202 Misc. 624 | N.Y. Sup. Ct. | 1952
The plaintiff, a nonprofit membership corporation, operating a golf course in Westchester County, has instituted this action to enjoin two unions, the defendants, from picketing its premises. This is a motion for a temporary injunction.
The picketing was first commenced on or about April 28, 1951, when a number of pickets were placed at the entrance of
Plaintiff contends that such picketing has for its purpose the illegal and illegitimate object of coercing the plaintiff employer to interfere Avith its employees’ free selection of a bargaining agent, which action on the part of the employer is prescribed by the Labor Law as an unfair labor practice and accordingly proscribed.
Such coercion, in subjecting plaintiff to economic pressure, is unlawful and can be enjoined without reference to section 876-a of the Civil Practice Act, where no lawful labor objective is sought by the defendant unions. (Goodwin’s, Inc., v. Hagedorn, 303 N. Y. 300.)
Thus there is presented for the court’s determination the question whether or not a labor dispute exists, depending for its answer on the ascertainment of the real purposes and intention of the defendants in picketing the plaintiff’s establishment.
Let it be said at the outset that on the papers submitted a labor dispute within the ordinary comprehension of the term does not exist between the plaintiff and its employees. The plaintiff is and has been willing to accede to the legitimate wishes of its employees in respect to their representation. The plaintiff has twice sought a certification under the Labor Law, so that the emloyees might elect a bargaining agent of their own choosing. Apparently, however, the defendant unions do not feel that the time is propitious for such a free election on the part of the plaintiff’s employees. The court further makes the presumptive determination necessary to grant plaintiff’s motion for temporary relief, that even within the extended statutory connotation of the term, a labor dispute does not exist, for the reason the primary objective of the picketing here involved was not to organize plaintiff’s employees, but to disorganize the plaintiff under economic pressure, to the end that the plaintiff would recognize or cause recognition to be given to the defendant unions.
Without making any attempt to delineate the bounds of proper peaceful picketing for organizational purposes, it may be said that the means adopted by the unions of publicizing the nonunion status of employees must be wholly truthful in respect to the employer’s position and that no overt act calculated to exert" economic pressure on the employer shall be done by the union.
Sympathy for the workman cannot be extended to the point of denying to the employer the equal protection of our laws. “ The widest latitude should be offered to workers to improve their conditions by organization, but in the extension of their privileges the reasonable rights of others guaranteed to all alike must not be subverted if the spirit of government is to be preserved.” (Michaels v. Hillman, 112 Misc. 395, 410.)
The plaintiff’s motion is accordingly granted and the defendants’ motion to dismiss the complaint is denied. Orders on notice.