Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/353/87/
Timestamp: 2019-04-25 14:06:02+00:00

Document:
Warehousemen and Helpers of America, A.F.L.
A group of employers had formed a multiemployer association to bargain jointly with a single union which represented their employees. During contract negotiations between the union and the association, the union struck and picketed the plant of one of the employers belonging to the association. Thereupon, the other members of the employers' association, as a defense to the strike against one of their members which imperiled the employers' common interest in bargaining on a group basis, closed their plants and locked out their employees until the strike was terminated.
Held: In the circumstances of this case, the National Labor Relations Board properly found that such action by the non-struck members of the employers' association did not constitute an unfair labor practice within the meaning of §§ 8(a)(1) and (3) of the National Labor Relations Act, as amended. Pp. 353 U. S. 89-97.
(a) Although there is no express provision of the Act either prohibiting or authorizing a lockout, the Act does not make a lockout unlawful per se, and the legislative history of the Wagner Act indicates that there was no intent to prohibit lockouts as such. P. 353 U. S. 92.
(b) The unqualified use of the term "lockout" in several sections of the Taft-Hartley Act is a statutory recognition that there are circumstances in which employers may lawfully resort to a lockout as an economic weapon, and this conclusion is supported by the legislative history of the Act. Pp. 353 U. S. 92-93.
(c) A temporary lockout may lawfully be used as a defense to a union strike tactic which threatens the destruction of the employers' interest in bargaining on a group basis. Pp. 353 U. S. 93-96.
should continue its established administrative practice of certifying multiemployer groups and intended to leave to the Board's specialized judgment the inevitable questions concerning multiemployer bargaining bound to arise in the future. Pp. 353 U. S. 94-96.
(e) Although the Act protects the right of the employees to strike in support of their demands, this protection is not so absolute as to deny self-help by employers when legitimate interests of employees and employers collide. P. 353 U. S. 96.
(f) The function of balancing conflicting legitimate interests so as to effectuate national labor policy is often a difficult and delicate responsibility, which Congress committed primarily to the National Labor Relations Board, subject to limited judicial review. P. 353 U. S. 96.
(g) The exercise of discretion by the Board in permitting lockouts is not to be narrowly confined to cases of economic hardship. P. 353 U. S. 97.
(h) In the circumstances of this case, the Board correctly balanced the conflicting interests in deciding that a temporary lockout to preserve the multiemployer bargaining basis from the disintegration threatened by the union's strike action was lawful. P. 353 U. S. 97.
The question presented by this case is whether the nonstruck members of a multiemployer bargaining association committed an unfair labor practice when, during contract negotiations, they temporarily locked out their employees as a defense to a union strike against one of their members which imperiled the employers' common interest in bargaining on a group basis.
The Exchange and the Union began negotiations some time before April 30, but the negotiations carried past that date, and were continuing on May 26, 1953, when the Union put into effect a "whipsawing" plan [Footnote 7] by striking and picketing the plant of one of the Exchange members, Frontier Linen Supply, Inc. The next day, May 27, the remaining seven Exchange members laid off their truck drivers after notifying the Union that the layoff action was taken because of the Frontier strike, advising the Union that the laid-off drivers would be recalled if the Union withdrew its picket line and ended the strike. Negotiations continued without interruption, however, until a week later, when agreement was reached upon a new contract which the Exchange members and the Union approved and signed. Thereupon, the Frontier strike was ended, the laid-off drivers were recalled, and normal operations were resumed at the plants of all Exchange members.
