187 Pa. Super. 109 | Pa. Super. Ct. | 1958
Opinion by
Thirty-two claimants were allowed unemployment compensation by the bureau, the referee and the board of review. The employer appealed.
So far as is here pertinent, §402(d) of the Unemployment Compensation Law, as amended by the Act of May 23, 1949, P. L. 1738, §11, 43 P.S. §802, provides: “An employe shall be ineligible for compensation for any week— ... (d) In which his unemployment is due to a stoppage of work, which exists because of a labor dispute (other than a lock-out) at the factory, establishment or other premises at which he is or. was last employed. . . .” (Emphasis added)
The claimants herein involved are members of a union. The employer is a building block manufacturer. A written agreement, entered into by the union and the employer, became effective on June 20, 1955 and was to remain in force until April 30, 1956 “and remain in effect thereafter from year to year unless sixty days notice of change is given by either party of the desire to change, alter, or terminate the terms of this Agreement.”
“12. After July 11, 1956, the employes could continue working only under the terms and conditions as proposed by the employer in Finding of Fact No. 9 above; hence, a work stoppage occurred beginning at 7:30 a.m. July 12, 1956.”
We have carefully reviewed the record and can find no competent and substantial evidence to support these two findings. On the contrary, the evidence is quite clear that the claimants had worked for nearly two and one-half months after the termination of the written contract under the same terms and conditions as those contained in the written contract. What really hap
“July 11, 1956
Notice
Notice is hereby given by Scranton Building Block Company that there is and will be work for any OR ALL REGULAR EMPLOYEES DURING THE REGULARLY SCHEDULED HOURS.
Work is available.
Respectfully
Scranton Building Block
Company
John J. Gordon
John J. Gordon”
It should be pointed out that these claimants would have continued to work for another year under the written agreement had their union not elected to terminate the written contract at the end of the first year. It was their action which forged the first link in the chain of events which ultimately led to the unemployment of the claimants. The definitions of “strike” and “lock-out” have also been so well covered in the Hogan case that we deem it unnecessary to repeat them in this opinion. There was no withholding of work by the employer in this case and the cessation could not be designated a lock-out. It was exactly what the claimants themselves proclaimed it to be on the picket line banners — a strike.
McGinnis Unemployment Compensation Case (Kendall Refining Co. v. U. C. Board of Review), 184 Pa. Superior Ct. 95, 132 A. 2d 749, is easily distinguishable from the present case. In the Kendall case the collective bargaining agreement was due to expire at midnight on February 7, 1954. About 60 days prior thereto, negotiations concerning a new contract commenced and a number of conferences were thereafter held. On February 3, 1954 Kendall was informed that a vote had been taken authorizing the calling of a strike. However, no date was designated. On February 8, 1954, one' day after the expiration of the contract, the employes reported to the plant for work. They were informed that the plant had been shut down and that little or no work would be available. In the Kendall case the evidence is clear that the employes reported
We conclude this opinion with the following language of Judge Reno in the Hogan case, supra, at page 564: “The cause for the stoppage having been ascertained, it follows that claimant and his fellow members, who caused the stoppage, became unemployed through their own fault, within the meaning of the Law, §3, 43 P.S. §752, which is the lode star by which all provisions of the Law are construed. Michalsky Unemployment Compensation Case, 163 Pa. Superior Ct. 436, 62 A. 2d 113. Under that section and §402(d), supra, benefits were properly denied.”
Decision reversed and judgment entered for the appellants.