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MACHINISTS V. STREET, 367 U. S. 740 - Volume 367 - 1961 - Full Text - US Supreme Court Center - USSC Cases - Nolo
US Supreme Court Center > Volume 367 > MACHINISTS V. STREET, 367 U. S. 740 (1961) > Full Text
A group of labor organizations, appellants here, and the carriers comprising the Southern Railway System, entered into a union shop agreement pursuant to the authority of § 2, Eleventh, of the Railway Labor Act. [Footnote 1] The agreement
required as a condition of acquiring or retaining union membership. The appellees, in behalf of themselves and of employees similarly situated, brought this action in the Superior Court of Bibb County, Georgia, alleging that the money each was thus compelled to pay to hold his job was in substantial part used to finance the campaigns of candidates for federal and state offices whom he opposed, and to promote the propagation of political and economic doctrines, concepts and ideologies with which he disagreed. The Superior Court found that the allegations were fully proved, [Footnote 2] and entered a judgment
and decree enjoining the enforcement of the union shop agreement on the ground that § 2, Eleventh, violates the Federal Constitution to the extent that it permits such use by the appellants of the funds exacted from employees. [Footnote 3] The Supreme Court of Georgia affirmed, 215
We held in Railway Employees' Dept. v. Hanson, 351 U. S. 225, that enactment of the provision of § 2, Eleventh, authorizing union shop agreements between interstate railroads and unions of their employees was a valid exercise by Congress of its powers under the Commerce Clause, and did not violate the First Amendment or the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment. It is argued that our disposition of the First Amendment claims in Hanson disposes of appellees' constitutional claims in this case adversely to their contentions. We disagree. As appears from its history, that case decided only that § 2, Eleventh, in authorizing collective agreements conditioning employees'
v. Benson, 285 U. S. 22, 285 U. S. 62. Each named appellee in this action has made known to the union representing his craft of class his dissent from the use of his money for political causes which he opposes. We have therefore examined the legislative history of § 2, Eleventh, in the context of the development of unionism in the railroad industry under the regulatory scheme created by the Railway Labor Act to determine whether a construction is "fairly possible" which denies the authority to a union, over the employee's objection, to spend his money for political causes which he opposes. We conclude that such a construction is not only "fairly possible," but entirely reasonable, and we therefore find it unnecessary to decide the correctness of the constitutional determinations made by the Georgia courts.
The history of union security in the railway industry is marked first, by a strong and longstanding tradition of voluntary unionism on the part of the standard rail unions; [Footnote 6] second, by the declaration in 1934 of a congressional policy of complete freedom of choice of employees to join or not to join a union; third, by the modification
When the question of union security in the rail industry was first given detailed consideration by Congress in 1934, [Footnote 7] only one of the standard unions had security provisions in any of its contracts. The Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen maintained a number of so-called "percentage" contracts requiring that, in certain classes of employees represented by the Brotherhood, a specified percentage of employees had to belong to the union. These contracts applied only to yard conductors, yard brakemen and switchmen, and covered no more than 10,000 workers, about 1% of all rail employees. See letter from Joseph B. Eastman, Federal Coordinator of Transportation, to Chairman of the House Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, June 7, 1934, H.R.Rep. No. 1944, 73d Cong., 2d Sess., pp. 14-16; testimony of James A. Farquharson, legislative representative of the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen, Hearings on H.R. 7650, House Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, 73d Cong., 2d Sess., pp. 94-105.
The question of union security was reopened in 1950. [Footnote 10] Congress then evaluated the proposal for authorizing the union shop primarily in terms of its relationship to the financing of the unions' participation in the machinery created by the Railway Labor Act to achieve its goals. The framework for fostering voluntary adjustments between the carriers and their employees in the interest of the efficient discharge by the carriers of their important functions with minimum disruption from labor strife has no statutory parallel in other industry. That machinery, the product of a long legislative evolution, is more complex than that of any other industry. The labor relations of interstate carriers have been a subject of congressional
enactments since 1888. [Footnote 11] For a time, after World War I, Congress experimented with a form of compulsory arbitration. [Footnote 12]
& N.R. Co., 323 U. S. 192, 323 U. S. 200.
points is that § 2, Eleventh, contemplated compulsory unionism to force employees to share the costs of negotiating and administering collective agreements, and the costs of the adjustment and settlement of disputes. [Footnote 15] One looks in vain for any suggestion that Congress also meant in § 2, Eleventh, to provide the unions with a means for forcing employees, over their objection, to support political causes which they oppose.
