James F. Byrnes

“ It is sufficient for this case to observe that the Board has not been commissioned to effectuate the policies of the Labor Relations Act so single-mindedly that it may wholly ignore other and equally important Congressional objectives. Frequently the entire scope of Congressional purpose calls for careful accommodation of one statutory scheme to another, and it is not too much to demand of an administrative body that it undertake this accommodation without excessive emphasis upon its immediate task. ”

“ In an industrial plant the employer is confronted only with the necessity of placing new men at the machines. But under the law petitioner was required to furnish living quarters to any new crew whom it might have hired for the return voyage to Philadelphia. ”

“ None of these facts is denied by the respondents or by the Circuit Court. [9] Indeed it is admitted that had the strike occurred on the high seas, the participants would have been guilty of mutiny. But a distinction is said to lie between strikes at sea and at dock. To determine the validity of this distinction we turn first to the words of the statute. They are plain enough: 'Whoever, being of the crew of a vessel of the United States, on the high seas, or on any other waters within the admiralty and maritime jurisdiction of the United States', etc. ”

“ It was there decided that § 2 (3) of the Labor Act did not preserve a striker's eligibility for reinstatement by the Board under § 10 (c) , if the striker was discharged for reasons other than 'union activity or agitation for collective bargaining,' e.g., criminal acts. 306 U.S. at page 255, 59 S.Ct. at page 496, 83 L.Ed. 627, 123 A.L.R. 599. The Court recognizes that where 'an employer indulges in an unfair labor practice, a strike results and several men are discharged for participating in the strike,' and nothing more appears, the Labor Board may properly reinstate the strikers. ”

“ It is wholly reasonable to remove any possibility of intimidation by conducting the election in the absence of the employer's representatives. With respect to whether the five men in question were actually discharged upon the ship's return to Philadelphia, petitioner concedes that the formal signing off of the shipping articles was not conclusive. The tenure of their employment must be determined in the light of all the evidence concerning petitioner's employment customs and practices. ”

“ The statutes of the United States contain elaborate requirements with respect to such matters as their medicines, clothing, heat, hours and watches, wages, and return transportation to this country if destitute abroad. U.S.C.,, Title 46, §§ 651-692, 1131, 46 U.S.C.A. §§ 651-692, 1131. It is in this setting of fact and law that we must test the validity of the Board's order of reinstatement.
Petitioner contends that the strike aboard the City of Fort Worth at the dock in Houston was mutiny and violated Sections 292 and 293 of the Criminal Code. ”

“ And before a seaman's certificate is issued by the Bureau of Marine Inspection and Navigation the applicant must take an oath to '* * * carry out the lawful orders of my superior officers on shipboard.' [16] The lower court expressed the opinion, 'Upon reason, however, there is no sound basis for depriving seamen of this right (to strike) when as here their vessel is moored to the dock in a safe domestic port.' But the soundness or unsoundness of the reasoning is for the determination of Congress. ”

“ To bolster its claim that it responded to this call, the Board relies upon what it asserts to have been the 'technical' nature of the violation of §§ 292 and 293. Specifically, it points to the comparative safety of the ship when moored to the dock, the absence of volence, and the double character of the ship as the strikers' place of employment and their home during the course of the voyage. ”

“ This theory has been regarded with favor by a number of courts an commentators [15] and is said to conform more closely to changed conceptions with respect to the freedom of workers on land or sea to organize, to bargain, and to use economic weapons to enforce their demands. ”

“ The second assistant engineer then undertook to tend the fires himself, and Tracey, Ferguson and Braun went to the poop deck where the rest of the strikers were sitting. The poop deck is the usual meeting place of the crew when not on duty. ”