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Eastex, Inc. v. NLRB :: 437 U.S. 556 (1978) :: Justia U.S. Supreme Court Center Log In
› Eastex, Inc. v. NLRB
Eastex, Inc. v. NLRB 437 U.S. 556 (1978)
U.S. Supreme CourtEastex, Inc. v. NLRB, 437 U.S. 556 (1978)Eastex, Inc. v. National Labor Relations BoardNo. 77-453Argued April 25, 1978Decided June 22, 1978437 U.S. 556CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
and thus violated § 8(a)(1). Following a hearing, at which petitioner contended that the second and third sections of the letter were not protected by § 7 because they did not relate to petitioner's association with the union, the NLRB ordered petitioner to cease and desist from the violation, having determined that both those sections of the newsletter came within the ambit of § 7's protection. The second section of the newsletter was held to be protected because union security is "central to the union concept of strength through solidarity" and "a mandatory subject of bargaining in other than right-to-work states," and the fact that Texas already has a "right-to-work" statute was held not to diminish employees' interest in the matter. The third section was held to be protected even though petitioner's employees were paid more than the vetoed minimum wage, on the ground that the "minimum wage inevitably influences wage levels derived from collective bargaining, even those far above the minimum," and that the petitioner's employees' concern "for the plight of other employees might gain support for them at some future time when they might have a dispute with their employer." The Court of Appeals enforced Page 437 U. S. 557 the NLRB's order, rejecting petitioner's contention that § 7's "mutual aid or protection" clause protects only concerted activity by employees that is directed at conditions that their employer has the authority or power to change or control, and that the second and third sections of the newsletter did not constitute such activity. The court concluded that
2. The NLRB did not err in holding that petitioner's employees may distribute the newsletter in nonworking areas of petitioner's property during nonworking time. The fact that the distribution is to take place on petitioner's property does not give rise to a countervailing interest that petitioner can assert outweighing the exercise of § 7 rights by its employees in that location. Under the circumstances of this case, the NLRB was not required to apply a rule different from the one it applied in Republic Aviation Corp. v. NLRB, 324 U. S. 793, to the effect that an employer may not prohibit his employees from distributing union literature (in that case, organizational material) in nonworking areas of industrial property during nonworking time, absent a showing by the employer that a ban is necessary to maintain plant discipline or production. Here, as in Republic Aviation, petitioner's employees were "already rightfully on the employer's property," so that in the context of this case it is the employer's management interests, rather than its property interests that primarily are implicated. Petitioner, however, made no attempt to show that its management interests would be prejudiced Page 437 U. S. 558 by distribution of the sections to which it objected, and any incremental intrusion on its property rights from their distribution together with the other sections would be minimal. In addition, viewed in context, the distribution was closely tied to vital concerns of the Act. Pp. 437 U. S. 570-576. 550 F.2d 198, affirmed.
POWELL, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which BRENNAN, STEWART, WHITE, MARSHALL, BLACKMUN, and STEVENS, JJ., joined. WHITE, J., filed a concurring opinion, post, p. 437 U. S. 578. REHNQUIST, J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which BURGER, C.J., joined, post, p. 437 U. S. 579.
Employees of petitioner sought to distribute a union newsletter in nonworking areas of petitioner's property during nonworking time urging employees to support the union and discussing a proposal to incorporate the state "right-to-work" statute into the state constitution and a Presidential veto of an increase in the federal minimum wage. The newsletter also called on employees to take action to protect their interests as employees with respect to these two issues. The question presented is whether petitioner's refusal to allow the distribution violated § 8(a)(1) of the National Labor Relations Act, as amended, 61 Stat. 140, 29 U.S.C. § 158(a)(1), by interfering with, restraining, or coercing employees' exercise of their right under § 7 of the Act, 29 U.S.C. § 157, to engage in "concerted activities for the purpose of . . . mutual aid or protection." Page 437 U. S. 559
"As working men and women we must defeat our enemies and Page 437 U. S. 560 elect our friends. If you haven't registered to vote, please do so today. [Footnote 3]"
On April 22, 1974, Boyd Young, president of Local 801, [Footnote 5] together with Terry and another employee, asked George whether employees could distribute the newsletter in any nonworking areas of petitioner's property other than clock alley. [Footnote 6] After conferring again with Menius, George reported Page 437 U. S. 561 that employees would not be allowed to do so, and that petitioner thought the union had other ways to communicate with employees. Local 801 then filed an unfair practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board (Board), alleging that petitioner's refusal to allow employees to distribute the newsletter in nonworking areas of petitioner's property during nonworking time interfered with, restrained, and coerced employees' exercise of their § 7 rights in violation of § 8(a)(1). [Footnote 7]
At a hearing on the charge, Menius testified that he had no objection to the first and fourth sections of the newsletter. He had denied permission to distribute the newsletter because he "didn't see any way in which [the second and third sections were] related to our association with the Union." App. 19. The Administrative Law Judge held that although not all of the newsletter had immediate bearing on the relationship between petitioner and Local 801, distribution of all its contents was protected under § 7 as concerted activity for the "mutual aid or protection" of employees. Because petitioner had presented no evidence of "special circumstances" to justify a ban on the distribution of protected matter by employees in nonworking areas during nonworking time, the Administrative Law Judge held that petitioner had violated § 8(a)(1), and ordered petitioner to cease and desist from the violation. [Footnote 8] The Board Page 437 U. S. 562 affirmed the Administrative Law Judge's rulings, findings, and conclusions, and adopted his recommended order. 215 N.L.R.B. 271 (1974).
