Midwest Motor Exp., Inc. v. International Broth. of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers of America, Local 120, C6-92-1126
| Decision Date | 11 March 1994 |
| Docket Number | No. C6-92-1126,C6-92-1126 |
| Citation | 512 N.W.2d 881 |
| Parties | 145 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2717, 62 USLW 2592, 127 Lab.Cas. P 57,677 MIDWEST MOTOR EXPRESS, INC., Petitioner, Appellant, v. INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF TEAMSTERS, CHAUFFEURS, WAREHOUSEMEN AND HELPERS OF AMERICA, LOCAL 120, Respondent, and State of Minnesota, by its Attorney General, Hubert H. Humphrey, III, intervenor, Respondent. |
| Court | Minnesota Supreme Court |
Robert S. Halagan, Alec J. Beck, Felhaber, Larson, Fenlon & Vogt, P.A., Minneapolis, for appellant.
Stephen D. Gordon, Kathryn M. Engdahl, Gordon, Miller, O'Brien, Minneapolis, for International Broth. of Teamsters.
Hubert H. Humphrey, III, Atty. Gen., Scott R. Strand, Michael J. Vanselow, St. Paul, for State of Mn.
Roger A. Peterson, Scott A. Higbee, Peterson, Engberg, & Peterson, Minneapolis, amicus curiae for MN Fed. of Amerc. Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations.
Clark Calvin Griffith, II, Minneapolis, amicus curiae for Labor Policy Assoc. Bradley S. Ervin, St. Paul, amicus curiae for MN Chamber of Commerce.
Heard, considered, and decided by the court en banc.
This appeal arises out of a strike which commenced on August 12, 1991 at the Roseville shipping facility of Midwest Motor Express, Inc. On August 16, 1991, four days after the beginning of the strike, Midwest secured an order temporarily restraining certain activities of the strikers. After the parties had entered into a stipulation for a limited injunction, Midwest instituted a declaratory action requesting a judgment declaring that Minn.Stat. Sec. 179.12(9) (1992) 1 is unconstitutional because violative of the Supremacy Clause of the United States Constitution. While contending that the issue was not ripe for consideration, the union, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers of America, Local 120, responded that Midwest had stated an intention to hire permanent replacements for the strikers in violation of Minn.Stat. Sec. 179.12(9). When the State of Minnesota intervened in support of the statute, the declaratory judgment action and the injunction suit were consolidated, and the parties interposed cross-motions for summary judgment. The district court concluded that Minn.Stat. Sec. 179.12(9) was enacted to prevent strike violence and was, therefore, excepted from federal preemption. The district court was also of the opinion that preemption was not compelled because the National Labor Relations Act merely permitted an employer to hire permanent replacements for striking employees but "does not, in unmistakably clear language[,] declare that Congress intended this area to be free of state regulation." The district court ordered summary judgment in favor of Local 120 and the State of Minnesota.
On appeal from the judgment entered on April 1, 1992, the court of appeals affirmed the determination that the Minnesota Striker Replacement Act, Minn.Stat. Sec. 179.12(9) is constitutional. The court of appeals, however, rejected the invitation to hold that the statute was exempt from federal labor law preemption because it was a statute directed to the prevention of strike related violence and, therefore, constituted a valid exercise of the police power. Instead, relying on Belknap, Inc. v. Hale, 463 U.S. 491, 103 S.Ct. 3172, 77 L.Ed.2d 798 (1983), the court of appeals ruled that any offer of employment which could give rise to a colorable claim under the state law applicable to employment contracts was exempt from federal labor law preemption. Having affirmed the district court's determination that the Striker Replacement Act is constitutional, the court of appeals remanded the matter to the district court for determination of the nature of any grant or offer to grant the status of permanent replacement employee which shall be submitted for the court's consideration. Midwest Motor Express, Inc. v. International Bhd. of Teamsters, Local 120, 494 N.W.2d 895 (Minn.App.1993). We reverse.
