Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/320/338/
Timestamp: 2019-04-18 14:28:15+00:00

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Justia › US Law › US Case Law › US Supreme Court › Volume 320 › General Committee v. Southern Pacific Co.
for Pacific Lines of Southern Pacific Co. v. Southern Pacific Co.
Upon the authority of General Committee of Adjustment v. Missouri-Kansas-Texas R. Co., ante, p. 320 U. S. 323, and Switchmen's Union v. National Mediation Board, ante, p. 320 U. S. 297, held, that the questions in this case -- arising out of a so-called jurisdictional controversy between labor unions -- are not justiciable issues under the Railway Labor Act, and the District Court was without power to resolve them. P. 320 U. S. 343.
Certiorari, 319 U.S. 736, on cross-petitions to review a judgment which modified and affirmed a decree determining on the merits a suit for a declaratory judgment.
engineers were invalid under the Railway Labor Act. The courts below undertook to resolve the controversy. See 132 F.2d 194, 202-206. For the reasons stated in the Missouri-Kansas-Texas R. Co. case, we think that the questions are not justiciable issues under the Railway Labor Act.
"The right of any engineer, fireman, hostler, or hostler helper to have the regularly constituted committee of his organization represent him in the handling of his grievances, in accordance with the laws of his organization and under the recognized interpretation of the General Committee making the schedule involved, is conceded."
The question whether the Engineers were the exclusive representatives of engineers in the handling of their individual grievances was the subject of dispute by the Engineers with this carrier, and also with the Firemen. It was one of several subjects on which the Firemen had a strike ballot taken in 1937. Following the vote to strike, the President appointed an Emergency Board [Footnote 1] under § 10 of the Act to investigate and report on this and other disputes. The Board reported in 1937. The dispute has continued to date.
The Engineers and the Firemen are the majority representatives of their respective crafts under the Act. The Engineers contend that the Firemen have no right to represent men working as engineers in the handling of individual grievances involving an interpretation of the collective bargaining agreement which the Engineers negotiated.
Their position is that, under the Act, they are the exclusive representative of the individual engineer in that class of disputes which he has with the carrier, as well as the exclusive representative of the craft for purposes of collective bargaining. The District Court refused to declare that the inclusion of the word "engineer" in Article 51, § 1, of the agreement was unlawful under the Act. The Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed that judgment. 132 F.2d 194-202.
"majority of any craft or class of employees shall have the right to determine who shall be the representative of the craft or class for the purposes of this Act."
in the usual manner up to and including the chief operating officer of the carrier designated to handle such disputes." They claim that "usual manner" means the prior practice, and that that shows a uniform acceptance of the right of the aggrieved employee to select his own representative. They point out that § 2, Third and Fourth, prohibit the carrier from influencing employees in their choice of representatives. The argument is that a contract by the carrier with the Engineers giving the latter the exclusive right to represent engineers in the presentation of their individual claims would in effect coerce all engineers into joining that union in violation of § 2, Third and Fourth.
of the Act if the courts had been entrusted with the task of resolving this type of controversy. But we do not think they were.
Switchmen's case, we believe that Congress left the so-called jurisdictional controversies between unions to agencies or tribunals other than the courts. We see no reason for differentiating this jurisdictional dispute from the others. Whether different considerations would be applicable in case an employee were asserting that the Act gave him the privilege of choosing his own representative for the prosecution of his claims is not before us.
MR. JUSTICE ROBERTS and MR. JUSTICE REED are of the view that the Court should entertain jurisdiction of the present controversies for the reasons set out in the dissent in Switchmen's Union v. National Mediation Board, ante, p. 320 U. S. 307.
* Together with No. 41, General Grievance Committee of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen v. General Committee of Adjustment of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers for the Pacific Lines of Southern Pacific Co. et al., also on certiorari to the Circuit Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
The Board was appointed April 14, 1937, and was composed of G. Stanleigh Arnold, Charles Kerr, and Dexter M. Keezer.
"This legislation was enacted for the purpose of protecting national transportation against the consequences of labor disputes between carriers and their employees. It was devised by representatives of management, the employees, and the public. It secured the benefits of unhampered collective bargaining to the several crafts or classes engaged in the work of railway transportation. When a craft or class, through representatives chosen by a majority, negotiates a contract with a carrier, all members of the craft or class share in the rights secured by the contract, regardless of their affiliations with any organization of employees. It is clearly provided that these rights may be protected by negotiation or by the several methods of adjustment established by the Act. It is true that the representatives of the majority represent the whole craft or class in the making of an agreement for the benefit of all, but it is equally true that nothing in the Act denies the right to any employee, or group of employees to enforce, through representatives of his or their own choosing, his or their rights under any such agreement. The whole spirit and intention of the Act is contrary to the use of any coercion or influence against the exercise of an individual's liberty in his choice of representatives in protecting his individual rights secured by law or contract."
The Act provides for proceedings before the Adjustment Board in disputes growing out of grievances or out of the interpretation or application of agreements concerning rates of pay, rules, or working conditions. § 3, First (i). In such cases, the parties "may be heard either in person, by counsel, or by other representatives, as they may respectively elect." § 3, First (j).
These do no include personal injury claims and the like. They embrace claims which, though strictly personal, arise out of, and involve, an interpretation of the collective bargaining agreement which the Engineers negotiated and under which the individual engineer is working.

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