UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT DECISIONS ON-LINE
TEAMSTERS UNION V. VOGT, INC., 354 U. S. 284 (1957)
354 U. S. 284U.S. Supreme Court
Teamsters Union v. Vogt, Inc., 354 U.S. 284 (1957)
Teamsters Union v. Vogt, Inc.
No. 79
Argued February 26, 1957
Decided June 17, 1957
354 U.S. 284
Syllabus
Respondent owns and operates a gravel pit in Wisconsin, where it employs 15 to 20 men. Petitioner unions sought unsuccessfully to induce some of respondent's employees to join the unions, and began picketing the entrance to respondent's gravel pit with signs reading, "The men on this job are not 100% affiliated with the A.F.L." As a result, drivers of several trucking companies refused to deliver and haul goods to and from respondent's plant, causing substantial damage to respondent. On respondent's application, a State Court enjoined the picketing. The injunction was sustained by the State Supreme Court on findings by it that (1) the picketing had been engaged in for the purpose of coercing respondent to force its employees to become members of petitioner unions, and (2) such picketing was for "an unlawful purpose," since Wis.Stat. § 111.06(2)(b) made it an unfair labor practice for an employee individually or in concert with others to
"coerce, intimidate or induce an employer to interfere with any of his employes in the enjoyment of their legal rights . . . or to engage in any practice with regard to his employes which would constitute an unfair labor practice if undertaken by him on his own initiative."
Held: the judgment is affirmed. Pp. 354 U. S. 285-295.
(a) Prior decisions of this Court have established a broad field in which a State, in enforcing some public policy, whether of its criminal or its civil law, and whether announced by its legislature or its courts, may constitutionally enjoin peaceful picketing aimed at preventing effectuation of that policy. Pp. 354 U. S. 287-293.
(b) Consistently with the Fourteenth Amendment, a State may enjoin peaceful picketing the purpose of which is to coerce an employer to put pressure on his employees to join a union in violation of the declared policy of the State. Pappas v. Stacey, 151 Me. 36,116 A. 2d 497, appeal dismissed, 350 U.S. 870. Pp. 354 U. S. 293-295.
270 Wis. 321a, 74 N.W.2d 749, affirmed. clubjuris