National Labor Relations Board v. International Longshoremen Association

• Citation: 65 L.Ed.2d 289,447 U.S. 490,100 S.Ct. 2305
• Decision Date: 20 June 1980
• Docket Number: No. 79-1082,AFL-CIO,79-1082
• Parties: NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, Petitioner, v. INTERNATIONAL LONGSHOREMEN'S ASSOCIATION,, et al
• Court: United States Supreme Court

447 U.S. 490

100 S.Ct. 2305

65 L.Ed.2d 289

NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, Petitioner,

v INTERNATIONAL LONGSHOREMEN'S ASSOCIATION, AFL-CIO, et al.

No. 79-1082.

Argued April 22, 1980.

Decided June 20, 1980.

Syllabus

This case presents the question whether Rules on Containers (Rules) in a collective-bargaining agreement between the International Longshoremen's Association (ILA) and employer organizations in the shipping industry which were adopted in response to the technological innovation of containerized shipping are a lawful work preservation agreement. The new technology involves the use on specially designed ships of large, reusable metal receptacles which can be removed on and off the vessel unopened and which can be attached to a truck chassis and transported intact to and from the pier, saving costs and time in loading and unloading ships and in warehousing cargo, as compared with the amount of on-pier work involved in handling loose cargo for conventional ships. The amount of work available for longshoremen has been further reduced by the shipping companies' practice of making their containers available for loading (stuffing) and unloading (stripping) away from the pier by shippers and by freight consolidators who combine the goods of various shippers into a single shipment. The Rules permit the great majority of containers to pass over the piers intact, reserving to the ILA the right to stuff and strip at the pier only those containers that would otherwise be stuffed or stripped "locally" (within a 50-mile radius of the port) by anyone except employees of the beneficial owner of the cargo, the shipping company being liable for specified liquidated damages for any container handled in violation of the Rules. Separate unfair labor practice proceedings were brought before the National Labor Relations Board (Board) by truckers and consolidators who, because of the operation against shipping companies of the Rules' liquidated-damages provisions, could no longer perform local stuffing and stripping services. The Board concluded that the Rules were not valid work preservation clauses because the work of stuffing and stripping containers away from the pier had not traditionally been done by ILA members, but had instead been performed by employees of consolidators and truckers. It therefore held that the Rules violated § 8(e) of the National Labor Relations Act, which makes unlawful those collective-bargaining agreements whereby the employer agrees to cease doing business with any other person, and that union action to enforce the Rules violated § 8(b)(4)(B), which prohibits unions from engaging in secondary activities whose object is to force one employer to cease doing business with another. The Court of Appeals, consolidating the cases and holding that the Board had erred as a matter of law in defining the work in controversy, vacated the Board's decisions, denied its applications for enforcement, and remanded the cases.

Held : The Board's definition of the work in controversy in this dispute was erroneous as a matter of law. Pp. 503-513.

(a) To constitute a lawful work preservation agreement, the agreement must have as its objective the preservation of work traditionally performed by employees represented by the union, and the contracting employer must have the power to give the employees the work in question. The first and most basic question is: What is the "work" that the agreement allegedly seeks to preserve? Cf. NLRB v. Pipefitters, 429 U.S. 507, 97 S.Ct. 891, 51 L.Ed.2d 1; National Woodwork Manufacturers Assn. v. NLRB, 386 U.S. 612, 87 S.Ct. 1250, 18 L.Ed.2d 357. Pp. 504-505.

(b) Identification of the work at issue in a complex case of technological displacement requires a careful analysis of the traditional work patterns that the parties are allegedly seeking to preserve, and of how the agreement seeks to accomplish that result under the changed circumstances created by the technological advance. The inquiry must focus on the bargaining unit employees' work, not on the work of other employees who may be doing the same or similar work, and must examine the relationship between the work as it existed before the innovation and as the agreement proposes to preserve it. P. 507.

(c) The Board's conclusion that the "work in controversy" was the off-pier stuffing and stripping of containers erroneously focused on the work done by the employees of truckers and consolidators after the introduction of containerized shipping. That approach foreclosed, by definition, any possibility that the longshoremen could negotiate an agreement to permit them to play any part in the loading and unloading of containerized cargo. The Board's determination that the traditional work of ILA members was to load and unload ships should have been only the beginning of the analysis. The next step is to look at how the contracting parties sought to preserve that work, to the extent possible, in the face of a massive technological change that largely eliminated the need for cargo handling at intermediate stages of the intermodal transportation of goods, and to evaluate the relationship between traditional longshore work and the work which the Rules attempt to assign to ILA members. Pp. 507-510.

