These cases relate to controversies arising out of alleged contracts of employment largely of the same general tenor between voluntary organizations which are described as labor unions and their employers, or between rival unions where one union seeks supremacy in the employment of labor in their particular field of work in the city of Haverhill.
The bill in the first case was filed on May 5, 1922. The material allegations are that on April 16, 1919, the Shoe Workers’ Protective Union entered into a written agreement,
The members of the Boot and Shoe Workers’ Union bring suit in the second case against the Shoe Workers’ Protective Union and a copartnership who are manufacturers of shoes, doing business under the firm name of Triangle Shoe Company, to which we shall refer as the company. The demurrants admit, that the object and purpose of the defendants are to induce all shoe workers of Haverhill to join their association in preference to the union of the plaintiffs, and to induce all the shoe manufacturers, “ and proprietors of
The plaintiff corporation in the third case is a manufacturer of shoes at its factory in Haverhill where for some years prior to filing the bill it had carried on business, and the labor unions previously named were located. The presiding judge has found, that, although defectively executed by the Boot and Shoe Workers’ Union, yet by ratification of the parties the plaintiff and the union on June 2, 1917, entered into a contract, permitting the plaintiff to use the union stamp on condition that the corporation should employ only members of the union in good standing. The defendants earnestly contend that this finding is erroneous. But the evidence is not reported. It must be presumed that all the elements required to show ratification were sufficiently proved, and the general finding accordingly must stand. Remick v. Sandford, 118 Mass. 102. New England Dredging Co. v. Rockport Granite Co. 149 Mass. 381. W. A. Snow Iron Works, Inc. v. Chadwick, 227 Mass. 382, 390, 391. The terms of the contract, which do not materially differ as to conditions of employment from those already discussed, were observed by the parties for more, than five years, and on October 4, 1922, as the judge states, the plaintiff had in its employment one hundred and eighty members of the Boot and Shoe Workers’ Union and about thirty members of the Shoe Workers’ Protective Union. It appears that these unions were rival organizations each striving to increase its membership at the expense of the other, and at a meeting of the Shoe Workers’ Protective Union it was voted, “that those who wished to belong to the Shoe Workers’ Protective Union only should finish the work they had on hand in the factories in which they were employed . . . quit work and report at the . . . headquarters ” of the union. The reason for this action is stated to have been, that the Boot and Shoe Workers’ Union not being able to supply sufficient members under their contracts, resorted to the
Ordered accordingly.
