A Judge Draws the Line: Unions May Bargain, Not Bully
In a Tacoma courtroom, Judge Pritchard rules that workingmen may set their own terms — but cannot force an employer's hand through threats.
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In the case of Bruce vs. Iron Moulders' Union, at Tacoma, in which the plaintiff seeks damages for an alleged wrong, Judge Pritchard gave the following sound instruction as to a man's right to sell his labor: "As long as the men of labor unions do nothing more than to agree among themselves as to the terms upon which they will labor and the persons with whom they will associate in laboring, they may accomplish this and other purposes if they employ legal means in so doing, without subjecting themselves to any action, either civil or criminal. But when they undertake to enslave the employer of other laborers, or to force either to do anything against his will by threatening or menacing them with injury, their action becomes clearly unlawful and subjects them to penalty for damages."
“But when they undertake to enslave the employer of other laborers, or to force either to do anything against his will by threatening or menacing them with injury, their action becomes clearly unlawful.”
This instruction came at the height of the great labor-injunction era, when courts were defining what a union could and could not do. Judge Pritchard's charge gave workers a clear right to organize and set terms, yet opened the door to damages suits whenever organizers 'coerced' an employer — a tension that shaped Washington's labor law for decades. The same balancing act between collective power and individual freedom still plays out in today's union drives and right-to-work fights.
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