union political activities. [Footnote 18] We are satisfied, however, that § 2, Eleventh, is to be interpreted to deny the unions the power claimed in this case. The appellant unions, in insisting that § 2, Eleventh, contemplates their use of exacted funds to support political causes objected to by the employee, would have us hold that Congress sanctioned an expansion of historical practices in the political area by the rail unions. This we decline to do. Both by tradition and, from 1934 to 1951, by force of law, the rail unions did not rely upon the compulsion of union security agreements to exact money to support the political activities in which they engage. Our construction therefore involves no curtailment of the traditional political activities of the railroad unions. It means only that those unions must not support those activities, against the expressed wishes of a dissenting employee, with his exacted money. [Footnote 19]
Since the case must therefore be remanded to the court below for consideration of a proper remedy, we think that it is appropriate to suggest the limits within which remedial discretion may be exercised consistently with the Railway Labor Act and other relevant public policies. As indicated, an injunction against enforcement of the union shop itself through the collection of funds is unwarranted. We also think that a blanket injunction against all expenditures of funds for the disputed purposes, even one conditioned on cessation of improper expenditures, would not be a proper exercise of equitable discretion. Nor would it be proper to issue an interim or temporary blanket injunction of this character pending a final adjudication. The Norris-LaGuardia Act, 47 Stat. 70, 29 U.S.C. §§ 101-115, expresses a basic policy against the injunction of activities of labor unions. We have held that the Act does not deprive the federal courts of jurisdiction to enjoin compliance with various mandates of the Railway Labor Act. Virginian R. Co. v. System Federation, 300 U. S. 515; Graham v. Brotherhood of Locomotive
Firemen & Enginemen, 338 U. S. 232. However, the policy of the Act suggests that the courts should hesitate to fix upon the injunctive remedy for breaches of duty owing under the labor laws unless that remedy alone can effectively guard the plaintiff's right. In Graham, this Court found an injunction necessary to prevent the breach of the duty of fair representation, in order that Congress might not seem to have held out to the petitioners there "an illusory right for which it was denying them a remedy." 338 U.S. at p. 338 U. S. 240. No such necessity for a blanket injunctive remedy because of the absence of reasonable alternatives appears here. Moreover, the fact that these expenditures are made for political activities is an additional reason for reluctance to impose such an injunctive remedy. Whatever may be the powers of Congress or the States to forbid unions altogether to make various types of political expenditures, as to which the express to opinion here, [Footnote 21] many of the expenditures involved in the present case are made for the purpose of disseminating information as to candidates and programs and publicizing the positions of the unions on them. As to such expenditures, an injunction would work a restraint on the expression of political ideas which might be offensive to the First Amendment. For the majority also has an interest in stating its views without being silenced by the dissenters. To attain the appropriate reconciliation between majority and dissenting interests in the area of political expression, we think the courts, in administering the Act, should select remedies which protect both interests to the maximum extent possible without undue impingement of one on the other.
I think the same must be said when union dues or assessments are used to elect a Governor, A Congressman, a Senator, or a President. It may be said that the election of a Franklin D. Roosevelt, rather than a Calvin Coolidge, might be the best possible way to serve the cause of collective bargaining. But even such a selective use of union funds for political purposes subordinates the individual's First Amendment rights to the views of the majority. I do not see how that can be done, even though the objector retains his rights to campaign, to speak, to vote as he chooses. For when union funds are used for that purpose, the individual is required to finance political projects against which he may be in rebellion. [Footnote 2/4] The furtherance of the common cause leaves some leeway for the leadership of the group. As long as they act to promote the cause which justified bringing the group together, the individual cannot withdraw his financial support merely because he disagrees with the group's strategy. If that were allowed, we would be reversing the Hanson case sub silentio. But, since the funds here in issue are used for causes other than defraying the costs of collective bargaining, I would affirm the judgment below with modifications. Although I recognize the strength of the arguments advanced by my Brothers BLACK and WHITTAKER against giving a "proportional" relief to appellees in this case, there is the practical problem
This action was brought in a Georgia state court by six railroad employees [Footnote 3/1] in behalf of themselves "and others similarly situated" against railroads making up the
