Guss v. Utah Labor Relations Board
Citation | 1 L.Ed.2d 601,353 U.S. 1,77 S.Ct. 609 |
Parties | P. S. GUSS, Doing Business as Photo Sound Products Manaufacturing Company, Appellant, v. UTAH LABOR RELATIONS BOARD. No. ___ |
Decision Date | 25 March 1957 |
Court | United 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.
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:
(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.
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:
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))...
To continue reading
Request your trial-
City Line Open Hearth, Inc. v. Hotel, Motel and Club Emp. Union Local No. 568, AFL-CIO
...... violation of Section 6(2) of the Pennsylvania Labor Relations. Act of June 1, 1937. [ 1 ] However, the lower ... of 1947, the National Labor Relations Board had exclusive. jurisdiction in the matter. . . Basis ...270, 79 S.Ct. 273, 3 L.Ed.2d 289. (1959); Guss v. Utah Labor Relations Board, 353 U.S. 1, 77 S.Ct. 598, ......
-
International Union, United Automobile, Aircraft and Agricultural Implement Workers of America v. Russell
...a gap in the remedial scheme of federal legislation is no license for the States to fashion correctives. Guss v. Utah Labor Relations Board, 353 U.S. 1, 77 S.Ct. 598, 1 L.Ed.2d 601. The Federal Act represents an attempt to balance the competing interests of employee, union and management. B......
-
San Diego Building Trades Council, Millmen Union, Local 2020 36 v. Garmon
...We granted certiorari, 351 U.S. 923, 76 S.Ct. 782, 100 L.Ed. 1453, and decided the case together with Guss v. Utah Labor Relations Board, 353 U.S. 1, 77 S.Ct. 598, 609, 1 L.Ed.2d 601, and Amalgamated Meat Cutters, etc. v. Fairlawn Meats, Inc., 353 U.S. 20, 77 S.Ct. 604, 1 L.Ed.2d 613. In th......
-
National Maritime Union of America v. NLRB, 66 Civil 2289.
...to which § 14(c) (1) was addressed was the "noman's land" created by the Supreme Court's holding in Guss v. Utah Labor Relations Bd., 353 U.S. 1, 77 S.Ct. 598, 1 L.Ed.2d 601 (1957), that the states were pre-empted from regulating labor relations in the area of the Board's statutory but unex......