, 85 A. 2d 851; Thornhill v. Alabama, 310 U. S. 88; Carlson v. California, 310 U. S. 106; Cafeteria Employees Union v. Angelos, 320 U. S. 293; A. F. of L. v. Swing, 312 U. S. 321; Carnegie-Illinois Steel Corp. v. United Steelworkers of America, 353 Pa. 420, 45 A. 2d 857. If the peaceful picketing was conducted solely for organizational purposes and in a lawful manner, I agree with the majority that it would not violate the Constitution or the laws of Pennsylvania and should not be enjoined. If on the other hand one of the objectives of the peaceful picketing was for an unlawful or illegal purpose or objective or, more particularly, was to coerce an employer to violate the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Act of June 1, 1937, as amended, then such picketing is subject to the jurisdiction of a Court of Equity and should be enjoined. Hughes v. Superior Court of California, 339 U. S. 460; Building Service Union v. Gazzam, 339 U. S. 532; Giboney v. Empire Storage & Ice Co., 336 U. S. 490; Carpenters & Joiners Union v. Ritter’s Cafe, 315 U. S. 722; International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Etc., Union, Local 309, et al. v. Hanke, et al., 339 U. S. 470; Wortex Mills, Inc. v. Textile Workers Union, 369 Pa. supra; Wilbank v. Chester & Delaware Counties Bartenders Union, 360
Where peaceful picketing causes irreparable damage and one of its objectives violates not only a statute of Pennsylvania but also a provision of the Taft-Hartley Act, the jurisdiction of State Courts has not yet been specifically decided by Congress or by the Supreme Court of the United States. If no question of the TaftHartley Act were involved, it would be clear and unquestionable that Courts of Equity in Pennsylvania have always possessed and exercised and do still possess and exercise jurisdiction upon facts such as are alleged in the instant case, viz., irreparable damage and a violation of the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Act.
A Sovereign State should not be deprived of any of its sovereign rights and powers except by the clear and express mandate of the Constitution or of Congress or of the Supreme Court of the United States. In the Wortex Mills case, 369 Pa., supra, we said (page 364): “It is well to recall that a State or other Sovereign has a paramount right and an inescapable duty to maintain law and order, to protect life, liberty and property and to enact laws and police regulations for the protection and preservation of the safety, health and welfare of the people of the state or community; Carnegie-Illinois Steel Corp. v. U. S. W. of A., 353 Pa. 420, 426, 45 A. 2d 857; Westinghouse Electric Corp. v. United Electrical Workers, 353 Pa. 446, 460, 46 A. 2d 16.
‘The power and duty of the State to take adequate steps to preserve the peace and protect the privacy, the lives, and the property of its residents cannot be doubted’: Thornhill v. Alabama, 310 U. S. 88, 105; Carlson v. California, 310 U. S. 106, 113. The sovereign powers of a State should be protected and sus
The jurisdiction of State Courts to enjoin picketing, including peaceful picketing which is conducted in an unlawful manner or for an unlawful purpose, has been sustained by the Supreme Court of the United States in oyer a dozen recent cases, some of which are reviewed in Wortex Mills v. Textile Workers, 369 Pa., supra, and in the dissenting opinion in American Brake Shoe Co. v. District Lodge 9, 373 Pa. 164, 94 A. 2d 884.
Moreover, in Auto Workers v. Wisconsin Employment Relations Board, 336 U. S. 245, 253, Mr. Justice Jackson, in sustaining an injunction against a union by a State Court of Wisconsin in matters affecting interstate commerce, said: “. . . we have said of the National Labor Relations Act what is equally true of the Labor Management Relations Act of 1947, that 'Congress designedly left open an area for state control’ and that the 'intention of Congress to exclude States from exercising their police power must be clearly manifested/
The Supreme Court of the United States has not specifically decided the question here involved and a number of decisions of that Court and of this Court indicate that the State Courts still have jurisdiction upon these or similar facts. Since the intention of Congress to exclude State Courts from exercising their traditional and long-established equity powers in this class of case is not clearly manifested I would uphold and sustain the jurisdiction of our State Courts.
For these reasons — without discussing or deciding the merits of the case — I dissent.
Italics throughout, ours.
Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
Plaintiffs, Joseph Garner and A. Joseph Garner, trading as Central Storage and Transfer Company, are engaged in the trucking and storage business in Harrisburg. Their principal office there was at 11th and State Streets, but they maintained terminal and platform facilities at the rear of the Reading Railroad Freight Station at 9th and Market Streets, where they operated a local freight pick-up and delivery service for the Reading Railroad Company and its trucking division, the Reading Transportation Company, (with both of which it had contracts), as well as with some fifteen other trucking firms. Some of the freight handled by them is shipped on the Reading Railroad from' points outside the State to consignees in Harrisburg. They employ 24 persons as truckers, helpers and platform men; only 4 of these are members of Teamsters, Chauffeurs and Helpers, Local Union No. 776 (A.F.L.), an unincorporated labor organization the members of which are engaged as truck drivers and helpers in the same industry in which plaintiffs are also engaged. Plaintiffs have never objected, and do not presently object, to any of their employes joining the Union.
