Primary Boycott Law and Legal Definition
Primary boycott means a boycott by a labor union and its members to stop consumers from using, purchasing, and transporting a particular employer's or a specific company’s products, goods, or services. Generally primary boycotts occur during labor negotiations. Most unions adopt primary boycott as a method to bring their management to the negotiating table and to press the management on their demands. The strike conducted by the United Farm Workers union against the California agro businesses by boycotting the California grapes, lettuce, and wine is an example of a primary boycott. Just like a secondary boycott, in a primary boycott no effort is made to involve or persuade those not directly involved in the dispute.
In Allied Int'l v. International Longshoremen's Ass'n, 640 F.2d 1368, 1378 (1st Cir. 1981), “the district court also characterized the ILA action as "a primary boycott of Russian goods, with incidental effects upon those employers who deal in such goods".
