International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers

“ Membership in the union was closely restricted and the campaign eventuated in a situation where no electrical work could be done by persons other than members of the union, no building construction could be done by other than union men, no matter what their trade, and no manufactured electrical appliance or apparatus could be installed in the New York area without the consent of Local No. ”

“ The union therefore waged aggressive campaigns to obtain closed shop agreements with all local electrical equipment manufacturers and contractors. Using conventional labor union methods, such as strikes and boycotts, it gradually obtained more and more closed shop agreements in the New York City area. Under these agreements, contractors were obligated to purchase equipment from none but local manufacturers who also had closed shop agreements with Local No. 3; manufacturers obligated themselves to confine their New York City sales to contractors employing the Local's members. ”

“ It is true that victory of the union in its disputes, even had the union acted alone, might have added to the cost of goods, or might have resulted in individual refusals of all of their employers to buy electrical equipment not made by Local No. 3. So far as the union might have achieved this result acting alone, it would have been the natural consequence of labor union activities exempted by the Clayton Act from the coverage of the Sherman Act. ”

“ The union's consistent aim for many years has been to expand its membership, to obtain shorter hours and increased wages, and to enlarge employment opportunities for its members. To achieve this latter goal-that is, to make more work for its own members the union realized that local manufacturers, employers of the local members, must have the widest possible outlets for their product. ”

“ In the instant case, a labor dispute had been pending for some time between Langer and the Electricians Union, but no demands were made upon him directly by either of petitioners in connection with this project. There are no findings that the picketing was aimed at Langer to force him to employ union workmen on this job. On the contrary, the findings demonstrate that the picketing was directed at Deltorto's employees to induce them to strike and thus force Deltorto, the carpentry subcontractor, to force Giorgi, the general contractor, to terminate Langer's electrical subcontract. ”

“ See also Newspaper & Mail Deliverers' Union (Interborough News Co.) , 90 N.L.R.B. 2135; International Brotherhood of Teamsters (Di Giorgio Wine Co.) , 87 N.L.R.B. 720; International Brotherhood of Teamsters (Rice Milling Co.) , 84 N.L.R.B. 360.
In United Electrical Workers (Ryan Construction Corp.) , 85 N.L.R.B. 417, Ryan had contracted to perform construction work on a building adjacent to the Bucyrus plant and inside its fence. A separate gate was u t through the fence for Ryan's employees which no employee of Bucyrus ever used. ”

“ Since 1954, General Electric sought to confine the employees of independent contractors, described hereafter, who work on the premises of the Park, to the use of Gate 3-A and confine its use to them. The undisputed reason for doing so was to insulate General Electric employees from the frequent labor disputes in which the contractors were involved. Gate 3-A is 550 feet away from the nearest entrance available for General Electric employees, suppliers, and deliverymen. ”

“ To suggest that all actions which in the absence of a labor controversy might be 'cause'-or, to use the words commonly found in labor agreements, 'just cause'-for discharge should be unprotected, even when such actions were undertaken as 'concerted activities for the purpose of collective bargaining', is to misconstrue legislation designed to put labor on a fair footing with management. ”

“ As time passed on and the electric light and electric railroad came into operation these difficulties were immensely increased, till now in large cities the telephone companies are fast being driven to the double-wire system, which will soon become universal for telephonic purposes the world over, except perhaps in a few country places where there is freedom from other systems of electrical transmission. To successfully work the telephone and telautograph through the same cables, these protective devices against induction must be very carefully provided and maintained. ”

“ In the infancy of the science no country produced more electricians than Germany; in the discovery and exposition of its subtlest laws, as well as in their application to useful purposes, no country has done more than England; while in the most novel and most extensive use of electrical appliances for industrial purposes the New World may be said to have outstripped the Old. ”

“ With such facts before us, it is fairly easy to predict the still further electrical development of all important centers. There will be more and better light in homes; there will be more and better light in offices and factories, thus greatly lessening the chances for injury or eye-strain. In all industry, great and small, laborious hand processes will be replaced by safely operated electric machinery, while wider use of electric labor-saving appliances will extend into the home. ”

“ Even in the largest cities we still ‘peddle’ our electricity on a contemptibly small scale. What is called for, immediately after the war, is the erection of a score of gigantic ‘super-power stations,’ which could generate, at incredibly cheap rates, enough electricity for the use of every industrial establishment and every private household in Great Britain, the present municipal and joint-stock electrical plants being universally linked up and used for local distribution. ”

“ The railway employees have always held aloof; their union dates from 1893, and is said to comprise 200,000 men.
The trades-unions are not open to every one; each member has to pay his initiation fees and make contributions to the local union, and through it to the general organization. Many of the trades-unions even require an examination for entrance; thus the conditions for admission into the union of electrical workers are so difficult that membership is recognized among the employers themselves as the surest evidence of a working-man’s competence. ”

“ Evening News, however, is to the contrary. There an individual employee brought suit against his employer to enforce a collective-bargaining contract between the employer and the union collective-bargaining agent. We held that § 301 suits were not limited to suits brought by the contracting parties and that an individual employee could sue under § 301 for violation of an employer-union contract. We noted that:
"The rights of individual employees concerning rates of pay and conditions of employment are a major focus of the negotiation and administration of collective bargaining contracts. ”