Before addressing the determinative question in this case, perhaps it is desirable to examine the court's contention that the question is not ripe for review. Although it is true that this court will determine constitutionality only if the case presents a justiciable issue, we regard the issue here as neither "hypothetical" nor "abstract." Minn.Stat. Sec. 179.12(9) makes it an unfair labor practice for an employer "[t]o grant or offer to grant the status of permanent replacement employee to a person for performing bargaining unit work for an employer * * * during a strike of employees in a labor organization authorized by a representative of employees." Midwest has expressed its intention here to hire permanent replacement employees to perform the work of the striking employees, and the record demonstrates that it did engage permanent replacement workers in its struck North Dakota Facility; as a result, the district court was entitled to believe Midwest's assertions of its intent to hire such workers and that its bargaining strategy was hampered by the stricture of the statute. Minn.Stat. Sec. 179.14 (1992) provides that the threat as well as the commission of an unfair labor practice is subject to injunction. Under the circumstances, we are of the opinion that Midwest should not be required to risk the loss of its current injunctive relief in order to challenge the Striker Replacement Act. Indeed, as we observed on an earlier occasion, the declaratory judgment action provided by Minn.Stat. Sec. 555.01 (1992), which recognizes the court's "power to declare rights, status, and other legal relations whether or not further relief is or could be claimed * * *," is singularly appropriate for the resolution of disputes before the commission of wrongs. Culligan Soft Water Serv. of Inglewood, Inc. v. Culligan Int'l Co., 288 N.W.2d 213, 215-16 (Minn.1979).
The principal expression of federal labor law has since 1935 been found in the National Labor Relations Act, commonly identified by its initials NLRA. The question presented by this case, whether an employer's engagement of permanent replacements for striking workers constitutes an unfair labor practice within section 8(1) of the NLRA, surfaced almost immediately after its enactment. NLRB v. Mackay Radio & Telegraph Co., 304 U.S. 333, 58 S.Ct. 904, 82 L.Ed. 1381 (1938).
On October 4, 1935, Local No. 3 of the American Radio Telegraphists Association called a strike of the land operators employed by Mackay at its San Francisco office. Mackay maintained service by bringing employees from other offices to fill the strikers' places. Mackay promised 11 of the men brought to San Francisco that if they wished to remain in San Francisco, they would not be displaced when the striking employees returned to work. The strikers soon became convinced that the strike would fail, and they inquired of the traffic supervisor whether they might return to work. The supervisor said that the men could return to work in a body but he checked off the names of 11 strikers who would be required to apply for reinstatement. The men returned to work with 6 of the 11 in question resuming their work without challenge because only 5 of the new employees wished to stay in San Francisco. The other five strikers on the list, those most prominent in the activities of the union, and in connection with the strike, were not reinstated, and the National Labor Relations Board charged that Mackay had refused to re-employ the five strikers
for the reason that they had joined and assisted the labor organization known as Local No. 3 and engaged with other employes in concerted activities for the purpose of collective bargaining and other mutual aid and protection; that the refusal to reemploy them restrained and coerced the employes in the exercise of rights guaranteed by Sec. 7 and so constituted an unfair labor practice within Sec. 8(1) of the Act. The amended complaint further asserted that the refusal to re-employ these men discriminated in regard to their hire and tenure of employment and discouraged membership in Local No. 3 and thus amounted to an unfair labor practice under Sec. 8(3) of the Act.
Id. at 340, 58 S.Ct. at 908. The Board ordered the employer to reinstate the five men to their former positions with backpay. The Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit refused to enforce the order.
On appeal to the United States Supreme Court Mackay contended that the NLRB lacked jurisdiction because Mackay had not committed any unfair labor practice. The Supreme Court agreed with Mackay that it was not an unfair labor practice
to replace the striking employes with others in an effort to carry on the business. Although Sec. 13 provides, 'Nothing in this Act shall be construed so as to interfere with or impede or diminish in any way the right to strike,' it does not follow that an employer, guilty of no act denounced by the statute, has lost the right to protect and continue his business by supplying places left vacant by strikers. And he is not bound to discharge those hired to fill the places of strikers, upon the election of the latter to resume their employment, in order to create places for them. The assurance by [Mackay] to those who accepted employment during the strike that if they so desired their places might be permanent was not an unfair labor practice nor was it such to reinstate only so many of the strikers as there were vacant places to be filled.
Id. at 345-46, 58 S.Ct. at 911 (footnote omitted).
In addition to the NLRB's determination that the refusal to reinstate all of the strikers constituted an unfair labor practice because it restrained and coerced employees in their exercise of rights guaranteed by the NLRA, however, the Board had found that Mackay discriminated when it refused to reinstate certain employees solely because they had been the most active in the union. The Court held that the strikers remained employees as long as their work had ceased as a...
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Commentary: Striker replacement bill resurfaces in the Wisconsin Legislature.
...however, held Minnesota's striker replacement law was preempted in Midwest Motor Express, Inc. v. International Brotherhood of Teamsters, 512 N.W.2d 881 (Minn.1994). The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit also held Minnesota's law was preempted in Employers Associa-tion, Inc. v. U......