(d) Viewing the work allegedly to be preserved by the Rules from the proper perspective, the Board on remand will be free to determine whether the Rules represent a lawful attempt to preserve traditional longshore work, or whether, instead, they are tactically calculated to satisfy union goals elsewhere. This determination must be informed by an awareness of the congressional preference for collective bargaining as the method for resolving disputes over dislocations caused by the introduction of technological innovations in the workplace, the question being not whether the Rules represent the most rational or efficient response to innovation, but whether they are a legally permissible effort to preserve jobs. If the Board finds that the Rules have a lawful work preservation objective, it must then consider the charging parties' contention that members of the employer organization did not have the right to control the stuffing and stripping of containers. Pp. 510-512.

198 U.S.App.D.C. 157, 613 F.2d 890, affirmed.

Lawrence G. Wallace, Washington, D. C., for petitioner.

J. Alan Lips, Cincinnati, Ohio, for respondent Tidewater Motor Truck Association in support of the petitioner.

Constantine P. Lambos, New York City, for respondents New York Shipping Association, Inc., et al.

Thomas W. Gleason, Jr., New York City, for respondent International Longshoremen's Association, AFL-CIO.

Mr. Justice MARSHALL delivered the opinion of the Court.

This case presents the question whether provisions of the collective-bargaining agreement between the International Longshoremen's Association (ILA) and employer organizations in the shipping industry which were adopted in response to the technological innovation of containerized shipping are a lawful work preservation agreement. The National Labor Relations Board held that the provisions did not preserve traditional work opportunities for employees represented by the union, but sought instead to acquire work they had not previously performed; therefore, it concluded that the provisions violated § 8(e) of the National Labor Relations Act, 29 U.S.C. § 158(e), and union action to enforce them violated § 8(b)(4)(B) of the Act, 29 U.S.C. § 158(b)(4)(B). International Longshoremen's Assn. (Dolphin Forwarding, Inc.), 236 N.L.R.B. 525 (1978); International Longshoremen's Assn. (Associated Transport, Inc.), 231 N.L.R.B. 351 (1977). A divided panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit declined to enforce the Board's orders. 198 U.S.App.D.C. 157, 613 F.2d 890 (1979). We granted certiorari, 444 U.S. 1042, 100 S.Ct. 727, 62 L.Ed.2d 728 (1980), to resolve a conflict among the Circuits on this important question of federal labor law.¹

I

This controversy arises out of the collective-bargaining response of the ILA and the east coast shipping industry to containerization, a technological innovation which has had such a profound effect on that industry that it has frequently been termed "the container revolution." ² In the words of one observer, "containerization may be said to constitute the single most important innovation in ocean transport since the steamship displaced the schooner." ³

Containers are large, reusable metal receptacles, ranging in length from 20 to 40 feet and capable of carrying upwards of 30,000 pounds of freight, which can be moved on and off an ocean vessel unopened. Container ships are specially designed and constructed to carry the containers, which are affixed to the hold. A container can also be attached to a truck chassis and transported intact to and from the pier like a conventional trailer.

The use of containers is substantially more economical than traditional methods of handling ocean-borne cargo.⁴ Because cargo does not have to be handled and repacked as it moves from the warehouse by truck to the dock, into the vessel, then from the vessel to the dock and by truck or rail to its destination, the costs of handling are significantly reduced. Expenses of separate export packaging, storage, losses from pilferage and breakage, and costs of insurance and processing cargo documents may also be decreased. Perhaps most sig- nificantly, a container ship can be loaded or unloaded in a fraction of the time required for a conventional ship.⁵ As a result, the unprofitable in-port time of each ship is reduced, and a smaller number of ships are needed to carry a given volume of cargo.⁶

Before the introduction of container ships, and as is still the case with conventional vessels, trucks delivered loose, or break-bulk, cargo to the head of the pier. The cargo was then transferred piece by piece from the truck's tailgate to the ship by longshoremen employed...