Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/426/407/
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Justia › US Law › US Case Law › US Supreme Court › Volume 426 › Oil Workers v. Mobil Oil Corp.
AFL-CIO v. Mobil Oil Corp.
Section 8(a)(3) of the National Labor Relations Act permits union- or agency shop agreements between employers and unions, but § 14(b) authorizes States to exempt themselves from § 8(a)(3) and to enact "right-to-work" laws prohibiting union or agency shops. About two years after petitioner unions and respondent employer had entered into an agency shop agreement covering seamen employed on respondent's oil tankers, respondent brought suit claiming that the agreement was invalid and unenforceable because it violated Texas' right-to-work laws. Since, inter alia, all final decisions for hiring the seamen are made in Texas, the majority of the then employed seamen reside in Texas, and respondent's personnel records are maintained and payroll checks are written there, the District Court held that Texas had an "intimate concern" with the agreement, notwithstanding that the seamen spend the vast majority of their working hours away from Texas on the high seas, and that therefore Texas' right-to-work laws were applicable under § 14(b) and rendered the agreement void and unenforceable. The Court of Appeals affirmed, stressing that Texas was the place of hiring.
1. lt is the employees' predominant job situs, rather than a generalized weighing of factors or the place of hiring, that triggers operation of § 14(b), and, under § 14(b), right-to-work laws cannot void agreements permitted by § 8(a)(3) when the situs at which all the employees covered by the agreement perform most of their work is located outside of a State having such laws. Pp. 426 U. S. 412-419.
(a) Insofar as § 8(a)(3) deals with union and agency shop agreements, it focuses both in effect and purpose on post-hiring conditions, conditions that have a major impact on the job situs. Pp. 426 U. S. 414-416.
(b) Similarly, § 14(b)'s primary concern is with state regulation of the post-hiring employer employee-union relationship, the center of which is the job situs, i.e., the place where the work that is the very raison d'etre of the relationship is performed; and because of this close relationship between § 14(b) and job situs, § 14(b) does not allow enforcement of right-to-work laws with regard to an employment relationship whose principal job situs is outside of a State having such laws. Pp. 426 U. S. 416-418.
(c) Under the job situs test, as opposed to a "place of hiring" test, the possibility of patently anomalous extraterritorial applications of any given State's right-to-work laws will be minimized, and parties entering a collective bargaining agreement will easily be able to determine in virtually all situations whether a union or agency shop provision is valid. Pp. 426 U. S. 418-419.
2. Under the job situs test, Texas' right-to-work laws cannot govern the validity of the agency shop agreement in question, because most of the employees' work is done on the high seas, outside the territorial bounds of Texas. It is immaterial that Texas may have more contacts than any other State with the employment relationship involved, since there is no reason to conclude under § 14(b) that, in every employment situation, some State's law with respect to union security agreements must apply, and it is fully consistent with national labor policy to conclude, if the predominant job situs is outside the boundary of any State, that no State has a sufficient interest in the employment relationship, and that, hence, no State's right-to-work laws can apply. Pp. 426 U. S. 420-421.
MARSHALL, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which BRENNAN, WHITE, BLACKMUN, and STEVENS, JJ., joined. STEVENS, J., filed a concurring statement, post, p. 426 U. S. 421. BURGER, C.J., concurred in the judgment. POWELL, J., filed an opinion concurring in the judgment, post, p. 426 U. S. 421. STEWART, J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which REHNQUIST, J., joined, post, p. 426 U. S. 422.
whether, under § 14(b), Texas' right-to-work laws can void an agency shop agreement covering unlicensed seamen who, while hired in Texas and having a number of other contacts with the State, spend the vast majority of their working hours on the high seas.
"For the duration of the Agreement, all employees hired shall, as a condition of employment, become members of the Union and/or in the alternative pay the regular union dues and initiation fees within 31 days from the employment date."
between the Union, the respondent, and the seamen. Because this evidence bears heavily on the contentions of the parties, we shall summarize it in some detail. Respondent is a division of Mobil Oil Corp., a New York corporation, and operates a fleet of eight oceangoing tankers which transport respondent's petroleum products from Texas to Atlantic coast ports. Respondent is headquartered in Beaumont, Tex., and maintains its personnel records there. Sixty percent of the applications to be unlicensed seamen on respondent's ships are made in Beaumont, and 40% in New York. The final hiring decisions are made in Beaumont. Of the 289 unlicensed seamen who are employed to man the tankers, 123 maintain residence in Texas, and 60 in New York. [Footnote 5] One hundred and fifty-two of the seamen list Beaumont as their shipping port -- a designation that determines travel allowances to and from a seaman's residence -- and the remainder list either New York or Providence, R.I. Seamen can elect to be paid their wages aboard ship, to have their paychecks sent from the Beaumont office to designated recipients, or to use a combination of these two schemes. The collective bargaining agreement whose agency shop provision is at issue here was negotiated and executed in New York. It was reexecuted in Texas.
