Information & Advisories

The System Office of Employee Relations has been contacted for advice in instances where an outside union has had a quarrel with a contractor performing services on a campus. This is to provide information to help you respond knowledgeably to these situations. Given the possible repercussions of such job actions, it is important to contact the SUNY Office of Employee Relations and Counsel's Office as early as possible when such secondary picketing or strike is threatened.

The University deals with many contractors, including food service, book store or construction operations, for example. When the employees who work for a contractor experience labor difficulties, their union may decide to take action by picketing the work site. What are the options open to you? First, the dispute is usually between the contractor and its union, so the campus administrators should avoid direct involvement in the dispute itself or in resolution efforts. Then, you should determine if the picketing is only informational or an attempt to restrict the flow of campus operations. Feel free to contact the contractor or the union in making this determination.

If the facts show that picketing is not interfering with campus operations, you may need to take no action. For example, the contractor's employees may carry signs at an entrance, but should not be permitted to block the entrance. Informational picketing is legal and must be allowed. All gatherings are, however, subject to the University's Rules for the Maintenance of Public Order. Additional rules and regulations may have been promulgated by your campus. These rules will generally provide you with some control over the size, location, and tone of the demonstration. Another method for controlling the location of the picketers is to identify a specific limited area for deliveries or other business interactions with the employer being picketed.

You can limit the picketing to one site; for example, one entrance of the campus. If the pickets go beyond the limits, an injunction can be sought. In some cases, union members may distribute handbills, describing their issue with the contractor. If the information on the handbills is not inflammatory or does not encourage interruption of campus operations, such distribution is permitted as an exercise of first amendment rights. Pickets may not attempt to turn away delivery trucks. They may not ask university employees to observe the picket line.

If the facts show that the picketing or picketers are interfering with operations, you should first contact a union representative and ask that they confine their picketing and comments. We have generally found the unions to be fairly cooperative as their goal is to make their concerns with the employer public through informational picketing without becoming unnecessarily entangled in legal disputes with third parties. If this approach is not successful and you wish to take formal action, you will need to prove that picketers are behaving improperly. Therefore, it is important to contact Counsel's Office about the possibility of obtaining an injunction. You may be asked to observe and even videotape action on the picket line as a means of establishing proof of objectionable behavior. You should also contact the SUNY Office of Employee Relations. Often informal pressure can be brought to bear on the central office of a union against inappropriate action at a local chapter level.

If the outside union seeks to involve university employees, you should distribute the advisory prepared by GOER for use in instances where a strike by State employees is anticipated, adapted to your particular facts. That advisory cautions state employees about the strike prohibition in the Taylor Law and describes what actions could inadvertently expose them to strike penalties. If you need copies or would like advice on specific wording, please call the System Office of Employee Relations.