Guss v. Utah Labor Relations Board

Citation1 L.Ed.2d 601,353 U.S. 1,77 S.Ct. 609
PartiesP. S. GUSS, Doing Business as Photo Sound Products Manaufacturing Company, Appellant, v. UTAH LABOR RELATIONS BOARD. No. ___
Decision Date25 March 1957
CourtUnited States Supreme Court

[Syllabus intentionally omitted] Mr. Peter W. Billings, Salt Lake City, Utah, for appellant.

Mr. E. R. Callister, Atty. Gen., of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, for appellee.

Mr. Chief Justice WARREN delivered the opinion of the Court.

The question presented by this appeal and by Amalgamated Meat Cutters, etc. v. Fairlawn Meats, Inc., 353 U.S. 20, 77 S.Ct. 604, and San Diego Building Trades Council v. Garmon, 353 U.S. 26, 77 S.Ct. 607, is whether Congress, by vesting in the National Labor Relations Board jurisdiction over labor relations matters affecting interstate commerce, has completely displaced state power to deal with such matters where the Board has declined or obviously would decline to exercise its jurisdiction but has not ceded jurisdiction pursuant to the proviso to § 10(a) of the National Labor Relations Act.1 It is a question we left open in Building Trades Council v. Kinard Construction Co., 346 U.S. 933, 74 S.Ct. 373, 98 L.Ed. 423.

Some background is necessary for an understanding of this problem in federal-state relations and how it assumed its present importance. Since it was first enacted in 1935, the National Labor Relations Act2 has empowered the National Labor Relations Board 'to prevent any person from engaging in any unfair labor practice * * * (defined by the Act) affecting commerce.'3 By this language and by the definition of 'affecting commerce' elsewhere in the Act,4 Congress meant to reach to the full extent of its power under the Commerce Clause. National Labor Relations Board v. Fainblatt, 306 U.S. 601, 606—607, 59 S.Ct. 668, 672, 83 L.Ed. 1014. The Board, however, has never exercised the full measure of its jurisdiction. For a number of years, the Board decided case-by-case whether to take jurisdiction. In 1950, concluding that 'experience warrants the establishment and announcement of certain standards' to govern the exercise of its jurisdiction, Hollow Tree Lumber Co., 91 N.L.R.B. 635, 636, the Board published standards, largely in terms of yearly dollar amounts of interstate inflow and outflow.5 In 1954, a sharply divided Board, see Breeding Transfer Co., 110 N.L.R.B. 493, revised the jurisdictional standards upward.6 This Court has never passed and we do not pass today upon the validity of any particular declination of jurisdiction by the Board or any set of jurisdictional standards.7

How many labor disputes the Board's 1954 standards leave in the 'twilight zone' between exercised federal jurisdiction and unquestioned state jurisdiction is not known.8 In any case, there has been recently a substantial volume of litigation raising the question stated at the beginning of this opinion, of which this case is an example.9

Appellant, doing business in Salt Lake City, Utah, manufactures specialized photographic equipment for the Air Force on a contract basis. To fulfill his government contracts he purchased materials from outside Utah in an amount 'a little less than $50,000.' Finished prod- ucts were shipped to Air Force bases, one within Utah and the others outside. In 1953 the United Steelworkers of America filed with the National Labor Relations Board a petition for certification of that union as the bargaining representative of appellant's employees. A consent election was agreed to, the agreement reciting that appellant was 'engaged in commerce within the meaning of Section 2(6), (7) of the National Labor Relations Act.' The union won the election and was certified by the National Board as bargaining representative. Shortly thereafter the union filed with the National Board charges that appellant had engaged in unfair labor practices proscribed by § 8(a)(1), (3) and (5) of the Act.10 Meanwhile, on July 15, 1954, the Board promulgated its revised jurisdictional standards. The Board's Acting Regional Director declined to issue a complaint. He wrote on July 21:

'Further proceedings are not warranted, inasmuch as the operations of the Company involved are predominantly local in character, and it does not appear that it would effectuate the policies of the Act to exercise jurisdiction.'