"[t]he acts performed in the State of Texas in the administration and performance of the collective bargaining agreement are such that the State of Texas is intimately concerned with the collective bargaining agreement and with the employees working thereunder."
App. 29. Relying on this "intimate concern," the court held that the Texas right-to-work laws were applicable under § 14(b), and that the agency shop provision was therefore void and unenforceable.
"the federal labor legislation, the predominance of Texas contacts over any other jurisdiction, and the significant interest which Texas has in applying its right to work law to this employment relationship warrant application of the Texas law, and, consequently, invalidation of the agency shop provision."
Id. at 275. We granted certiorari, 423 U.S. 820 (1975), and we now reverse.
Union and respondent. [Footnote 6] Only if it is to be so read is the agency shop provision unenforceable. [Footnote 7] The parties are similarly agreed that a State can apply its right-to-work laws only with respect to employment relationships with which the State has adequate contact. The crux of the differences between the parties concerns whether the contacts between Texas and the employment relationship in this case are sufficient to come under § 14(b).
§ 14(b). A third approach, the one adopted by the dissenting opinion in this case, is that the location of the hiring process should be determinative of the applicability of a State's right-to-work laws. Under this test, also, Texas' contacts in this case would be sufficient to apply its laws.
In light of what we understand Congress' concerns in both § 8(a)(3) and § 14(b) to have been, we conclude that it is the employees' predominant job situs, rather than a generalized weighing of factors or the place of hiring, that triggers the operation of § 14(b). We hold that, under § 14(b), right-to-work laws cannot void agreements permitted by § 8(a)(3) when the situs at which all the employees covered by the agreement perform most of their work is located outside of a State having such laws.
a labor organization . . . to require as a condition of employment membership therein on or after the thirtieth day following the beginning of such employment or the effective date of such agreement, whichever is the later . . ."
"employers and unions who feel that [union security] agreements promoted stability by eliminating 'free riders' the right to continue such arrangements."
S.Rep. No. 105, 80th Cong., 1st Sess., 7 (1947), 1 Leg.Hist. 413.
"Congress recognized that, in the absence of a union security provision, 'many employees sharing the benefits of what unions are able to accomplish by collective bargaining will refuse to pay their share of the cost.' S.Rep. No. 105, 80th Cong., 1st Sess., p. 6, 1 Leg.Hist. L.M.R.A. 412."
NLRB v. General Motors Corp., supra at 373 U. S. 740-741.
In short, insofar as it deals with union security agreements less onerous than the closed shop agreement, § 8(a)(3) focuses in both effect and purpose on post-hiring conditions, conditions which have a major impact on the job situs.
"[t]here is . . . conflict between state and federal law, but it is a conflict sanctioned by Congress with directions to give the right of way to state laws. . . ."
Retail Clerks v. Schermerhorn, 375 U. S. 96, 375 U. S. 103 (1963). The question here, of course, is whether Texas' contacts with this employment relationship are adequate to call into play § 14(b)'s mandated deference to state law.
Section 14(b) simply mirrors that part of § 8(a)(3) which focuses on post-hiring conditions of employment. As its language reflects, § 14(b) was designed to make clear that § 8(a)(3) left the States free to pursue "their own more restrictive policies in the matter of union security agreements." Algoma Plywood Co. v. Wisconsin Board, 336 U. S. 301, 336 U. S. 314 (1949). Since § 8(a)(3) already prohibits the closed shop, the more restrictive policies that § 14(b) allows the States to enact relate not to the hiring process, but rather to conditions that would come into effect only after an individual is hired. It is evident, then, that § 14(b)'s primary concern is with state regulation of the post-hiring "employer employee union" relationship. And the center of the post-hiring relationship is the job situs, the place where the work that is the very raison d'etre of the relationship is performed.
finally enacted as § 14(b). That report reflects the House's intent that agreements providing for agency or union shops would be valid "only if they are valid under the laws of any State in which they are to be performed." H.R.Rep. No. 245, 80th Cong., 1st Sess., 34 (1947), 1 Leg.Hist. 325. Where an agreement is "performed" may be open to some debate, but we think the most reasonable reading of the phrase is that union security agreements are "performed" on the job situs. Thus, the import of the House Report is that the committee viewed what became § 14(b) as allowing a State to ban agreements calling for work to be performed within the State. While the Taft-Hartley Act, as finally enacted, does not contain the precise wording of the House bill, there is no indication that any language changes were designed to alter this focus on the place of performance.
