Lane-Coos-Curry-Douglas Counties Building & Construction Trades Council v. National Labor Relations Board

The Trades Council and Jens Horst-rup, its secretary-treasurer, ask us to set aside an order of the National Labor Relations Board based upon a holding that they had violated section 8(b) (7) (A) of the Act, 29 U.S.C. § 158 (b) (7) (A), by picketing R. A. Chambers & Associates of Eugene, Oregon. 165 N.L.R.B. No. 86. The Board cross-petitions for enforcement.

Chambers is a general contractor in the construction industry. Subcontractors do approximately 60 per cent of Chambers’ work; about 40 per cent is done by his own employees. Chambers’ employees are carpenters and laborers who are members of locals of the Laborers’ Union and the Carpenters’ Union. 1 At the time of the picketing, Chambers was a party to collective bargaining contracts with these unions. 2

The Trades Council is an association of local building trade unions, including the Laborers’ Union and Carpenters’ Union. The Trades Council was not certified as the representative of Chambers’ employees — its membership does not include individual employees. The purpose of the picketing was to require Chambers to execute a formal agreement with the Trades Council, the provisions of which are considered below.

The Board…

Circuit Judge (dissenting).

I respectfully dissent. The Board’s order should not be enforced and the case should be remanded to the Board for further consideration. The decision of the majority erroneously interprets the contract proposed by the Council in order to reach the conclusion that the Council seeks to be the exclusive bargaining representative of the craft unions; and rejects the validity of subcontractor-oriented contracts customarily entered into between Building Trades Councils and general contractors; and emasculates the provisions in Sec. 8(e) and (f), 29 U.S.C. § 158 (e) and (f), concerning the construction industry.

The problems of the Building Trades unions, acting through their Councils, are entirely different problems than those confronting unions operating in industry generally. There the employees generally continue in their employment.

In the construction industry on the other hand, the craft worker is usually on the job for a short time and then goes to another job. Hiring halls are usually maintained by the craft unions for a supply of labor. Thus it has been impractical in the past to apply all the rules of the National Labor Relations Act to the…