Masonry Magazine March 1972 Page. 20
Supreme Court Holds Contractors
Parties to Jurisdictional Dispute
The U.S. Supreme Court in a landmark decision has ruled unanimously that construction industry employers are "parties at interest" in some jurisdictional labor disputes.
The issue on which the Court ruled grew out of a disagreement between the Tile, Terrazzo & Marble Setters Union and the Plasterers' Union wherein both claimed they were entitled to the work of applying mortar to floors and walls on which tile was to be set on construction jobs in Texas.
Both unions are affiliated with the AFL-CIO'S Building Trades Department, and thus were bound to submit their dispute to the department's National Joint Board for Settlement of Jurisdictional Disputes. The board subsequently ruled in favor of the Plasterers.
When some employers refused to hire Plasterers' Union members to perform the work, the Plasterers picketed. The employers in turn filed unfair labor practice charges against the union with the NLRB. The board added fuel to the conflict when it decided that, under the circumstances, it had authority to decide the issue and awarded the work to the Tile Setters.
A lower court, however, set aside the NLRB order on the basis that an employer is not a "party" to a dispute between rival unions, and that the board was without power to settle the issue. The Supreme Court, in an opinion by Justice Byron White, reversed the lower court-ruling that employers are parties to such disputes.
It was Justice White's opinion that while employers may lack a stake in the outcome of some of these disputes, many others are three-pronged affairs in which companies "have substantial economic interests in the outcome." The employers in the Texas dispute, White said, had contracts with the Tile Setters but not with the Plasterers and "characteristically" employed Tile Setters members to apply the disputed mortar. The companies contended they used the Tile Setters because it was more efficient and less costly.
The "common sense" interpretation of the law, Justice White concluded, required that employers be considered parties, thus giving authority to the NLRB to award jobs in dispute.
(The full text of the Supreme Court's decision appears on the following pages. Clip them for your permanent files.)
Industrial Savings & Loan Association
(Continued from page 19)
stock red brick and specified a stack bond pattern with a black or "charcoal" mortar to create the effect desired.
The high lift grouted masonry walls were constructed with a six-inch space between the brick, reinforced with #5 steel bars. The same spacing was required for the arches; however, they were reinforced with #7 steel bars. The brick walls were grouted in 4-foot lifts with a single 23-foot pour.
The two eighteen-foot arches prominent at the entrance of the building were constructed on a twelve-foot radius. These arches, incidentally, were the first Spanish arch design considered and suggested by the architects.
The Industrial Savings Building presents an example of many excellent ways that masonry can provide the structural strength needed and can also add materially to the decorative effect. Unique brick work features accomplished by Milo Masonry on this building include: "Quirk Mitre Corners" on all windows; two radius corners of brick veneer facing for the concrete vault; and a battered wall for the outside planters with every course of brick stepped back 4" to fashion a pyramid effect.
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