Geo. A. Hormel & Co. v. Asper

I respectfully dissent, and would affirm the Commissioner’s decision. I agree with him that the Johnson case supports a conclusion that the strike ceased “active progress” when the trustee told Hormel in his letter of May 23, 1986 that respondents would no longer withhold their labor. The strike was then over, and any unemployment of respondents was no longer caused by the strike, but by the unavailability of work due to Hormel’s employment of replacement workers.

The strike in the Johnson case occurred in 1959. In recent years there have been a number of cases that recognize that once a…