Whether taken separately or together, the place of hiring and the other factors on which respondent relies -- the employees' place of residence, the locale of personnel records, the place at which payroll checks are written, etc. -- are not nearly as central to the concerns of § 14(b) as the employees' job situs. And, because of this close relationship between § 14(b) and job situs, we conclude that § 14(b) does not allow enforcement of right-to-work laws with regard to an employment relationship whose principal job situs is outside of a State having such laws.
with the employees in question will govern the validity vel non of any union shop or agency shop provision. On the other hand, if place of hiring were to be the determinative factor, Texas, for instance, could apply its right-to-work laws to employees who work solely in Connecticut simply because the relevant hiring decisions were made -- perhaps many years ago -- in Texas. We cannot believe that it was Congress' purpose in passing § 14(b) to sanction such a result.
has a sufficient interest in the employment relationship, and that no State's right-to-work laws can apply.
A "union shop" agreement provides that no one will be employed who does not join the union within a short time after being hired. An "agency shop" agreement generally provides that, while employees do not have to join the union, they are required -- usually after 30 days -- to pay the union a sum equal to the union initiation fee, and are obligated as well to make periodic payments to the union equal to the union dues. See NLRB v. General Motors Corp., 373 U. S. 734 (1963). The "union shop" and "agency shop" varieties of "union security" agreements are to be distinguished from the "closed shop" agreement, barred by § 8(a)(3), which provides that the employer will hire no one who is not a member of the union at the time of hiring.
It is settled that § 14(b) encompasses the agency shop as well as the union shop agreement. Retail Clerks v. Schermerhorn, 373 U. S. 746 (1963).
There are two petitioners in this case, Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers International Union, AFL-CIO, and its Local 8-801. Both are parties to the collective bargaining agreement with respondent.
Texas' right-to-work laws prohibit, inter alia, the denial of employment to anyone because of a failure to pay "any fee, assessment, or sum of money whatsoever" to a union. Tex.Rev.Civ.Stat.Ann., Art. 5154a, § 8a (1971). The parties are agreed that the law encompasses agency shop provisions. See Op.Atty.Gen. Tex. No. WW-1018 (1961).
The residences of the remainder are spread over 20 other States.
The Union does not claim that Texas' contacts are so minimal as to make the application of the Texas laws in any way unconstitutional. Nor does respondent argue that Congress lacked the power, if it wished, to prohibit state right-to-work laws altogether.
There is nothing in either § 14(b)'s language or legislative history to suggest that there may be applications of right-to-work laws which are not encompassed under § 14(b) but which are nonetheless permissible. As we recognized in Retail Clerks v. Schermerhorn, 375 U.S. at 375 U. S. 103, it is "§ 14(b) [which] gives the States power to outlaw even a union security agreement that passes muster by federal standards." Cf. Kentucky State AFL-CIO v. Puckett, 391 S.W.2d 360 (Ky.1965); Grimes & Hauer, Inc. v. Pollock, 163 Ohio St. 372, 127 N.E.2d 203 (1955).
See NLRB v. General Motors Corp., 373 U. S. 734 (1963); S.Rep. No. 105, 80th Cong., 1st Sess., 6, 1 Legislative History of the Labor Management Relations Act, 1947 (hereinafter Leg.Hist.), p. 412 (1948).
"The great difference is that, in the first instance, a man can get a job without joining the union or asking favors of the union, and, once he has the job, he can continue in it for 30 days, and, during that time, the employer will have an opportunity to ascertain whether he is a capable employee. The fact that the employee will have to pay dues to the union seems to me to be much less important. The important thing is that the man will have the job."
