Hatters & Hosiers

Historic to Labor was the case of the Danbury Hatters. In 1902, A. F. of L.'s United Hatters of North America called a strike and instituted a nationwide union boycott against D. E. Loewe & Co. of Danbury, Conn, (still a hatting centre).

Loewe & Co., because of the boycott, charged 240 Danbury hatters with conspiracy in restraint of interstate trade under the Sherman Antitrust Act, won a verdict for triple damages. Lest the defendant hatters lose their homes and savings, A. F. of L.'s Sam Gompers asked all Federationists to chip in an hour's pay, and eventually settled the judgment for $251,000 including damages.

Most people still do not realize that unions can be sued and made to pay damages (hence the frequent demands for incorporation to "make unions responsible"). To trial in Philadelphia last week went a whopping big damage suit, big enough to break the union concerned. In Apex Hosiery Co. v. Branch No. 1, American Federation of Hosiery Workers, et al., the union, its officers and its members stand to lose a maximum of $3,515,872 in triple damages.

The Apex case began in the sit-down year of 1937. On May 6, between 10,000 and 15,000 Philadelphia hosiers assembled at 5th and Luzerne Streets, where notoriously antiunion Apex had its six-story plant. Hundreds of workers smashed down the doors, swarmed into the plant, held it for 48 days. When Apex got it back, so much damage had been done that the plant could not start operations for nearly six months. Last week, Apex's suit for triple damages under the Sherman Act went to trial. In the courtroom :

> To sustain a suit against Branch No. 1 ("on behalf of itself and all its members"), as well as against President William Leader and three other union officers, Apex had to prove that union officials actually directed the strike. Apex's President William Meyer testified that after strikers had beat him, swart, big-beaked Bill Leader appeared and asked : "Now will you sign a closed shop agreement?"

> Leading off for the defense, Bill Leader conceded that no more than 100 of Apex's 2,500 employes attended the meeting at which a strike was authorized. (Long after the strike, Apex signed a closed-shop contract when the union proved that it had enrolled a majority.)

Well aware that the damages asked by Apex would surely sink Branch No. 1 (whose income is $175,000 to $180,000 a year in dues from 15,000 members), Defense Attorney M. Herbert Syme tried hard to establish that the union's officers did not authorize or direct the strike. But before Apex had finished its story, District Judge William Huntington Kirkpatrick solemnly observed: "I think that there certainly has been established a prima facie case that the union authorized, maintained or adopted a sit-down strike."

Philadelphia's sick Mayor Samuel Davis Wilson was interested in these events. Not only is Bill Leader his stanch political friend, but against the Mayor, his strapped city government, etc., etc. Apex has filed a separate suit for $1,026,793. Charge: they failed to provide adequate police protection.

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