Section 2, Eleventh of the Railway Labor Act authorizes unions and railroads to make union shop agreements notwithstanding any other provision of state or federal law. Such a contract simply means that no person can keep a job with the contracting railroad unless he becomes a member of and pays dues to the contracting union. Neither § 2, Eleventh, nor any other part of the Act contains any implication or even a hint that Congress wanted to limit the purposes for which a contracting union's dues should or could be spent. All the parties to this litigation have agreed from its beginning, and still agree, that there is no such limitation in the Act. The Court nevertheless, in order to avoid constitutional questions, interprets the Act itself as barring use of dues for political purposes. In doing this, I think, the Court is once more "carrying the doctrine of avoiding constitutional questions to a wholly unjustifiable extreme." [Footnote 3/7] In fact, I think the Court is actually rewriting § 2, Eleventh, to make it mean exactly what Congress refused to make it mean. The very legislative history relied on by the Court appears to me to prove that its interpretation of § 2, Eleventh, is without justification. For that history shows that Congress, with its eyes wide open, passed that section knowing that its broad language would permit the use of union dues
The end result of what the Court is doing is to distort this statute so as to deprive unions of rights I think Congress tried to give them and, at the same time, in the companion case of Lathrop v. Donohue, decided today, post, p. 367 U. S. 820, leave itself free later to hold that integrated bar associations can constitutionally exercise the powers now denied to labor unions for fear of unconstitutionality. The constitutional question raised alike in this case and in Lathrop is bound to come back here soon with a record so meticulously perfect that the Court cannot escape deciding it. Should the Court then hold that lawyers and workers can constitutionally be compelled to pay for the support of views they are against, the result would be that the labor unions would have lost their case this
It is contended by the unions that precisely the same First Amendment question presented here was considered and decided in Railway Employees' Dept. v. Hanson, 351 U. S. 225. I agree that it clearly was not. Section 2, Eleventh was challenged there before it became effective, and the main grounds of attack, as our opinion noted, were that the union shop agreement would deprive employees of their freedom of association under the First Amendment and of their property rights under the Fifth. There were not in the Hanson case, as there are here, allegations, proof and findings that union funds regularly were being used to support political parties, candidates and economic and ideological causes to which the complaining employees were hostile. Our opinion in Hanson carefully pointed to the fact that only general "[w]ide-ranged problems" were tendered under the First Amendment, and that imposition of "assessments . . . not germane to collective bargaining" would present "a different problem." The Court went on further to emphasize
There is, of course, no constitutional reason why a union or other private group may not spend its funds for political or ideological causes if its members voluntarily join it and can voluntarily get out of it. [Footnote 3/10] Labor unions made up of voluntary members free to get in or out of the unions when they please have played important and useful roles in politics and economic affairs. [Footnote 3/11] How to spend its money is a question for each voluntary group to decide for itself in the absence of some valid law forbidding
As applied to the facts here, this class, as defined, could include employees not only from Georgia, but also from Florida, Alabama, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Louisiana, Illinois, Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Missouri, Mississippi, Kentucky and the District of Columbia. Genuine class actions result in binding judgments either for or against each member of the class. [Footnote 3/18] Obviously, to make a judgment binding, the parties for or against whom it is to operate must be identifiable when the judgment is rendered. That would not be possible here, since the only employees included in the class would be those who personally oppose the views they allege the union is using their dues to promote. This would make the "class" depend on the views entertained by each member, views which may change from day to day or year to year. Under these circumstances, when this decree was rendered, neither the court nor the adverse parties nor anyone else could know with certainty to what individuals the unions owed a duty under the decree. In 311 U. S. Lee, 311 U.S.
32, 311 U. S. 44, this Court pointed out the insuperable obstacles in attempting to treat as members of the same class parties to a contract such as the one here, some of whom might prefer to have the contract enforced and some of whom might not. Notice to persons whose rights are to be adjudicated is too important an element of our system of justice to permit a holding that this Georgia action has finally determined the issues for all the unidentifiable members of this "class" of plaintiffs spread territorially all the way from Florida to Illinois and from the District of Columbia to Missouri. After all, the class suit doctrine is only a narrow judicially created exception to the rule that a case or controversy involves litigants who have been duly notified and given an opportunity to be present in court either in person or by counsel. [Footnote 3/19] I would hold that there was no known common interest among the members of the described class here which justified this class action. From the very nature of the rights asserted, which depended on the unknown, perhaps fluctuating mental attitudes of employees, the rights of each employee were the basis for separable claims, in which the relief for each might vary as it did here as to the amount of damages awarded. Under these circumstances the class judgment should not stand.