Because of apparent differences among the Courts of Appeals as to the scope of rights protected by the "mutual aid or protection" clause of § 7, see n 17, infra we granted certiorari. 434 U.S. 1045 (1978). We affirm. Page 437 U. S. 563
Petitioner contends that the activity here is not within the "mutual aid or protection" language, because it does not relate to a "specific dispute" between employees and their own employer "over an issue which the employer has the right or power to affect." Brief for Petitioner 13. In support of its position, petitioner asserts that the term "employees" in § 7 refers only to employees of a particular employer, so that only activity by employees on behalf of themselves or other employees Page 437 U. S. 564 of the same employer is protected. Id. at 18, 24. Petitioner also argues that the term "collective bargaining" in § 7 "indicates a direct bargaining relationship, whereas other mutual aid or protection' must refer to activities of a similar nature. . . ." Id. at 24. Thus, in petitioner's view, under § 7, "the employee is only protected for activity within the scope of the employment relationship." Id. at 13. Petitioner rejects the idea that § 7 might protect any activity that could be characterized as "political," and suggests that the discharge of an employee who engages in any such activity would not violate the Act. [Footnote 11]
This definition was intended to protect employees when they engage in otherwise proper concerted activities in support of employees of employers other than their own. [Footnote 12] In recognition of this intent, the Board and the courts long have held that the "mutual aid or protection" clause encompasses such activity. [Footnote 13] Petitioner's Page 437 U. S. 565 argument on this point ignores the language of the Act and its settled construction.
We also find no warrant for petitioner's view that employees lose their protection under the "mutual aid or protection" clause when they seek to improve terms and conditions of employment or otherwise improve their lot as employees through channels outside the immediate employee-employer relationship. The 74th Congress knew well enough that labor's cause often is advanced on fronts other than collective bargaining and grievance settlement within the immediate employment context. It recognized this fact by choosing, as the language of § 7 makes clear, to protect concerted activities for the somewhat broader purpose of "mutual aid or protection," as well as for the narrower purposes of "self-organization" and "collective bargaining." [Footnote 14] Thus, it has been held that the "mutual aid or Page 437 U. S. 566 protection" clause protects employees from retaliation by their employers when they seek to improve working conditions through resort to administrative and judicial forums, [Footnote 15] and that employees' appeals to legislators to protect their interests as employees are within the scope of this clause. [Footnote 16] To hold that activity of this nature is entirely unprotected -- irrespective of location or the means employed -- would leave employees Page 437 U. S. 567 open to retaliation for much legitimate activity that could improve their lot as employees. As this could "frustrate the policy of the Act to protect the right of workers to act together to better their working conditions,'" NLRB v. Washington Aluminum Co., 370 U. S. 9, 370 U. S. 14 (1962), we do not think that Congress could have intended the protection of § 7 to be as narrow as petitioner insists. [Footnote 17]
It is true, of course, that some concerted activity bears a less immediate relationship to employees' interests as employees than other such activity. We may assume that, at some point, Page 437 U. S. 568 the relationship becomes so attenuated that an activity cannot fairly be deemed to come within the "mutual aid or protection" clause. It is neither necessary nor appropriate, however, for us to attempt to delineate precisely the boundaries of the "mutual aid or protection" clause. That task is for the Board to perform in the first instance as it considers the wide variety of cases that come before it. [Footnote 18] Republic Aviation Corp. v. NLRB, 324 U.S. at 324 U. S. 798; Phelps Dodge Corp. v. NLRB, 313 U. S. 177, 313 U. S. 194 (1941). To decide this case, it is enough to determine whether the Board erred in holding that distribution of the second and third sections of the newsletter is for the purpose of "mutual aid or protection." Page 437 U. S. 569
215 N.L.R.B. at 274 (internal quotation marks omitted). We think that the Board acted within the range of its discretion in so holding. Few topics are of such immediate concern to employees as the level of their wages. The Board was Page 437 U. S. 570 entitled to note the widely recognized impact that a rise in the minimum wage may have on the level of negotiated wages generally, [Footnote 19] a phenomenon that would not have been lost on petitioner's employees. The union's call, in the circumstances of this case, for these employees to back persons who support an increase in the minimum wage, and to oppose those who oppose it, fairly is characterized as concerted activity for the "mutual aid or protection" of petitioner's employees and of employees generally.
