Section 29(8)
LABOR DISPUTE, Employed, Hearsay rule exception, Sympathy strike
CITE AS: Vickers v ESC, 30 Mich App 530 (1971).
Appeal pending: No
Claimant: Victor L. Vickers, et al
Employer: Asplundh Tree Expert Company
Docket No: B66 3457 35162
COURT OF APPEALS HOLDING: " ... Unemployment is the indispensable, essential element or ingredient which brings into being and sets into motion all of the other provisions of the Act."
FACTS: Claimants were employees of a power line clearance company which had a contract with Detroit Edison. Claimant's union struck the Edison Company. However, only Edison employees were on strike. Claimant's contract was not at issue in the strike. Work was available for each of the claimants during the period of the strike; they knew the work was available, but did not report for work; the union did not want them to work.
DECISION: Claimants are not unemployed as defined by Section 48 of the MES Act.
RATIONALE: The fact that Edison and Asplundh each hold union contracts with the same union is coincidental; but that does not create a unity of entity of the two employing units. The union removed claimants from their jobs in sympathy with the strikers. Claimants lost the benefit of employment in available work and earnings during the period of the Edison strike for reasons other than the employer's failure to furnish full-time regular work.
11/90
NA