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GLACIER NORTHWEST, INC. v. TEAMSTERS 

Opinion of the Court 

hours,  or  other  working  conditions.”  49  Stat.  449,  29 
U. S. C. §151.  Section 7 of the NLRA protects employees’ 
rights “to self-organization, to form, join, or assist labor or-
ganizations, to bargain collectively through representatives
of their own choosing, and to engage in other concerted ac-
tivities for the purpose of collective bargaining or other mu-
tual aid or protection.”  §157.  Section 8, in turn, prohibits
employers and unions from engaging in certain “unfair la-
bor  practice[s],”  such  as  interfering  with  employees’  exer-
cise of their §7 rights.  §§158(a), (b). 

To enforce the NLRA, Congress created the National La-
bor Relations Board.  The Board is authorized “to prevent
any person from engaging in any unfair labor practice” that
“affect[s] commerce.”  §160(a).  Its authority kicks in when 
a person files a charge with the agency alleging that an un-
fair labor practice is afoot.  29 CFR §101.2 (2021).  Agency
staff  investigate  the  charge,  and  if  it  “appears  to  have 
merit,” the agency issues a complaint against the offending 
party.  §§101.4, 101.8.  After taking evidence and conduct-
ing a hearing, the Board makes the final call.  29 U. S. C. 
§§160(b), (c); see also 29 CFR §§101.10–101.12.  If it deter-
mines that a party has engaged in an unfair labor practice, 
the Board orders it to “cease and desist” from that practice. 
29 U. S. C. §160(c).  The Board may seek enforcement of its
order in a federal court of appeals.  §160(e).  And a party
aggrieved  by  the  order  may  ask  the  court  to  set  it  aside. 
§160(f ). 

B 
Sometimes  a  party  to  a  labor  dispute  goes  directly  to  a 
court—raising the specter that state law will say one thing 
about the conduct underlying the dispute while the NLRA
says  another.  It  is  a  bedrock  rule,  of  course, that  federal 
law preempts state law when the two conflict.  U. S. Const., 
Art. VI,  cl. 2.    Preemption  under  the  NLRA  is  unusual,
though,  because  our  precedent  maintains  that  the  NLRA