Reference no: EM131706662

Question: Delta Air Lines subcontracted the janitorial work of its offices at the Los Angeles International Airport to the National Cleaning Company. National entered into a collective bargaining agreement with the Hospital and Service Employees Union, Local 399. Delta later lawfully terminated its contract with National and made a new contract with Statewide Maintenance Company, a nonunion employer. Consequently, National fired five of the six janitors who had cleaned Delta's offices. In furtherance of its recognitional dispute with Statewide Maintenance, the union began distributing handbills at Delta's L.A. airport facilities in front of the downtown Los Angeles office. One or two persons usually distributed the flyers at each facility. The handbilling caused no interruptions in deliveries or refusals by Delta's employees to do their work. There were four handbills altogether. The first stated, "Please do not fly Delta Airlines. Delta Airlines unfair. Does not provide AFL-CIO conditions of employment. (signed by union)." The other side said, "It takes more than money to fly Delta. It takes nerve. Let's look at the accident record." There followed a list of fifty-five accidents involving Delta over the years, along with the total number of deaths and injuries.

The second handbill, distributed a week later, contained all the information on side two of the first handbill but not the information from side one. The third handbill, another week later, again consisted of two sides. Side one said: Please Do Not Fly Delta Airlines. This airline has caused members of Service Employees Union, Local 399, AFL-CIO, at Los Angeles International Airport, to become unemployed. In their place they have contracted with a maintenance company which does not provide Local 399 wages, benefits and standards. We urge all union members to protest Delta's action to the Delta office in your region. If you are concerned about the plight of fellow union members ... Please Do Not Fly Delta Airlines. Side two contained the same accident information as the previous two broadsides. Handbill four contained the same accident information as the prior three, with the following prefatory statement: As members of the public and in order to protect the wages and conditions of Local 399 members and to publicize our primary dispute with the Statewide Building Maintenance Company, we wish to call to the attention of the consuming public certain information about Delta Airlines from the official records of the Civil Aeronautics Board of the United States Government. Simultaneous with the handbilling activities, the union published copies of flyers one and three in two union newspapers, along with an advertisement stating singly, "Do Not Fly Delta." Analyze each of the four handbills. What, if anything, in each constituted an illegal secondary boycott? What, if anything, was protected by the NLRA's publicity proviso? Is the same true with respect to the newspaper ads? See Service Employees Local 399 v. NLRB [117 L.R.R.M. 2717, 743 F.2d 1417 (9th Cir. 1984)].