“ We express no view on the merits of petitioner's claims for breach of contract. We need only decide here that the courts below erred in holding that federal jurisdiction under § 301 (a) , based on the alleged violation of a contract between labor organizations, is unavailable when an individual union member brings suit against his or her union. ”

“ In 1906 the enginemen were 154 incorporated into the order, and thenceforth the membership grew rapidly. In 1913 a joint agreement was effected with the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers whereby the two organizations could work together “on a labor union basis.” Today men operating electric engines or motor or gas cars on lines using electricity are eligible for membership, if they are otherwise qualified. ”

“ In the United States a co-operative electrical development association canvasses both the general public and the electricity supply undertakers. Funds are provided by the manufacturing companies acting in concert with the supply authorities and contractors, and the spirit underlying the work is to advertise the merits of electricity—not any particular company or interest. Their efforts are directed to securing new consumers and stimulating the increased and more varied use of electricity among actual consumers. ”

“ Individual claims lie at the heart of the grievance and arbitration machinery, are to a large degree inevitably intertwined with union interests and many times precipitate grave questions concerning the interpretation and enforceability of the collective bargaining contract on which they are based. ”

“ There is no more elemental cause for discharge of an employee than disloyalty to his employer. It is equally elemental that the Taft-Hartley Act seeks to strengthen, rather than to weaken, that cooperation, continuity of service and cordial contractual relation between employer and employee that is born of loyalty to their common enterprise. ”

“ Section 7 of course only protects 'concerted activities' in the course of promoting legitimate interests of labor. But to treat the offensive handbills here as though they were circulated by the technicians as interloping outsiders to the sustained dispute between them and their employer is a very unreal way of looking at the circumstances of a labor controversy. ”

“ The electrical industry is one of the most important industries, as an interruption in the current means a lack of light and power in factories; it also means a reduction in the means of transportation and a stoppage of the telegraph and telephone systems. ”

“ With the realization of all that Ohm's Work meant in the department of electricity, it is easy to understand how his name deserves a place in the science for all time. In order permanently to honor his memory, the International Congress of Electricians, which met at Paris in 1881, confirmed the action of the British Association of 1861, by giving the name ohm to the unit of electrical resistance. This is an ideal monument to the great worker. ”

“ Collective-bargaining agreements are the principal form of contract between an employer and a labor organization. Individual union members, who are often the beneficiaries of provisions of collective-bargaining agreements, may bring suit on these contracts under § 301. Likewise, union constitutions are an important form of contract between labor organizations. ”

“ In large cities, the best method of running wires for all varieties of electrical power transmission is to place them underground. Many city authorities have made this method of wiring compulsory by law, because of the difficulty in approaching a burning building, the danger from crossed and falling wires, and the disfigurement of the streets where there is a network of overhead wires. ”

“ Electricity, properly installed, is much safer than oil lamps—so much so indeed that insurance companies are ready to quote especial rates. But they require that the wiring be done in accordance with rules laid down by their experts, who form a powerful organization known as the National Board of Fire Underwriters. ”

“ While the company has never undertaken the wiring of residences, ordinary apartment houses, or accepted any like contracts, it repairs anything electrical from an electric iron to a 500 horse-power electric motor. ”

“ It is open to the objection, however, that it in a measure legalizes the conveyance of electricity on conductors other than those designed for the purpose. In larger towns, with more than one power house and with car lines radiating from and circumscribing the business center, the attachment of conducting wires entails a ceaseless disturbance of the electrical equilibrium, curing the evil in spots and developing new danger points. ”

“ Six thousand million dollars—one-twentieth of our national wealth—is at the present time invested in electrical development. The Electrical Age has not yet arrived; but it is at hand; and no one can tell how brilliant the result may be, when the creative minds of a nation are focussed upon the subdual of this mysterious force, which has more power and more delicacy than any other force that man has been able to harness.
As a tame and tractable energy, Electricity is new. It has no past and no pedigree. It is younger than many people who are now alive. ”

“ The respondents may have judicial review. Moreover, the Commission's responsibility for supervision of PRDC continues. For, under Reg. 50.57, 10 CFR § 50.57, operation at full power (100,000 electric kilowatts) will not be permitted until several steps of gradually increasing operation have been successfully mastered, with a full public hearing at each step, and no further advance permitted without the AEC's being fully satisfied that a step-up will meet the high safety standards imposed by law. ”

“ Cooperation in the field of electricity, including an Electricity Development Program, which will also specify the mode of cooperation for the production, maintenance, purchase and sale of electricity resources. ”

“ As far as possible all joints in the run of the cable should be avoided by the use of the so-called looping-in system, and after the wiring is complete, careful tests for insulation should be made. The Institution of Electrical Engineers of Great Britain have drawn up rules to be followed in interior house-wiring, and the principal Fire Insurance offices, following the lead of the Phoenix Fire Office, of London, have made regulations which, if followed, are a safeguard against bad workmanship and resulting possibility of damage by fire. ”

“ There has been very little solidarity among those interested in the commercial development of electricity, and except for the discussion of scientific subjects there has been very little organization with the object of protecting and promoting common interests. ”

“ Because we found that the damages sought were neither analogous to equitable restitutionary relief, Tull, 481 U.S., at 424, 107 S.Ct., at 1839, nor incidental to or intertwined with injunctive relief, ibid., we concluded that the remedy had none of the attributes required for an exception to the general rule, and thus found the remedy sought to be legal. ”