The union thereupon filed substantially the same charges with the Utah Labor Relations Board, pursuant to the Utah Labor Relations Act.11 Appellant urged that the State Board was without jurisdiction of a matter within the jurisdiction of the National Board. The State Board, however, found it had jurisdiction and concluded on the merits that appellant had engaged in unfair labor practices as defined by the Utah Act. It granted relief through a remedial order. On a Writ of Review, the Utah Supreme Court affirmed the decision and order of the state administrative agency.12 We noted probable jurisdiction. 352 U.S. 817, 77 S.Ct. 65.

On these facts we start from the following uncontroverted premises:

(1) Appellant's business affects commerce within the meaning of the National Labor Relations Act and the National Labor Relations Board had jurisdiction. National Labor Relations Board v. Fainblatt, supra.

(2) The National Act expressly deals with the conduct charged to appellant which was the basis of the state tribunals' actions. Therefore, if the National Board had not declined jurisdiction, state action would have been precluded by our decision in Garner v. Teamsters Union, 346 U.S. 485, 74 S.Ct. 161, 98 L.Ed. 228.

(3) The National Board has not entered into any cession agreement with the Utah Board pursuant to § 10(a) of the National Act.

Section 10(a) provides:

'The Board is empowered, as hereinafter provided, to prevent any person from engaging in any unfair labor practice (listed in Section 8) affecting commerce. This power shall not be affected by any other means of adjustment or prevention that has been or may be established by agreement, law, or otherwise: Provided, That the Board is empowered by agreement with any agency of any State or Territory to cede to such agency jurisdiction over any cases in any industry (other than mining, manufacturing, communications, and transportation except where predominantly local in character) even though such cases may involve labor disputes affecting commerce, unless the provision of the State or Territorial statute applicable to the determination of such cases by such agency is inconsistent with the corresponding provision of this Act or has received a construction inconsistent therewith.' (Emphasis added.)

The proviso to § 10(a), italicized in the quotation above, was one of the Taft-Hartley amendments to the National Labor Relations Act. Timing and a reference in one of the committee reports indicate that it was drafter in response to the decision of this Court in Bethlehem Steel Co. v. New York State Labor Relations Board, 330 U.S. 767, 67 S.Ct. 1026, 91 L.Ed. 1234.13 In Bethlehem foremen in an enterprise affecting commerce petitioned the New York State Labor Relations Board for certification as a bargaining unit. At that time the National Board was declining, as a matter of policy, to certify bargaining units composed of foremen. The Court held that the federal policy against certifying foremen's units must prevail. However, it took occasion to discuss the efforts of the two boards to avoid conflicts of jurisdiction.

'The National and State Boards have made a commendable effort to avoid conflict in this overlapping state of the statutes. We find nothing in their negotiations, however, which affects either the construction of the federal statute or the question of constitutional power insofar as they are involved in this case, since the National Board made no concession or delegation of power to deal with this subject. The election of the National Board to decline jurisdiction in certain types of cases, for budgetary or other reasons presents a different problem which we do not now decide.' Id., 330 U.S. at page 776, 67 S.Ct. at page 1031.

Three Justices were led to concur specially, because, as it was stated for the three:

'I read * * * (the Court's opinion) to mean that it is beyond the power of the National Board to agree with State agencies enforcing laws like the Wagner Act to divide, with due regard to local interests, the domain over which Congress had given the National Board abstract discretion but which, practically, cannot be covered by it alone. If such cooperative agreements between State and National Boards are barred because the power which Congress has granted to the National Board ousted or superseded State authority, I am unable to see how State authority can revive because Congress has seen fit to put the Board on short rations.' Id., 330 U.S. at page 779, 67 S.Ct. at page 1032.

Thus, if the opinion of the Court did not make manifest, the concurring opinion did, that after Bethlehem there was doubt whether a state board could act either after a formal cession by the National Board or upon a declination of jurisdiction 'for budgetary or other reasons.' When we read § 10(a) against this background we find unconvincing the argument that Congress meant by the proviso only to meet the first problem, i.e., cession of jurisdiction over cases the National Board would otherwise handle.

The proviso is directed at least equally to the type of cases which the Board might decline 'for budgetary or other reasons' to hear as to the type of cases it might wish to cede to the States for policy reasons—if, indeed, there is any difference between the two classes. Cases in mining, manufacturing, communications and transportation can be ceded only where the 'industry' is 'predominantly local in character.' In other industries, which Congress might have considered to be more or less typically local it put no such limitation on the Board's power. The Senate Committee spelled the matter out:

'The proviso which has been added to this subsection (§ 10(a))...

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