reasonable inference is that, although not specifically announced by the Union, the strike against the one employer necessarily carried with it an implicit threat of future strike action against any or all of the other members of the Association,"
"in the absence of any independent evidence of antiunion motivation, . . . the Respondent's [sic] action in shutting their plants until termination of the strike at Frontier was defensive and privileged in nature, rather than retaliatory and unlawful. [Footnote 10]"
"that a strike by employees against one employer member of a multiemployer bargaining unit constitutes a threat of strike action against the other employers, which threat, per se, constitutes the type of economic or operative problem at the plants of the nonstruck employers which legally justifies their resort to a temporary lockout of employees. [Footnote 11] "
"the stipulated facts show no economic justification for the lockout, . . . the lockout of nonstriking employees constituted an interference with their statutory right to engage in concerted activity in violation of § 8(a)(1) of the Act, and also constituted discrimination in the hire and tenure of employment of the employees because of the Union's action, thereby discouraging membership in the Union in violation of § 8(a)(3) of the Act. [Footnote 14]"
We are not concerned here with the cases in which the lockout has been held unlawful because designed to frustrate organizational efforts, to destroy or undermine bargaining representation, or to evade the duty to bargain. [Footnote 18] Nor are we called upon to define the limits of the legitimate use of the lockout. [Footnote 19] The narrow question to be decided is whether a temporary lockout may lawfully be used as a defense to a union strike tactic which threatens the destruction of the employers' interest in bargaining on a group basis.
"Congress must have intended that such a radical innovation be left open for consideration by the joint committee it set up under § 402 of the Act to study, among other things,"
"the methods and procedures for best carrying out the collective bargaining processes, with special attention to the effects of industrywide or regional bargaining upon the national economy. [Footnote 22]"
"that the Board should continue its established administrative practice of certifying multiemployer units, and intended to leave to the Board's specialized judgment the inevitable questions concerning multiemployer bargaining bound to arise in the future. [Footnote 26]"
The Court of Appeals recognized that the National Labor Relations Board has legitimately balanced conflicting interests by permitting lockouts where economic hardship was shown. [Footnote 29] The court erred, however, in too narrowly confining the exercise of Board discretion to the cases of economic hardship. We hold that, in the circumstances of this case, the Board correctly balanced the conflicting interests in deciding that a temporary lockout to preserve the multiemployer bargaining basis from the disintegration threatened by the Union's strike action was lawful.
Labor Board v. Continental Baking Co., 221 F.2d 427; Labor Board v. Spalding Avery Lumber Co., 220 F.2d 673; Leonard v. Labor Board, 197 F.2d 435, 205 F.2d 355; Morand Bros. Beverage Co. v. Labor Board, 190 F.2d 576.
The contract contained an automatic renewal clause requiring notice of a desire to change the contract to be given 60 days before the expiration date. The notice was also in conformity with § 8(d) of the Act. 61 Stat. 140, 29 U.S.C. § 158.
"Whipsawing" is the process of striking one at a time the employer members of a multiemployer association.
61 Stat. 140, 29 U.S.C. § 158.
". . . the right of the employers to lock out temporarily all the employees is no more than equal to the right of the union of all the employees to call out the employees of one after another of the . . . [employers] in the whipsawing manner. . . ."
See, e.g., explanation of the bill by Senator Walsh, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Education and Labor, 79 Cong.Rec. 7673.
61 Stat. 140, 29 U.S.C. § 157(d)(4) (no resort to "strike or lockout" during 60-day notice period); 61 Stat. 153, 29 U.S.C. § 173(c) (Director of Mediation Service to seek to induce parties to settle dispute peacefully "without resort to strike, lockout, or other coercion"); 61 Stat. 155, 29 U.S.C. § 176 (appointment of board of inquiry by President when "threatened or actual strike or lockout" creates a national emergency); 61 Stat. 155, 29 U.S.C. § 178 (power to enjoin "strike or lockout" in case of national emergency).
H.R.Rep. No. 245, 80th Cong., 1st Sess. 21-22, 70, 82; S.Rep. No. 105, 80th Cong., 1st Sess. 24; S.Rep. No. 105, pt. 2, 80th Cong., 1st Sess. 21; H.R.Conf.Rep. No. 510, 80th Cong., 1st Sess. 34-35. See also, e.g., 93 Cong.Rec. 1827-1828, 3835.
E.g., Labor Board v. Wallick, 198 F.2d 477; Labor Board v. Somerset Classics, Inc., 193 F.2d 613; Olin Industries v. Labor Board, 191 F.2d 613; cf. Associated Press v. Labor Board, 301 U. S. 103.
We thus find it unnecessary to pass upon the question whether, as a general proposition, the employer lockout is the corollary of the employees' statutory right to strike.
As previously noted, the Board decision is based in part on a finding that the preservation of employer solidarity justifies a lockout as a defense to a whipsaw strike.
