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Perlman, Selig

"A History of Trade Unionism in the United States"


Despite this, the injunction was confirmed and the boycott again
declared illegal, the court holding that the words "employer and
employes" in the Act restrict its benefits only to "parties standing in
proximate relation to a controversy," that is to the employes who are
immediately involved in the dispute and not to the national union which
undertakes to bring their employer to terms by causing their other
members to boycott his goods.
The prevailing judicial interpretation of unlawful union methods is
briefly as follows: Strikes are illegal when they involve defamation,
fraud, actual physical violence, threats of physical violence, or
inducement of breach of contract. Boycotts are illegal when they bring
third parties into the dispute by threats of strikes, or loss of
business, publication of "unfair lists,"[98] or by interference with
Interstate commerce. Picketing is illegal when accompanied by violence,
threats, intimidation, and coercion. In December 1921 the Supreme Court
declared mere numbers in groups constituted intimidation and, while
admitting that circumstances may alter cases, limited peaceful picketing
to one picket at each point of ingress or egress of the plant.


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