93 Cong.Rec. 4886 (1947), 2 Leg.Hist. 1422.
Our use of a job situs test is consistent with the National Labor Relation Board's application of § 14(b) under the statutory provision, 29 U.S.C. § 159(e)(1) (1946 ed., Supp. I), requiring the Board, in certain circumstances, to conduct employee elections to authorize the negotiation of union security agreements. In determining the employees who were eligible to vote for and be covered by a union security agreement, the Board, in both Giant Food Shopping Center, Inc., 77 N.L.R.B. 791 (1948), and Western Electric Co., 84 N.L.R.B. 1019 (1949), indicated that the laws of one State prohibiting such agreements could not apply to employees whose job situs was in another State or Territory.
"allow Texas to apply its law here would create the bizarre consequence of exempting the maritime industry from the operation of section 14(b)."
504 F.2d 272, 280-281 (1974). It further observed, pointing to the 1951 amendment to the Railway Labor Act, 45 U.S.C. § 152 Eleventh, that, "when Congress has decided to supersede section 14(b) and state right to work laws, it has done so expressly." 504 F.2d at 281. In applying a job situs test to this case, we create no "exemption" from § 14(b) for the maritime industry. Under this test, a State can still apply its right-to-work laws to maritime workers, such as longshoremen, whose job situs is within the State. Moreover, the Railway Labor Act amendments are simply irrelevant to this case. The issue that we decide here is not whether § 14(b) has been superseded, but rather whether it applies in the first instance.
As I read § 14(b), the prepositional phrase "in any State or Territory" modifies the immediately preceding noun "employment." This reading is consistent with the analysis in the Court's opinion, which I join except for its suggestion that federal policy favors permitting union shop and agency shop agreements.
and all of the rights and restrictions flowing therefrom, are determined by federal statutory and admiralty law, not state law. . . ."
". . . The consistent and traditional control by federal law of every phase of maritime employment relationships and contracts refutes the proposition that [respondent's] contacts with Texas justify injecting state law into federal maritime affairs."
504 F.2d 272, 28286 (CA5 1974) (footnotes omitted).
I join in reversing the judgment of the Court of Appeals, as I do not believe § 14(b) can be construed reasonably to apply to these seamen.
The respondent, Mobil Oil Corp., is a New York corporation with its home office in New York City. The Gulf-East Coast Operations Division of Mobil's Marine Transportation Department, located in Beaumont, Tex., operates eight oceangoing American-flag tankers. These ships transport petroleum products between Texas and various ports on the Atlantic coast. Every month, each tanker normally makes two round-trip voyages. On the average voyage, a ship is at sea for four or five days, and spends approximately 18 to 30 hours in port to load or unload its cargo.
the company to list Beaumont as their home port. Although 40 of the seamen had first applied for work in New York, the remainder had applied for the jobs in Texas, and the final hiring decision for all of them had been made in Beaumont. Texas has collected unemployment compensation insurance premiums for all of these employees, regardless of what State any of them might have designated as his home address or shipping port.
The seamen perform all of their duties aboard ship. They work for approximately 85 days, and then receive 37 days of paid shore leave. Eighty to 90% of their work is performed on the high seas.
"federal labor legislation, the predominance of Texas contacts over any other jurisdiction, and the significant interest which Texas has in applying its right to work law to this employment relationship warrant application of the Texas law and, consequently, invalidation of the agency shop provision."
"shall preclude an employer from making an agreement with a labor organization . . . to require as a condition of employment membership therein on or after the thirtieth day"
Together, these two provisions sanction a "union shop" agreement, which, although permitting employment of those who are not union members, requires employees to join the union (or pay dues in lieu of membership) 30 days after employment has begun. But they outlaw a "closed shop" agreement, which requires union membership as a precondition to both initial and continued employment. NLRB v. General Motors Corp., 373 U. S. 734, 373 U. S. 738-739 (1963).
These provisions modified § 8(3) of the National Labor Relations Act, 49 Stat. 452, which permitted not only union shops, but closed shops, as well. See NLRB v. General Motors Corp., supra at 373 U. S. 739-740; S.Rep.
"These additions [to § 8(a)(3)] were intended to accomplish twin purposes. On the one hand, the most serious abuses of compulsory unionism were eliminated by abolishing the closed shop. On the other hand, Congress recognized that, in the absence of a union security provision, 'many employees sharing the benefits of what unions are able to accomplish by collective bargaining will refuse to pay their share of the cost.'"