We held in the Hanson case, with respect to this very same § 2, Eleventh, that even though the statutory provision authorizing union shops is only permissive, that provision, "which expressly declares that state law is superseded," is "the source of the power and authority by which any private rights are lost or sacrificed," and therefore is "the governmental action on which the Constitution operates." 351 U.S. at 351 U. S. 232. Even though § 2, Eleventh, is permissive in form, Congress was fully aware when enacting it that the almost certain result would be the establishment of union shops throughout the railroad industry. Witness after witness so testified during the hearings on the bill, and this testimony was never seriously disputed. See Hearings on S. 3295, supra, note 8, passim; Hearings on H.R. 7789, supra, note 8, passim.
The statutory provision cannot be meaningfully construed except against the background and presupposition of what is loosely called political activity of American trade unions in general, and railroad unions in particular -- activity indissolubly relating to the immediate economic and social concerns that are the raison d'etre of unions. It would be pedantic heavily to document this familiar truth of industrial history and commonplace of trade union life. To write the history of the Brotherhoods, the United Mine Workers, the Steel Workers, the Amalgamated Clothing Workers, the International Ladies Garment Workers, the United Auto Workers, and leave out their so-called political activities and expenditures for them, would be sheer mutilation. Suffice it to recall a few illustrative manifestations. The AFL, surely the conservative labor group, sponsored as early as 1893 an extensive program of political demands calling for compulsory education, an eight-hour day, employer tort liability, and other social reforms. [Footnote 4/2] The fiercely contested
Viewed in this light, there is a total absence in the text, the context, the history, and the purpose of the legislation under review of any indication that Congress, in authorizing union shop agreements, attributed to unions and restricted them to an artificial, nonprevalent scope of activities in the expenditure of their funds. An inference that Congress legislated regarding expenditure control in contradiction to prevailing practices ought to be better founded than on complete silence. The aim of the 1951 legislation, clearly stated in the congressional reports, was to eliminate "free riders" in the industry [Footnote 4/4] -- to make possible "the sharing of the burden of maintenance by all of the beneficiaries of union activity." [Footnote 4/5] To suggest that this language covertly meant to encompass any less than the maintenance of those activities normally engaged in by unions is to withdraw life from law, and to say that Congress dealt with artificialities, and not with railway unions as they were and as they functioned.
There were specific safeguards protective of minority rights. These safeguards were directed solely toward the protection of those who might otherwise find themselves barred from union membership -- viz., Negroes and those who had been long-time opponents of the unions. The only reference to free speech in the record of the enactment was made by the President of the Norfolk & Western Railroad Company during the hearings before the House Subcommittee. His remarks were related to restrictive provisions in some union constitutions which suppressed the right of a dissatisfied member to voice his criticism upon pain of expulsion. [Footnote 4/7] No such claim is remotely before us. [Footnote 4/8] The sole reason for clarifying the proviso to the amendment so that payment
In Railway Employees' Dept. v. Hanson, 351 U. S. 225, this Court had to pass on the validity of § 2, Eleventh, of the Railway Labor Act, which provided that union shop agreements entered into between a carrier and a duly designated labor organization shall be valid notwithstanding any other "statute or law of the United States, or
The record before the Court in Hanson clearly indicated that dues would be used to further what are normally described as political and legislative ends. And it surely can be said that the Court was not ignorant of a fact that everyone else knew. Union constitutions were in evidence which authorized the use of union funds for political magazines, for support of lobbying groups, and for urging union members to vote for union-approved candidates. [Footnote 4/10] The contention now raised by plaintiffs
351 U.S. at 351 U. S. 238. The use of union dues to promote relevant and effective means of realizing the purposes for which unions exist does not constitute a utilization of dues "as a cover for forcing ideological conformity" in any fair reading of those words. It will come as startling and fanciful news to the railroad unions and the whole labor movement that, in using union funds for promoting and opposing legislative measures of concern to their members, they were engaged in undercover operations. "Cover" implies a disguise, some sham; "forcing . . . conformity" means coercing avowal of a belief not entertained. Plaintiffs here are in no way subjected to such suppression of their true beliefs, or sponsorship of views they do not hold. Nor are they forced to join a sham organization which does not participate in collective bargaining functions, but only serves as a conduit of funds for ideological propaganda. A totally different problem than the one before the Court would be presented by provisions of union constitutions which, in fact, prohibited
351 U.S. at 351 U. S. 231. When we speak of the Government "acting" in permitting the union shop, the scope and force of what Congress has done must be heeded. There is not a trace of compulsion involved -- no exercise of restriction by Congress on the freedom of the carriers and the unions. On the contrary, Congress expanded their freedom of action. Congress lifted limitations upon free action by parties bargaining at arm's length. [Footnote 4/13]
