But these were exceptional cases. Usually injunctions were
sought to prevent not violence, but strikes, picketing, or boycotting.
What is threatened by strikes and picketing is not the employer's
physical property, but the relations he has established as an employer
of labor, summed up in his expectancy of retaining the services of old
employes and of obtaining new ones. Boycotting, obviously, has no
connection with acts of violence against physical property, but is
designed merely to undermine the profitable relations which the employer
had developed with his customers. These expectancies are advantages
enjoyed by established businesses over new competitors and are usually
transferable and have market value. For these reasons they are now
recognized as property in the law of good-will and unfair competition
for customers, having been first formulated about the middle of the
nineteenth century.
The first case which recognized these expectancies of a labor market was
Walker _v._ Cronin,[35] decided by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial
Court in 1871. It held that the plaintiff was entitled to recover
damages from the defendants, certain union officials, because they had
induced his employes, who were free to quit at will, to leave his employ
and had also been instrumental in preventing him from getting new
employes.
Pages:
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236