Section 8(a)(3) thus accommodated the competing interests by eliminating the union hiring hall while assuring that, "[a]s far as the federal law was concerned, all employees could be required to pay their way." 373 U.S. at 373 U. S. 741; see S.Rep. No. 105, supra at 6-7.
in which such execution or application is prohibited by State or Territorial law."
"was designed to prevent other sections of the Act from completely extinguishing state power over certain union security arrangements. . . . It was desired to 'make certain' that § 8(a)(3) could not 'be said to authorize arrangements of this sort in States where such arrangements were contrary to the State policy.'"
Retail Clerks v. Schermerhorn, 373 U. S. 746, 373 U. S. 751 (1963), quoting H.R.Conf.Rep. No. 510, supra, at 60.
To summarize, §§ 8(a)(3) and 14(b) together exhaust the federal interest in the types of union security agreements employers and unions may make. The closed shop is absolutely prohibited. And any lesser security arrangement, though consistent with the federal interest, is sanctioned only if it harmonizes with state policy.
agreeing with the petitioners, asserts that Texas does not have a substantial enough interest to apply its labor policies, since little work is performed within its borders. The respondent, in turn, relying upon the decisions of the District Court and the Court of Appeals, claims that the place of hiring is the key to analyzing the choice of law problem.
of "execution," for example, could be considered to be either the State where the contract was signed or the State where the terms of the contract are to be carried out. "Application" could refer either to the hiring process or the performance of the work. In short, there is no intelligent way to infer from § 14(b)'s expansive language which of a number of arguably relevant aspects of the employment relationship should be deemed the dispositive contact for deciding which State's law is to apply.
did not resolve it, but instead left each individual State free to outlaw union security agreements in the interest of a perceived policy of keeping industrial relations more individualistic, open, and free.
"Because of the activities of labor unions affecting the economic conditions of the country and the State, entering as they do into practically every business and industrial enterprise, it is the sense of the Legislature that such organizations affect the public interest and are charged with a public use. The working man, unionist or non-unionist, must be protected. The right to work is the right to live."
"Section 1. The inherent right of a person to work and bargain freely with his employer, individually or collectively, for terms and conditions of his employment shall not be denied or infringed by law, or by any organization of whatever nature."
or nonmembership in any labor union or labor organization, and that, in the exercise of such rights, all persons shall be free from threats, force, intimidation or coercion."
"The intent seems obvious to protect employees in the exercise of the right of free choice of joining or not joining a union. The purpose of the statute is to afford equal opportunity to work to both classes of employees."
This authoritative state judicial interpretation thus confirms what seems manifest from the language of the statutes: Texas' right-to-work laws are concerned with the process by which employees are hired and the conditions which, after their hiring, may burden their employment.
In the first place, it seems clear that the State where the hiring actually takes place is the State most deeply concerned with the conditions of hire. The policy of a State such as Texas, which favors unrestricted hiring, will be seriously undermined when union security agreements control the hiring that takes place within its jurisdiction. Moreover, the State where the hiring actually occurs normally provides the bulk of the workforce from which the employees are drawn. And while a rule designating the laws of the State where the bargaining agreement was negotiated would provide for ease of application, it would also encourage forum shopping by both unions and management seeking the sanction of state laws that would most favor their interests.
A job situs test for the resolution of which State's union security law applies is, therefore, so arbitrary in my view as to approach irrationality.
But even if I could agree with the petitioners that the jobsite is the critical factor in determining what law should control the legality of union security agreements, I would still find the laws of Texas applicable in this case. Quite simply, the employees here involved clearly perform a larger share of their employment duties in Texas than in any other State.
down a state law on the ground that the States are jurisdictionally incompetent to legislate over matters that occur within the ocean "territory."
The petitioners appear also to argue, however, that, even if the high seas are not a territory over which Congress exercises exclusive lawmaking power, the Texas rule outlawing union shops must fall because the Federal Government has preempted the field of maritime labor relations. Cf. Southern Pacific Co. v. Jensen, 244 U. S. 205, 244 U. S. 216 (1917); Currie, supra at 165 passim. It is true that Congress has deeply involved itself in the affairs of seamen. Federal maritime law covers, among other things, maritime liens for the collection of wages, 46 U.S.C. § 953, the rights of seamen to receive at every port half of unpaid wages earned, 46 U.S.C. § 597, and double payment of wages withheld without sufficient cause, 46 U.S.C. § 596, physical qualifications and requirements for seamen, 46 U.S.C. § 672, and disciplinary problems, 46 U.S.C. §§ 701-710.