The plaintiffs have not been deprived of the right to participate in determining union policies or to assert their respective weight in defining the purposes for which union dues may be expended. Responsive to the actualities of our industrial society, in which unions as such play the role that they do, the law regards a union as a self-contained, legal personality exercising rights and subject to responsibilities wholly distinct from its individual members. See United Mine Workers of America v. Coronado Coal Co., 259 U. S. 344. It is a commonplace of all organizations that a minority of a legally recognized group may at times see an organization's funds used for promotion of ideas opposed by the minority. The analogies are numerous. On the largest scale, the Federal Government expends revenue collected from individual taxpayers to propagandize ideas which many taxpayers oppose. Or, as this Court noted in Hanson, many state laws compel membership in the integrated bar as a prerequisite to practicing law, [Footnote 4/14] and the bar association
uses its funds to urge legislation of which individual members often disapprove. The present case is, as the Court in Hanson asserted, indistinguishable from the issues raised by those who find constitutional difficulties with the integrated bar. [Footnote 4/15] If our statement in Hanson carried any meaning, it was an unqualified recognition that legislation providing for an integrated bar, exercising familiar functions, is subject to no infirmity derived from the First Amendment. Again, under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, Congress specifically authorized the formation of "national securities associations," membership in which is of practical necessity to many brokers and dealers. [Footnote 4/16] The Association has urged the passage of
several legislative reforms [Footnote 4/17] which one can confidently assume did not represent the convictions of all members. To come closer to the heart of the immediate matter, is the union's choice of when to picket or to go out on strike unconstitutional? Picketing is still deemed also a form of speech, [Footnote 4/18] but surely the union's decision to strike under its statutory aegis as a bargaining unit is not an unconstitutional compulsion forced upon members who strongly oppose a strike, as minorities not infrequently do. Indeed, legislative reform intended to insure the fair representation of the minority workers in internal union politics [Footnote 4/19] would be redundant if, despite all precautions, the union were constitutionally forbidden because of minority opposition to spend money in accordance with the majority's desires.
For us to hold that these defendant unions may not expend their moneys for political and legislative purposes would be completely to ignore the long history of union conduct and its pervasive acceptance in our political life. American labor's initial role in shaping legislation dates back 130 years. [Footnote 4/20] With the coming of the AFL in 1886, labor on a national scale was committed not to act as a
The expenditures revealed by the AFL-CIO Executive Council Reports emphasize that labor's participation in urging legislation and candidacies is a major one. In the last three fiscal years, the Committee on Political Education (COPE) expended a total of $1,681,990.42; the AFL-CIO News cost $756,591.99; the Legislative Department reported total expenses of $741,918.24. [Footnote 4/25] Yet the Georgia trial court has found that these funds were not reasonably related to the unions' role as collective bargaining agents. One could scarcely call this a finding of fact by which this Court is bound, or even one
The notion that economic and political concerns are separable is pre-Victorian. Presidents of the United States and Committees of Congress invite views of labor on matters not immediately concerned with wages, hours, and conditions of employment. [Footnote 4/28] And this Court accepts briefs as amici from the AFL-CIO on issues that cannot be called industrial in any circumscribed sense. It is not true in life that political protection is irrelevant to, and insulated from, economic interests. It is not true for
United States v. CIO, 335 U. S. 106, 335 U. S. 129, 335 U. S. 144 (concurring opinion joined in by Black, Douglas, and Murphy, JJ.). Fifty years ago, this Court held that there was no connection between outlawry of "yellow dog contracts" on interstate railroads and interstate commerce, and therefore found unconstitutional legislation directed against the evils of these agreements. Is it any more consonant with the facts of life today than was this holding in Adair v. United States, 208 U. S. 161, to say that the tax policies of the National Government -- the scheme of rates and exemptions -- have no close relation to the wages of workers; that legislative developments like the Tennessee Valley Authority do not intimately touch the lives of workers within their respective regions; that national measures furthering health and education do not directly bear on the lives of industrial workers; that candidates who support
In Everson v. Board of Education, 330 U. S. 1, the legislative power of a State to subsidize bus service to parochial schools was sustained, although the Court recognized that because of the subsidy some parents were undoubtedly enabled to send their children to church schools who otherwise would not. It makes little difference whether the conclusion is phrased so that no establishment to religion was found, or whether it be more forthrightly stated that the merely incidental "establishment" was too insignificant. Figures of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare show that the yearly cost of transportation to nonpublic schools in Massachusetts totals approximately $659,749; In Illinois, $1,807,740. [Footnote 4/32] These are scarcely what would be termed negligible expenditures. Some might consider the resulting "establishment" more