The question that remains is whether the Board erred in holding that petitioner's employees may distribute the newsletter in nonworking areas of petitioner's property during nonworking time. Consideration of this issue must begin with the Court's decisions in Republic Aviation Corp. v. NLRB, supra, and NLRB v. Babcock & Wilcox Co., 351 U. S. 105 (1956). In Republic Aviation, the Court upheld the Board's ruling that an employer may not prohibit its employees from Page 437 U. S. 571 distributing union organizational literature in nonworking areas of its industrial property during nonworking time, absent a showing by the employer that a ban is necessary to maintain plant discipline or production. This ruling obtained even though the employees had not shown that distribution off the employer's property would be ineffective. 324 U.S. at 324 U. S. 798-799, 324 U. S. 801. In the Court's view, the Board had reached an acceptable
"A wholly different balance was Page 437 U. S. 572 struck when the organizational activity was carried on by employees already rightfully on the employer's property, since the employer's management interests, rather than his property interests, were there involved."
We hold that the Board was not required to adopt this view in the case at hand. In the first place, petitioner's reliance on Page 437 U. S. 573 its property right is largely misplaced. Here, as in Republic Aviation, petitioner's employees are "already rightfully on the employer's property," so that, in the context of this case, it is the "employer's management interests, rather than [its] property interests," that primarily are implicated. Hudgens, supra at 424 U. S. 521-522, n. 10. As already noted, petitioner made no attempt to show that its management interests would be prejudiced in any way by the exercise of § 7 rights proposed by its employees here. Even if the mere distribution by employees of material protected by § 7 can be said to intrude on petitioner's property rights in any meaningful sense, the degree of intrusion does not vary with the content of the material. Petitioner's only cognizable property right in this respect is in preventing employees from bringing literature onto its property and distributing it there -- not in choosing which distributions protected by § 7 it wishes to suppress. [Footnote 22]
On the other side of the balance, it may be argued that the employees' interest in distributing literature that deals with matters affecting them as employees, but not with self-organization or collective bargaining, is so removed from the central concerns of the Act as to justify application of a different rule than in Republic Aviation. Although such an argument may have force in some circumstances, see Hudgens, supra at 424 U. S. 522, the Board, to date, generally has chosen not to engage in such refinement of its rules regarding the distribution Page 437 U. S. 574 of literature by employees during nonworking time in nonworking areas of their employers' property. We are not prepared to say in this case that the Board erred in the view it took.
We need not go so far in this case, however, as to hold that the Republic Aviation rule properly is applied to every in-plant distribution of literature that falls within the protective ambit of § 7. This is a new area for the Board and the courts which has not yet received mature consideration. [Footnote 23] It may be that the Page 437 U. S. 575 "nature of the problem, as revealed by unfolding variant situations," requires "an evolutionary process for its rational response, not a quick, definitive formula as a comprehensive answer." Electrical Workers v. NLRB, 366 U. S. 667, 366 U. S. 674 (1961). For this reason, we confine our holding to the facts of this case.
Petitioner concedes that its employees were entitled to distribute a substantial portion of this newsletter on its property. In addition, as we have held above, the sections to which petitioner objected concern activity which petitioner, in the absence of a countervailing interest of its own, is not entitled to suppress. Yet petitioner made no attempt to show that its management interests would be prejudiced in any manner by distribution of these sections, and, in our view, any incremental intrusion on petitioner's property rights from their distribution together with the other sections would be minimal. Moreover, it is undisputed that the union undertook the distribution in order to boost its support and improve its bargaining position in upcoming contract negotiations with petitioner. Thus, viewed in context, the distribution was closely tied to vital concerns of the Act. [Footnote 24] In these circumstances, Page 437 U. S. 576 we hold that the Board did not err in applying the Republic Aviation rule to the facts of this case. The judgment of the Court of Appeals therefore is
Wages are determined at the bargaining table and the stronger the Union, the better the opportunity for improvements. The "right to work" law is simply an attempt to weaken the strength of Unions. The misleading title of Page 437 U. S. 577 "right to work" cannot guarantee anyone a job. It simply weakens the negotiating power of Unions by outlawing provisions in contracts for Union shops, agency shops, and modified Union shops. These laws do not improve wages or working conditions but just protect free riders. Free riders are people who take all the benefits of Unions without paying dues. They ride on the dues that members pay to build an organization to protect their rights and improve their way of life. At this time there is a very well organized and financed attempt to place the "right to work" law in our new state constitution. This drive is supported and financed by big business, namely, the National Right-To-Work Committee and the National Chamber of Commerce. If their attempt is successful, it will more than pay for itself by weakening Unions and improving the edge business has at the bargaining table. States that have no "right-to-work" law consistently have higher wages and better working conditions. Texas is well known for its weak laws concerning the working class and the "right-to-work" law would only add insult to injury. If you fail to take action against the "right-to-work" law it may well show up in wages negotiated in the future. I urge every member to write their state congressman and senator in protest of the "right-to-work" law being incorporated into the state constitution. Write your state representative and state senator and let the delegate know how you feel.
