191 Pa. Super. 159 | Pa. Super. Ct. | 1959
Opinion by
In this unemployment case, the claimants were employed by the Hershey Estates, consisting of approximately 31 various divisions of the chocolate plant and other enterprises located at Hershey, Pennsylvania. Claimants were represented for collective bargaining by Local 464 of the Bakery and Confectionery Workers’ International Union of America, AFL-CIO. For a year preceding September 16, 1957, the employer and the union had entered into a collective bargaining agreement which provided that either party could terminate the contract by giving the other party sixty days’ advance written notice.
On July 15, 1957, the employer sent a registered letter to the office of the union, informing it that the employer intended to terminate the existing contract at midnight, September 16, 1957 but stating that it was ready and willing to meet for the purpose of negotiating new contracts. Based upon this letter, the union and the employer met on a number of occasions, both sides submitted proposals and counter proposals,
At the last meeting held in the early evening of September 16, 1957, the union suggested that the contract be extended on a day to day basis to permit more time for negotiations. This suggestion was rejected by the employer and the meeting finally terminated. Later that evening, the union then submitted the employer’s proposals to its membership which voted to reject the offer and, when the collective bargaining agreement expired at midnight, pickets were posted at the various operations of the employer.
On September 17, 1957, the employer sent a registered letter to the union in which it stated that “all divisions of the Hershey Estates are and have been open and operating and that work is available for all employees.” The next day, a similar notice was printed in the Lebanon Daily News and the Lebanon Daily Times. On September 27, 1957, this same notice was again published in the Hershey News and in other newspapers of general circulation in and around Hershey, Pa. The union, on the other hand, openly stated that it was on strike and referred to the strike on picket signs as well as in the course of many statements which it issued during the period in question.
On September 17, 1957, certain members of the striking employes applied for unemployment compensation benefits. On January 6, 1958, the Bureau of Employment Security notified the claimants that their claims had been rejected and on January 16, 1958, the present claimants, Robert O. Lerch and Josephine O. Giuffre, submitted their petitions for appeal. The ref
The only question raised on this appeal is whether the action of the employer in refusing to agree to the union’s request that the existing contract be extended on a day to day basis constituted a lockout within the meaning of the Unemployment Compensation Law.
We are not unmindful of the frequent pronouncements made by us to the effect that the facts as found by the board, after considering all of the evidence and the reasonable inferences to be drawn therefrom, if supported by competent testimony, are binding upon us. This pronouncement has been repeated so often that the citation of authority becomes unnecessary. The legal conclusions to be drawn from such facts and inferences, however, are always subject to review, especially when the evidence does not support either the facts or the legal conclusions drawn therefrom.
The facts of the instant case fully support a strike among the members of the union rather than a lockout on the part of the employer. The various publicity material issued by the union to its members definitely indicated an intention to strike: “It’s better to starve idle than to starve working. No Contract—No Work. Midnight, September 15, 1957.” All the picket signs
In Morris Unemployment Compensation Case, 169 Pa. Superior Ct. 564, 83 A. 2d 394, we held that in all work stoppage cases, the first question to determine was whether the employes might, had they so desired, have continued working under the existing terms and conditions of employment. If they have the opportunity to do so but choose, instead, to suspend work with a view of improving their working conditions, the
The board, in arriving at the conclusion in this case, took a negative and what we consider to be an erroneous approach. In effect, it concluded that since the employer did not expressly announce that work would be available under the same terms and conditions which prevailed prior to the termination of the agreement, the work actually offered was not under the same terms and conditions and therefore a lockout. However, the evidence produced and the reasonable inferences therefrom preclude such assumption. Considering the type of operations here involved, an offer by the union to extend the contract on a day to day basis is unreasonable and would subject the employer to the
Decision reversed.