The opinion of the Court of Appeals may be interpreted as rejecting employer solidarity as a justification for a lockout on the ground that the Union strike constituted a withdrawal by the Union from the multiemployer bargaining unit. The Court of Appeals vigorously argued that a union should be accorded the same freedom of voluntary withdrawal from a multiemployer bargaining unit as the Board has accorded to individual employers. But that question is not presented by this case, and we expressly reserve decision until it is properly before us. The facts here clearly show that the Union strike was not an attempt to withdraw from the multiemployer bargaining unit. On the contrary, the Union continued to carry on negotiations with the Exchange until as agreement was reached and signed.
Bahrs, The San Francisco Employers' Council; Chamberlain, Collective Bargaining, 178-179, 180, 182; Freidin, The Taft-Hartley Act and Multi-Employer Bargaining, 4-5; Garrett and Tripp, Management Problems Implicit In Multi-Employer Bargaining, 2-3; Kerr and Randall, Collective Bargaining in the Pacific Coast Pulp and Paper Industry, 3-4; Pierson, Multi-Employer Bargaining, 35-36; Wolman, Industry-Wide Bargaining.
79 Monthly Labor Review 805 (1956).
Based on collective bargaining agreements on file with the Bureau of Labor Statistics in 1951, approximately 80% of the unionized employees in the laundry industry were represented under multiemployer employer bargaining. B.L.S.Rep. No. 1 (1953), Collective Bargaining Structures: The Employer Bargaining Unit, 10.
Hearings before Senate Committee on Labor and Public Welfare on S. 55 et al., 80th Cong., 1st Sess. 427-428, 1012-1017, 1032-1037, 1055-1057, 1162-1165, 2018-2019, 2370-2371; S.Rep. No. 105, pt. 2, 80th Cong., 1st Sess. 6-8; Hearings before House Committee on Education and Labor on H.R. 8 et al., 80th Cong., 1st Sess. 552-553, 1552-1554, 3024-3026; 93 Cong.Rec. 1834-1844, 4030-4031, 4443-4444, 4581-4587, 4674-4676.
231 F.2d at 121 (dissenting opinion).
Labor Board v. Mackay Radio & Telegraph Co., 304 U. S. 333; Labor Board v. Continental Baking Co., 221 F.2d 427; Labor Board v. Spalding Avery Lumber Co., 220 F.2d 673; Leonard v. Labor Board, 197 F.2d 435, 205 F.2d 355; Morand Bros. Beverage Co. v. Labor Board, 190 F.2d 576; Betts Cadillac Olds, Inc., 96 N.L.R.B. 268; International Shoe Co., 93 N.L.R.B. 907; Duluth Bottling Association, 48 N.L.R.B. 1335.
Labor Board v. Babcock & Wilcox Co., 351 U. S. 105; Republic Aviation Corp. v. Labor Board, 324 U. S. 793; Phelps Dodge Corp. v. Labor Board, 313 U. S. 177.
". . . There is an area plainly covered by the language of the Act and an area no less plainly without it. But, in the nature of things, Congress could not catalogue all the devices and stratagems for circumventing the policies of the Act. Nor could it define the whole gamut of remedies to effectuate these policies in an infinite variety of specific situations. Congress met these difficulties by leaving the adaptation of means to end to the empiric process of administration. The exercise of the process was committed to the Board, subject to limited judicial review. Because the relation of remedy to policy is peculiarly a matter for administrative competence, courts must not enter the allowable area of the Board's discretion, and must guard against the danger of sliding unconsciously from the narrow confines of law into the more spacious domain of policy. On the other hand, the power with which Congress invested the Board implies responsibility -- the responsibility of exercising its judgment in employing the statutory powers."
313 U.S. at 313 U. S. 194.
Betts Cadillace Olds, Inc., 96 N.L.R.B. 268; International Shoe Co., 93 N.L.R.B. 907; Duluth Bottling Association, 48 N.L.R.B. 1335.
Truck Drivers Local Union Warehousemen and Helpers of America, A.F.L.

References: § 8
 § 8
 § 402
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 § 8
 § 158
 § 158
 § 157
 § 173
 § 176
 § 178
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v.