Despite this manifest federal interest in many aspects of the maritime employment relationship, I think that Texas law still controls. Section 14(b), on its face, clearly settles any apparent conflict between state and federal law in favor of the state rule. In enacting § 14(b), Congress concluded that diversity in the area of union security agreements would compromise no federal interest. "By making the matter one of state law, Congress has not only authorized multiformity on the subject, but practically guaranteed it." Motor Coach Employees v. Lockridge, 403 U. S. 274, 403 U. S. 317 (1971) (WHITE, J., dissenting).
"[n]otwithstanding any other provisions of this [Act], or of any other statute or law of the United States, or Territory thereof, or of any State. . . ."
45 U.S.C. § 152 Eleventh. See Railway Employes' Dept. v. Hanson, 351 U. S. 225 (1956). That Congress has not similarly legislated for the maritime industry is compelling evidence that it finds compatible with federal interests diversity among the States as to permissible union security agreements.
In conclusion, I believe that the place of hiring is the critical factor in determining the choice of law for union security agreements. But even if the place where the work is to be performed is the criterion, Texas law should still be applied, since, under this collective bargaining agreement, more work is performed in that State than in any other, and Congress has refrained from either establishing or indicating a need for a uniform rule to the contrary in maritime employment. I would, therefore, affirm the judgment before us.
Sixty of the employees listed New York as their residence, 21 New Jersey, 16 Florida, 13 Louisiana, 10 Maine, and 10 Rhode Island. The remainder resided in 16 other States.
It is conceded that these state laws prohibit an agency shop agreement of the kind here involved. See n. 4, infra.
"(3) by discrimination in regard to hire or tenure of employment or any term or condition of employment to encourage or discourage membership in any labor organization: Provided, That nothing in this subchapter, or in any other statute of the United States, shall preclude an employer from making an agreement with a labor organization (not established, maintained, or assisted by any action defined in this subsection as an unfair labor practice) to require as a condition of employment membership therein on or after the thirtieth day following the beginning of such employment or the effective date of such agreement, whichever is the later, (i) if such labor organization is the representative of the employees as provided in section 159(a) of this title, in the appropriate collective bargaining unit covered by such agreement when made; and (ii) unless following an election held as provided in section 159(e) of this title within one year preceding the effective date of such agreement, the Board shall have certified that at least a majority of the employees eligible to vote in such election have voted to rescind the authority of such labor organization to make such an agreement: Provided further, That no employer shall justify any discrimination against an employee for nonmembership in a labor organization (A) if he has reasonable grounds for believing that such membership was not available to the employee on the same terms and conditions generally applicable to other members, or (b) if he has reasonable grounds for believing that membership was denied or terminated for reasons other than the failure of the employee to tender the periodic dues and the initiation fees uniformly required as a condition of acquiring or retaining membership. . . ."
In Opinion No. WW-1018 (1961), the Attorney General of Texas held that union shop agreements violate Art. 5154a, § 8a, Art. 5207a, § 2, and Art. 5154g, § 1, Tex.Rev.Civ.Stat.Ann. (1971).
It is not at all obvious that federal policy favors union shop agreements. It is true that such agreements are legal in States that have not passed legislation forbidding them, whereas Congress might have reversed the burden by making all union security agreements illegal except in States that choose to permit them. Burdens in the law, however, are allocated for a variety of reasons, only one of which is to make more difficult the achievement of a disfavored result. Another, equally plausible explanation for the wording of § 14(b) is that Congress might have determined that less disruption in the state lawmaking process would result if union shop agreements were permitted absent state legislation. In 1947, when Congress was considering the Labor Management Relations Act, only 12 States barred the union shop. S.Rep. No. 105, 80th Cong., 1st Sess., 6 (1947). Had Congress placed the burden of legislating on States wishing to legalize the union shop, three-fourths of the States would have had to enact legislation. As § 14(b) was in fact worded, no state legislation was required to preserve the status quo. In sum, there is simply no way of deducing from the construction of § 14(b) whether, despite leaving the issue to the States, Congress preferred or disfavored the union shop.
The en banc opinion of the Court of Appeals relied upon language in the House Report that condemned the evils of the union hiring hall in the maritime industry to support the proposition that the place of hiring is the critical factor in determining the choice of law. 504 F.2d 272, 277, and n. 10 (CA5 1974). As the context of the cited language makes clear, however, see S.Rep. No. 105, supra at 6-7, Congress' concern over the hiring hall led it to outlaw the closed shop. Having forbidden agreements making union membership a precondition to employment, Congress exhausted the federal interest in the union hiring hall.
