LABOR: A Nod or a Wink

John Lewis lumbered into federal court this week to hear the verdict on whether or not he was in contempt of court. He had made a deal through Speaker Joe Martin which had settled, for the time at least, the 29-day coal strike and pension-fund fight which had brought about the strike. But he still had to answer to the law for waiting nine days before he obeyed a court order to send his miners back to work. His contention was that he had never sent them out.

Federal Judge T. Alan Goldsborough, who fined Lewis and his miners $3,510,000 for contempt of court 17 months ago,* gave him short shrift. Said the judge: “If a nod or a wink or a code was used in place of the word, ‘strike,’ there was just as much a strike called as if the word ‘strike’ had been used … As long as a union is functioning as a union it must be held responsible for the mass action of its members.” Judge Goldsborough held that Lewis was guilty of civil and criminal contempt of court. The punishment: a whopping $20,000 fine for Mr. Lewis, plus a really whopping $1,400,000 for his union.

*The fine was reduced to $710,000 by the Supreme Court. By federal law the District of Columbia got 60%, the Federal Treasury 40%.