Page:Glacier Northwest v. Teamsters.pdf/43

22 cessation of work risks foreseeable, imminent, and aggravated harm to persons, premises, or equipment. Beyond this narrow reasonable-precautions requirement, however, employees have no obligation to protect their employer’s economic interests when they exercise the right to withhold their labor.

Glacier does not allege that the cement truckdrivers committed acts of violence or seized its plant or property as part of the strike the Union orchestrated. Instead, the thrust of its complaint is that the Union was aware of “the perishable nature of batched concrete,” App. 9, and that the drivers’ walkout was intentionally timed so as to risk harm to that product. See id., at 10 (alleging “sabotage, ruination and destruction of Glacier’s batched concrete”).

I agree with the majority that the risk of losing the batched concrete alone would not be sufficient to divest the striking drivers of statutory protection. As Glacier acknowledges, wet concrete is a perishable good. Ibid. And the Board has repeatedly reaffirmed that the loss of such perishable goods due to a mere work stoppage does not render a strike unprotected.

There is also no duty to take reasonable precautions to prevent this kind of economic loss, which—standing alone—posed no risk to persons, premises, or equipment, let alone a risk of aggravated harm. While it seems that the drivers were in a position to save the batched concrete that was inside their trucks when the strike was called (by, for instance, continuing to deliver it to the intended customers), that is beside the point. Employees have a protected right to withhold their labor. And it would undercut that right if they could be held liable for the incidental loss of the perishable goods (which includes concrete no less than raw poultry, cheese, or milk) that they tend to as part of their