185 Pa. Super. 303 | Pa. Super. Ct. | 1958
Opinion by
The claimants, 47 in number, were last employed by Pramco, Inc., Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, a nonunion plant. The International Ladies Garment Workers Union was attempting to organize the plant. The union obtained signatures on a number of authorization cards and requested the company for recognition as the certified bargaining agent for the employes without petitioning the National Labor Relations Board to hold a vote. The employer refused recognition but indicated its willingness to have the National Labor Relations Board conduct a representation election and be governed by the results. On January 11, 1956 eight employes of the company, without prior notice, started a picket line in front of the company’s premises. During the following two days additional employes voluntarily quit their jobs until all of the 47 claimants were picketing the company. Immediately prior to the picketing the company employed approximately 270 people, of which number approximately 225 were production workers. On January 23, 1956 the company, by letter, requested each employe who had quit to report for work on January 26, 1956. The claimants ignored the letter and continued to picket until March 16, 1956, on which date they were informed that the owners of the company had sold their interest. The picketing
The rationale of the board’s decision appears in the last paragraph thereof as follows: “The claimants in this case became unemployed due to a labor dispute at the factory at which they were last employed. This labor dispute lasted until March 16, 1956, at which time it was terminated by agreement of the parties. After the termination of the labor dispute the claimants applied for reinstatement to their jobs but no work was available for them. Under these circumstances we hold that they were unemployed subsequent to March 19, 1956 due to no fault of their own. The claimants cannot be disqualified under the provisions of Section 402(b) of the law because Section 402(b) contains a provision which is as follows: ‘And provided further, That the provisions of this subsection shall not apply in the event of a stoppage of work, which exists because of a labor dispute within the meaning of subsection (d).’ It can be readily seen that the Legislature did not intend the provisions of Section 402(b) to apply in the event of a stoppage of work such as existed in the instant case.” The Unemployment Compensation Law
This opinion might well end here. We feel obliged to say, however, that the record in this case indicates that the claimants were unemployed before and after March 19, 1956 because of their own voluntary acts. S. E. McKibben, Plant Manager, testified that Sears, Roebuck & Co. was the sole customer of the employer. Sears operates on a seasonal basis and not knowing how long the strike would last, placed their orders elsewhere. This caused production to drop from a normal 6,000 hours per week to approximately 3,600 hours per
Decision reversed.
Act of Dec. 5, 1936, P. L. (1937), 2897, art. IV,. §402(b), 43 PS §802 (b).