Messner

Defendants appeal from a judgment of the trial court enjoining them from picketing plaintiff’s barber shop to secure a union shop agreement.

Plaintiff is a barber, working with the tools of the trade. During the summer of 1957 defendants attempted to organize all the barber shops in the San Diego area. They submitted a contract to plaintiff that would have required him and his four barber employees to join defendants’ organization. Defendants did not represent any of plaintiff’s employees, and the employees do not wish to join the union or to be represented by defendants. Plaintiff’s refusal to sign the contract led to defendants’ peaceful picketing. After about a week the pickets were removed by stipulation pending the decision in this case.

Since plaintiff is not engaged in interstate commerce, this case must be decided under state law. It is clear that ‘1 a union may use the various forms of concerted action, such as strike, picketing, or boycott, to enforce an objective that is reasonably related to any legitimate interest of organized labor. . . . It is equally well settled that the object *877 of concerted labor activity must be proper and that it must be sought by lawful…

The majority today present the second installment of the ambitious project undertaken by them in Petri Cleaners, Inc., v. Automotive Employees, etc., Local No. 88 (1960), ante, p. 455 [ 2 Cal.Rptr. 470 , 349 P.2d 76 ]. “The crucial issue in this case,” say the majority (ante, p. 877), “is whether a closed or union shop agreement is a proper objective of a labor union that does not represent any of the employees directly involved.” This brief declaration appears, on further reading of the opinion, to be somewhat of an oversimplification of the problems involved.

A more revealing definition of the “crucial issue” would be : Is picketing by an unwanted union which represents none, or less than a majority, of the employes in the picketed shop, lawful when the objective of the picketing is to coerce the employer to himself join the union and in turn to coerce his employes to join it?

Another “crucial issue,” undefined by the majority but actually disposed of by them, is: Shall this court refuse to apply the Cartwright Act 1 to price-fixing agreements among employers, and among employers and unions, in eases wherein the otherwise illegal agreement is demanded by a labor union in order…

Defendants appeal from a judgment of the trial court enjoining them from picketing plaintiff's barber shop to secure a union shop agreement.

Plaintiff is a barber, working with the tools of the trade. During the summer of 1957 defendants attempted to organize all the barber shops in the San Diego area. They submitted a contract to plaintiff that would have required him and his four barber employees to join defendants' organization. Defendants did not represent any of plaintiff's employees, and the employees do not wish to join the union or to be represented by defendants. Plaintiff's refusal to sign the contract led to defendants' peaceful picketing. After about a week the pickets were removed by stipulation pending the decision in this case.

[1] Since plaintiff is not engaged in interstate commerce, this case must be decided under state law. [2] It is clear that "a union may use the various forms of concerted action, such as strike, picketing, or boycott, to enforce an objective that is reasonably related to any legitimate interest of organized labor.... [3] It is equally well settled that the object of concerted labor activity must be proper and that it must be…