U.S. Supreme Court TEXAS & N. O. R. CO. v. BROTHERHOOD OF RY. & S. S. CLERKS, 281 U.S. 548 (1930)

281 U.S. 548

TEXAS & N. O. R. CO. et al. v. BROTHERHOOD OF RAILWAY AND STEAMSHIP CLERKS, etc., et al. No. 469. Argued May 1, 2, 1930. Decided May 26, 1930.[ Texas & N. O. R. Co. v. Brotherhood of Ry. &

[Page 281 U.S. 548, 555]

ants from interfering with, influencing, or coercing the clerical employees of the railroad company in the matter of their organization and designation of representatives for the purposes set forth in the Railway Labor Act of May 20, 1926, c. 347, 44 Stat. 577, U. S. C., Tit. 45, 151- 163 (45 USCA 151-163).

The substance of the allegations of the bill of complaint was that the brotherhood, since its organization in September, 1918, had been authorized by a majority of the railway clerks in the employ of the railroad company (apart from general office employees) to represent them in all matters relating to their employment; that this representation was recognized by the railroad company before and after the application by the brotherhood in November, 1925, for an increase of the wages of the railway clerks and after the denial of that application by the railroad company and the reference of the controversy by the brotherhood to the United States Board of Mediation; that, while the controversy was pending before that board, the railroad company instigated the formation of a union of its railway clerks (other than general office employees) known as the 'Association of Clerical Employees-Southern Pacific Lines'; and that the railroad company had endeavored to intimidate members of the brotherhood and to coerce them to withdraw from it and to make the association their representative in dealings with the railroad company, and thus to prevent the railway clerks from freely designating their representatives by collective action.

The District Court granted a temporary injunction. [Footnote 1] Thereafter the railroad company recognized the Asso-

[Page 281 U.S. 548, 566]

either party to the controversy from changing the existing status during the sixty-day period provided for the emergency board.' [Footnote 3]

[Page 281 U.S. 548, 567]

limitation was manifestly to protect the individual liberty of employees and not to affect proceedings in case of combinations or group action. The denial of legal process in the one case is significant with respect to its expected, appropriate use in the other. [Footnote 4]

[Page 281 U.S. 548, 571]

but these decisions are inapplicable. The Railway Labor Act of 1926 does not interfere with the normal exercise of the right of the carrier to select its employees or to discharge them. The statute is not aimed at this right of the employers but at the interference with the right of employees to have representatives of their own choosing. As the carriers subject to the act have no constitutional right to interfere with the freedom of the employees in making their selections, they cannot complain of the statute on constitutional grounds.

A subordinate point is raised by the petitioner under section 20 of the Clayton Act (29 USCA 52). This section provides, in substance, that no injunction shall be granted in any case growing out of a dispute concerning terms or conditions of employment, unless necessary to prevent irreparable injury to property or to a property right. This provision has been said to be declaratory of the existing law. Duplex Printing Press Company v. Deering, 254 U.S. 443, 470, 41 S. Ct. 172, 16 A. L. R. 196. It may be doubted whether section 20 can be regarded as limiting the authority of the court to restrain the violation of an explicit provision of an act of Congress, where an injunction would otherwise be the proper remedy. It is not necessary to pass upon this point, for if it could be said that it was necessary in the present instance to show a property interest in the employees in order to justify the court in granting an injunction, we are of the opinion that there was such an interest, with respect to the selection of representatives to confer with the employer in relation to contracts of service, as satisfied the statutory requirement. See Coppage v. Kansas, supra, pages 14, 15 of 236 U. S., 35 S. Ct. 240.

We do not find that the decree below goes beyond the proper enforcement of the provision of the Railway Labor Act (45 USCA 151-163).

Decree affirmed.