See generally R. Morris, Government and Labor In Early America, 136-207 (1946); P. Sultan, Right-To-Work Laws: A Study in Conflict 12-30 (1958); J. Toner, The Closed Shop 1-92 (1942); Dempsey, The Right-To-Work Controversy, 16 Lab.L.J. 387 (1966); Warshal, "Right-to-Work," Pro and Con, 17 Lab.L.J. 131 (1966); Simons, Some Reflections on Syndicalism, 52 J.Pol.Econ. 1 (1944).
For an analysis of the effect of the Texas right-to-work laws, see Meyers, Effects of "Right-To-Work" Laws: A Study of the Texas Act, 9 Ind. & Lab.Rel.Rev. 77, 84 (1955) (concluding that laws had had "little effect" on the rate of union organization in all but a few selected industries).
The final hiring decision for all of the employees here involved was made in Beaumont, Tex. It could be argued that the interests of both Texas and New York, where a minority of the employees applied for their jobs (and which permits union shops), could be accommodated through an arrangement by which the union security laws of each State were applied to those of the workforce who had applied for work within each jurisdiction. See Comment, 88 Harv.L.Rev. 1620, 1629-1630 (1975). Such a solution, however, which would likely place members of the same crew under different regimes, could easily disrupt the management of labor relations, and would create unjustifiable uncertainties in the law. Cf. Dale System, Inc. v. Time, Inc., 116 F.Supp. 527 (Conn.1953); A. Von Mehren & D. Trautman, The Law of Multistate Problems 395 (1965). I would hold, therefore, that a uniform rule must be applied to all employees who are governed by a single collective bargaining agreement.
The Court suggests, ante at 426 U. S. 419, that adopting a choice of law rule that focuses upon the place of hiring might result in the extraterritorial application of a State's laws. This contention begs the question. It is true that some components of the employment relationship are found outside Texas. But this is inevitable in a multijurisdictional collective bargaining agreement. Since the one activity -- hiring -- that is relevant to the Texas statutes does take place in Texas, not at sea, their application under the facts of this case does not give extraterritorial effect to Texas' laws.
The petitioners argue that, if the place of hiring is dispositive for conflict of laws purposes, § 14(b)'s strictures will be evaded, since companies will simply relocate in that minority of States that have enacted right-to-work laws. The answer to this contention turns upon what is meant by evasion. The rule I would adopt centers upon where the actual, not some fictional, hiring decision is made. Thus, a sham relocation in a right-to-work State would not be sufficient to engage that State's union security rules if the actual hiring decisions continued to be made in a jurisdiction that permitted union shop agreements.
It is worth noting that a conflict between the law of a federal Territory and that of a State is not a vertical conflict at all. A vertical conflict is characterized by the conflict between a superior and an inferior lawmaking authority, both of which may operate within the same territory. A state law legalizing the closed shop, for example, would conflict, and have to give way to the federal law outlawing such arrangements. A horizontal conflict, on the other hand, exists when the laws of two or more equally competent lawmaking bodies, all of which have plenary jurisdiction within their respective territories, are in conflict. A conflict between the laws of two States would properly be characterized as horizontal, as would that between the laws of the District of Columbia and a State.

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 § 8
 § 14
 § 14
 § 14
 § 14
 § 14
 § 14
 § 14

§ 14
 § 8
 § 14
 § 14
 § 14
 § 8
 v. 
 § 8
 v. 
 § 14
 § 8
 § 14
 § 8
 v. 
 § 8
 § 14
 § 14
 § 14
 § 14
 § 14
 § 14
 § 14
 § 14
 v. 
 § 8
 § 14
 v. 
 Art. 5154
 § 8
 § 14
 § 14
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 § 14
 § 159
 § 152
 § 14
 § 14
 § 14
 § 14
 v. 
 § 8
 v. 
 § 8
 § 8
 v. 
 § 14
 v. 
 § 953
 § 597
 § 596
 § 672
 § 14
 v. 
 § 152
 v. 
 Art. 5154
 § 8
 Art. 5207
 § 2
 Art. 5154
 § 1
 § 14
 § 14
 § 14
 v. 
 § 14