315 S.W.2d 465 | Mo. Ct. App. | 1958
This is an appeal from an order of the Circuit Court of the City of St. Louis granting a permanent injunction against picketing. This appeal, originally taken to the Supreme Court, was transferred to this court for decision. The transfer opinion, Swift & Company v. Doe, Mo.Sup., 311 S.W.2d 15, clearly and succinctly states the factual background, pleadings, evidence, issues determined below and those preserved for review and briefed on appeal. Entirely sufficient for our purposes, we refer to, adopt and need not repeat here the first fifteen paragraphs of the transfer opinion written by Commissioner Holman, 311 S.W.2d loc. cit. 17, 18, 19 and 20.
Appellants-defendants’ first contention is that the trial court had no .jurisdiction of the subject-matter. The principal question is whether peaceful, orderly stranger picketing of the premises of an employer engaged in interstate commerce, the object of which is to force, coerce and intimidate unorganized employees to join a union or to force, coerce and intimidate the employer, by economic pressure, to force, coerce and intimidate the employees to join a union, is an unfair labor practice within the exclusive jurisdiction of the National Labor Relations Board, withdrawn under the doctrine of pre-emption from the orbit of state control, or whether such picketing is outside the field of federal pre-emption and therefore subject to regulation by a state equity court under state law. Related questions are (1) the effect of the dismissal of charges filed by Swift with NLRB; (2) the right of Missouri Pacific to resort to the state circuit court for injunctive relief.
Laws of the Congress made in pursuance of the Constitution of the United States “shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.” U.S. Constitution, Article VI. In the field of Federal-State relations we are bound by and must follow the decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States.
Under the controlling decisions of the Supreme Courts of the United States and of Missouri the state circuit court lacked jurisdiction to issue the injunction upon the petition of Swift. Congress, intending to reach to the full extent of its power under the Commerce Clause, Guss v. Utah Labor Relations Board, 353 U.S. 1, 77 S.Ct. 598, 1 L.Ed.2d 601, has pre-empted the field in labor relations matters affecting interstate commerce and has vested exclu
In Weber, supra, the court said, 348 U.S. loc. cit. 481, 75 S.Ct. loc. cit. 488:
“* * ⅜ where the moving party itself alleges unfair labor practices, where the facts reasonably bring the controversy within the sections prohibiting these practices, and where the conduct, if not prohibited by the fed-eral Act, may be reasonably deemed to come within the protection afforded by that Act, the state court must decline jurisdiction in deference to the tribunal which Congress has selected for determining such issues in the first instance.”
Swift’s petition specifically alleged that defendants’ acts constituted unlawful picketing in violation of the Taft-Hartley Act. Unfair labor practices reasonably bringing the controversy within the provisions of the Act were charged. Garner; Graybar. Defendants’ answer denied these charges. This presented an issue within the legislative scope of the Taft-Hartley Act and it follows that the state circuit court was obliged to decline jurisdiction in deference to NLRB, Garner; Weber; Stufflebeam; Swope, notwithstanding the same acts are unlawful under state policy.
What is the effect of the refusal of the federal administrators to issue a complaint? The specific conduct relied upon as the basis of the charge of an 8(b) (1) (A)
The opinions of the United States Supreme Court in Guss, Fairlawn and Gar-mon, handed down after the entry of the judgment from which this appeal is taken, indicate that by vesting in NLRB jurisdiction over labor relations in cases affecting interstate commerce Congress has so completely displaced state power to deal with such relations that even in cases where NLRB has declined to proceed (for policy or “other” reasons) the states may act only where NLRB has ceded jurisdiction pursuant to said § 10(a). In Guss the United States Supreme Court recognized the problem involved in cases such as this, where NLRB declines jurisdiction and the states are forbidden to exercise it (the creation of “a vast no-man’s-land, subject to regulation by no agency or court”), [353 U.S. 1, 77 S.Ct. 603] but adhered firmly to the view that Congress has expressed its judgment in favor of uniformity and that “its judgment must be respected whatever policy objections there may be to creation of a no-man’s-land.” The court suggested that Congress can change the situation at will and that NLRB can reduce the area of the no-man’s-land “by reasserting its jurisdiction and, where States have brought their labor laws into conformity with federal policy, by ceding jurisdiction under § 10(a).”
Nor under the controlling decisions did the circuit court have jurisdiction to-.issue the injunction upon the intervening petition of Missouri.Pacific. In its original petition (filed before Garner was handed down) Missouri Pacific took the firm- position that the picketing violated Taft-Hart-
“ * * * to induce or encourage the employees of any employer to engage in, * * * a concerted refusal * * to * * * transport, or otherwise handle * * * any goods * * * where an object thereof is: (A) forcing or requiring * * * any employer or other person to cease * * * transporting * * * the products of any other producer * * * or to cease doing business with any other person * * *»
A railroad is an “employer” within the meaning of § 8(b) (4) (A), for the reasons stated in International Rice Milling Co. v. N. L. R. B., 5 Cir., 183 F.2d 21 and W. T. Smith Lumber Co. v. N. L. R. B., 5 Cir., 246 F.2d 129, entitled as such to protection by NLRB from the kind of unfair labor practices proscribed by § 8(b) (4) (A). Local Union No. 25, International Brotherhood, Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen & Helpers of America v. New York, N. H. & H. R. Co., 350 U.S. 155, 76 S.Ct. 227, 100 L.Ed. 166. Missouri Pacific’s intervening petition alleges facts which reasonably bring the controversy within § 8(b) (4) (A). The railroad contends otherwise upon the basis of two administrative rulings of the General Counsel of NLRB,
Accordingly, the order of the circuit court should be reversed and the permanent decree of injunction dissolved, and the Commissioner so recommends.
PER CURIAM.
The foregoing opinion of HOUSER, C.,. is adopted as the opinion of the court.
. In Missouri picketing for the purposes .. indicated has repeatedly been held to violate the free choice guaranteed to employees by § 29, Art. I, Constitution of f Missouri, 1945, V.A.M.S. Swift & Company v. Doe, supra; Quinn v. Buchanan, Mo.Sup., 298 S.W.2d 413; American Hotel Co. of Mo. v. Bartenders’ Inter. League of America, Local No. 422, Mo.Sup., 297 S.W.2d 411; Bellerive Country Club v. McVey, 365 Mo. 477, 284 S.W.2d 492; Tallman Co. v. Latal, 365 Mo. 552, 284 S.W.2d 547.
. Labor Management Relations Act 1947, 29 Ü.S.C.A. § 158(b) (1) (A), (b) (2).
. Labor Management Relations Act 1947, 29'U.S.O.A. § 153(d).
. Labor Management Relations Act 1947, 29 U.S.C.A. § 153(d); N.L.R.B. v. Swift & Co., 8 Cir., 233 F.2d 226; Lincourt v. N.L.R.B., 1 Cir., 170 F.2d 306.
.Labor Management Relations Act 1947, 29 U.S.C.A. § 160(a).
. Case No. 835, Nov. 6, 1953, 33 LRRM 1037; Case No. K-700, Oct. 15, 1956, 38 LRRM 1469. ...