Mr. Justice McREYNOLDS did not hear the argument and took no part in the decision of this case. Footnotes

Footnote 1 The injunction order provided as follows:'That the defendant Texas and New Orleans Railroad Company (a corporation and common carrier owning, leasing, and operating certain railroads throughout the States of Texas and Louisiana), its officers, servants, and agents are hereby enjoined and restrained from in any way or manner interfering with, influencing, intimidating, or coercing plaintiffs or any of the approximately seventeen hundred clerical employees (and being the clerical employees described and referred to in plaintiffs' petition, which includes approximately seventeen hundred railroad clerks in the employ of the defendant Railroad Company on its lines throughout the States of Texas and Louisiana, except such clerical employees as are employed and engaged in its general office in the City of Houston, Texas, and in its general office in the City of New Orleans, Louisiana), with respect to their free and untrammeled right of selecting or designating their representatives for the purpose of considering and deciding any and all disputes between said clerical employees and the defendant Railroad Company; and further enjoining and restraining said defendant Railroad Company, its officers, servants, and agents from in any way or manner interfering with, influencing, intimidating, or coercing plaintiffs or any of said clerical employees herein referred to of their free and untrammeled right of self-organization. 'Nothing in this injunction shall be considered or construed as authority to prevent any employee of said defendant Railroad Company, in the class referred to, from organizing, joining, promoting, or fostering as many unions as he or they (meaning such employees in the class referred to) may desire, and in any way which he or they may desire, and with the assistance and aid of any of his fellow employees in any way and to any extent that said fellow employees (in the class referred to) may desire; nor shall anything in this injunction be considered or construed as authority or permission for any officer or agent of said company, or any employee, acting for or on behalf of the defendant Railroad Company, attempting to influence or to interfere with said selection or designation of their said representatives, or their right to self-organization as herein referred to, upon any pretext that they are acting individually and not as representatives of said defendant corporation.'

Footnote 2 In the report of the bill by the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce to the House of Representatives, it was said (69th Cong., 1st Sess., H. R. Rep. No. 328):'The bill was introduced as the product of negotiations and conferences between a representative committee of railroad presidents and a representative committee of railroad labor organization executives, extending over several months, which were concluded with the approval of the bill, respectively, by the Association of Railway Executives and by the executives of 20 railroad labor organizations. As introduced, it represented the agreement of railway managements operating over 80 per cent. of the railroad mileage and labor organizations representing an overwhelming majority of the railroad employees.'

The Committee of the Senate on Interstate Commerce reported to the Senate on this point, as follows (69th Cong., 1st sess., Sen. Rep. No. 222):'The railroads favoring the bill appeared before the committee through their representatives and advocated it. None of the railroads opposing the bill appeared either in person or by any representative. The bill was agreed to also by all the organizations known as 'standard recognized railway labor organizations', 20 in number, and these appeared by their representatives before the committee in advocacy of the bill.'

Footnote 3 In the report to the House of Representatives by its Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, it was stated as to this provision (69th Cong., 1st sess., H. R. Rep. No. 328):'This temporary emergency board will be able to express and to mobilize public opinion to an extent impossible to any permanent board or any agency of Government which has been heretofore created for that purpose. It is also highly important to point out that during the period of investigation and for 30 days thereafter the parties to the controversy are bound under the proposed law to maintain unchanged the conditions out of which the dispute arose, thereby assuring the parties and the public that the emergency board will have the full and unembarrassed opportunity to exert its authority and fulfill its important function.'

The Committee on Interstate Commerce of the Senate stated in its report, with respect to a proposed amendment of section 10 forbidding strikes eo nominee, as follows (69th Cong., 1st sess., Sen. Rep. No. 222):'The objection that the bill should in express terms forbid strikes during the period of the inquiry by the emergency board and for 30 days thereafter is successfully met, in the opinion of the committee, by the contention that in forbidding a change in the conditions out of which a dispute arose, one of which and a very fundamental one is the relationship of the parties, it already forbids any interruption of commerce during the period referred to; and if strikes were in express terms forbidden for a given period there might be an implication that after that period strikes to interfere with the passage of the United States mails and with continuous transportation service might be made be made legal. In the opinion of the committee, this possible implication should be avoided.'

Footnote 4 In relation to this paragraph, the Senate Committee stated in its report (69th Cong., 1st sess., Sen. Rep. No. 222):'As to paragraph (8) of section 9, it was urged that it should be clarified so as certainly to apply only to the use of legal process against an individual employee and so as not to apply to combinations or conspiracies between several employees or groups of employees to interrupt interstate commerce. It was frankly stated by the advocates of the bill, both those representing the carriers and those representing the employees, that the purpose of the paragraph was to deal marely with individual employees, to express only the constitutional right of individuals against involuntary servitude, and was not intended to deal with combinations, conspiracies, or group action. This construction has been made abundantly clear by an amendment to the bill by which the word 'individual' has been inserted before the 'employee' wherever the latter word appears in the paragraph.'