## Facts

- A union struck certain fruit packers and warehousemen in Yakima, Washington, whose apples were sold through Safeway grocery stores in the Seattle area.
- To support the strike, the union conducted a consumer boycott campaign aimed at Washington State apples sold at Safeway.
- Union pickets patrolled at or near customer entrances of 46 Safeway stores, carrying placards and distributing handbills.
- The message urged customers not to buy Washington State apples; apples were only one of many products sold by Safeway.
- Before picketing, the union notified store managers and provided picket instructions.
- The instructions barred any request that customers stop shopping at Safeway generally and limited appeals to not purchasing the struck product.

## Issues

1. Whether peaceful picketing at a neutral retailer that urges only a product-specific consumer boycott constitutes “threaten[ing], coerc[ing], or restrain[ing]” a person with an unlawful secondary object under NLRA § 8(b)(4)(ii)(B).
2. Whether § 8(b)(4)(ii)(B) should be read to prohibit all consumer picketing at secondary establishments, even when limited to discouraging purchases of the primary employer’s product.

## Decision

- The Supreme Court held that peaceful secondary picketing at retail stores, limited to urging consumers not to buy the struck product, is not prohibited by § 8(b)(4)(ii)(B).
- The Court rejected the Board’s view that § 8(b)(4) categorically bans all secondary consumer picketing.
- The Court vacated the court of appeals’ judgment and remanded to the NLRB for further proceedings consistent with the Court’s statutory construction.

## Legal Principles

- “Threaten, coerce, or restrain” in § 8(b)(4)(ii)(B) is construed in light of Congress’s aim to curb disruptive secondary pressure seeking to cut off the neutral employer’s business generally, not all consumer-directed appeals.
- A distinction exists between (a) secondary picketing designed to induce a total consumer boycott of the neutral retailer and (b) “product picketing” that only persuades consumers not to buy the struck product.
- The “publicity, other than picketing” proviso does not, by implication, outlaw all peaceful consumer picketing at secondary sites; statutory text and history must clearly support such a broad prohibition.

## Conclusion

Product-focused, peaceful picketing at a neutral retail store that asks consumers only not to purchase the primary employer’s struck goods, and does not urge a general boycott of the retailer, does not violate NLRA § 8(b)(4)(ii)(B).


NLRB v. Fruit & Vegetable Packers & Warehousemen, Loc. 760, 377 U.S. 58 (1964)