On June 7, 1949, rotating pickets, two at a time, none of whom was an employe of plaintiffs, were placed by the Union, one in front of, and the other at
Plaintiffs, on June 9, 1949, brought a bill in equity against the Union to enjoin the picketing, and, on June 17, 1949, the court, after hearing testimony offered by both parties, decreed that a preliminary injunction should issue as prayed for. Subsequently additional testimony was taken on final hearing, and, on September 4, 1951, the court entered a decree nisi snjoining and restraining defendants from picketing plaintiffs’ Reading pick-up and delivery terminal; exceptions filed by defendant were dismissed, and a final decree was entered on March 3,1952 in accordance with the decree nisi. From that final decree defendants now appeal.
It is defendants’ contention that the picketing carried on by them was solely for organizational purposes, that is, to persuade plaintiffs’ non-union em
Consideration cannot be given here to the merits of the controversy if the State courts lack jurisdiction in view of the fact that the Labor Management Relations Act — the so-called Taft-Hartley Act — of 1947, c 120, 61 Stat. 136, 29 U.S.C.A. (Pocket Part) §141 et seq., also provides, §101, amendatory section 8(a)(3),
The problem presented, therefore, is whether, under such circumstances, the Labor Management Relations Act constituted an absolute and complete preemption of the field ,so as to preclude State action, and the test of decision is the intention of Congress in that regard, that is, whether it has manifested a willingness that the States should exercise concurrent jurisdiction in such a case. There is no express provision in the Federal legislation directly determining the question; Congress did not see fit therein expressly to declare a general policy or to state specific rules as to their effects on state regulation of various phases of labor relations over which the several states traditionally have exercised control; International Union, U. A. W. A., A. F. of L., Local 232, v. Wisconsin Employment Relations Board, 336 U. S. 245, 252. There
On the other hand, it is equally well-settled that where there is actual conflict between the provisions of a State statute and the National Labor Relations Act in regard to regulation of labor union activities in an industry affecting interstate commerce, the State act must give way to the Federal act: Hill v. Florida, 325 U. S. 538; International Union of United Automobile Workers of America, C.I.O., v. O’Brien, 339 U. S. 454; Amalgamated Association of Street, Electric Railway & Motor Coach Employees of America, Division 998, v. Wisconsin Employment Relations Board, 340 U. S. 383. Where a State Labor Relations Board undertook, under a State act, to certify certain unions as collective bargaining representatives after the National Labor Relations Board had refused to certify such unions on the ground that to do so would obstruct the purposes of the National Labor Relations Act, it was held that such certification by the State Board was invalid as being in conflict with the Fed
In the light, then, of all these decisions, the question recurs whether Congress intended to exclude State action enjoining picketing which constituted an unfair
Turning to the National Labor Relations Act of 1935 — the Wagner Act — it appears that by section 10(a) of that Act, 29 U.S.C.A. §160(a) the National Labor Relations Board was empowered to prevent any person from engaging in any unfair labor practice affecting interstate commerce, such power to be “exclusive” and not to be “affected by any other means of . . . prevention that has been or may be established by . . . law, or otherwise.” By §101, amendatory section 10(a) of the Labor Management Relations Act, 29 U.S.C.A. (Pocket Part) §160(a), the provision that the power should be exclusive was eliminated, leaving the rest of the provision quoted intact, and adding a proviso that the Board was empowered to cede to any State agency jurisdiction over cases in any industry (with certain exceptions not here relevant) even though such cases might involve labor disputes affecting interstate commerce, unless the provision of the State statute applicable to the determination of such cases was inconsistent with the corresponding provision of the Federal act. The Labor Management Relations Act further provided, subsection (b), that when a charge of unfair labor practice was made to the National Board it should proceed to hear the complaint, expeditiously and if possible within ten days (subsection (i)), and it was given the power (subsection (e)), to petition a Federal court for enforcement of its order and for appropriate temporary relief or restraining order, any person aggrieved by the final order of the Board having the right to obtain a review thereof (subsection (f)); the Board was also given power (subsection (j)), when it issues a complaint of an unfair la
It was pointed out in Algoma Plywood & Veneer Co. v. Wisconsin Employment Relations Board, 336 U. S. 301, 306, that the House Report commenting upon section 10(a) of the National Labor Relations Act said that “ ‘The Board is thus made the paramount agency for dealing with the unfair labor practices described in the bill.’ ” and that the Senate Report described the purpose of the section as “ ‘intended to dispel the confusion resulting from dispersion of authority and to establish a single paramount administrative or quasi-judicial authority in connection with the development of the Federal American law regarding collective bargaining.’ ” The court, therefore, concluded that “So far as appears from the Committee Reports . . . §10 (a) was designed, as its language declares, merely to preclude conflict in the administration of remedies for the practices proscribed by §8.”
It seems to us unmistakable that it was the intention of Congress that, if an activity of a labor organization might be held to constitute one of the unfair labor practices enumerated in §101, added amendatory section 8(b) of the Labor Management Relations Act, the power to determine that question and the action that should be taken in the matter were to be vested in a
The decree is reversed at cost of appellees, and-.the bill is dismissed for want of jurisdiction.
Reference
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- Garner v. Teamsters, Chauffeurs and Helpers, Local Union No. 776, Appellant
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