National Labor Relations Board v. Pappas & Co.

Pappas and Company is á corporation engaged in large scale farming operations on 3500 acres near Mendota, California. Its principal crops are melons, cotton, and grain. It ships many carloads of melons into and across several states. In the summer of 1950 a crop of melons, valued at $400,000 was harvested and hauled from the fields by the corporation’s own employees to the corporation’s own packing shed, located near a railroad about five miles from the fields, where the melons were sorted and crated for shipment.

Virgil Ramey was hired by the corporation on August 2, 1950, and was put to work on the melons at the packing shed. A few days later two business agents of the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Workers Union, Local 78, and Food, Tobacco, Agricultural and Allied Workers Union of America, hereinafter called the Food Workers Union, protested to the corporation foreman at the shed against Ramey’s employment. Although there was no union-security agreement in effect, the agents of the Food Workers Union asked the packing shed foreman to discharge Ramey because he was behind in his dues in that 'union. When the foreman refused the request, the agents of the Food Workers Union called…