It also seems disturbing, that after the price of gasoline has increased to over 50 cents a gallon, that the fuel crisis is Page 437 U. S. 578 beginning to disappear. If the price of gasoline ever reaches 70 cents a gallon you probably couldn't find a closed filling station or empty pump in the Northern Hemisphere.
This leaves only G&W Electric Specialty Co. v. NLRB, 360 F.2d 873 (CA7 1966), which refused to enforce a Board order because the concerted activity there -- circulation of a petition concerning management of an employee-run credit union -- "involved no request for any action upon the part of the Company and did not concern a matter over which the Company had control." Id. at 876. G&W Electric cites no authority for its narrowing of § 7, and it ignores a substantial weight of authority to the contrary, including the Seventh Circuit's own prior holding in Fort Wayne Corrugated Paper Co. v. NLRB, 111 F.2d at 874. See n 13, supra. We therefore do not view any of these cases as persuasive authority for petitioner's position.
I agree that the employees here were engaged in activity protected by § 7, at least in the sense that the employer could not discharge employees for propagandizing their fellow workers with materials concerning minimum wages and right-to-work Page 437 U. S. 579 laws, so long as the distribution takes place off the employer's property. I agree further that, under current law and the facts and claims in this record, the distributions could take place on the employer's property. Accordingly, the Board was entitled to have its order enforced, and I join the judgment and opinion of the Court.
It is not necessary to determine the scope of the "mutual aid or protection" language of § 7 of the National Labor Relations Page 437 U. S. 580 Act to conclude that Congress never intended to require the opening of private property to the sort of political advocacy involved in this case. Petitioner's right as a property owner to prescribe the conditions under which strangers may enter its property is fully recognized under Texas law. "A licensee who goes beyond the rights and privileges granted by the license becomes a trespasser.'" Burton Construction & Shipbuilding Co. v. Broussard, 154 Tex. 50, 58, 273 S.W.2d 598, 603 (1954) (citation omitted). See also Brown v. Dellinger, 355 S.W.2d 742 (Tex.Civ.App. 1962); 56 Tex.Jur.2d Trespass § 4 (1964). Thus, the employees' effort to distribute their leaflet in defiance of petitioner's wishes would clearly be a trespass infringing upon petitioner's property right. There is no indication that Texas takes so narrow a view of petitioner's rights that it may fairly be said that its "only cognizable property right in this respect is in preventing employees from bringing literature onto its property and distributing it there." Ante at 437 U. S. 573. So far as appears, a Texas property owner may admit certain leaflets onto his property and exclude others, as it pleases him. The Court can only mean that the Board need not take cognizance of any greater property right because the Congress has clearly and constitutionally said so.
From its earliest cases construing the National Labor Relations Act, the Court has recognized the weight of an employer's property rights, rights which are explicitly protected from federal interference by the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution. The Court has not been quick to conclude in a given instance that Congress has authorized the displacement of those rights by the federally created rights of the employees. In NLRB v. Fansteel Metallurgical Corp., 306 U. S. 240 (1939), construing another section of the Act, this Court dealt with the Board's efforts to compel the reinstatement of employees who had been discharged after violating their Page 437 U. S. 581 employer's property rights by engaging in a sit-down strike. Mr. Chief Justice Hughes wrote for the Court:
Those rights of self-organization were again recognized six years later in Republic Aviation Corp. v. NLRB, 324 U. S. 793 (1945). There, the Court held that Congress had authorized the Board to displace the property rights of employers where necessary to accommodate the rights of employees to distribute union organizational literature and to wear union insignia. In NLRB v. Babcock & Wilcox Co., 351 U. S. 105 (1956), the Court recognized that nonemployees could also invoke this right to solicit union membership, but it held that the Board's authority to displace the employer's property rights in such circumstances was extremely limited. [Footnote 2/1] Later, Page 437 U. S. 582 the Court in Central Hardware Co. v. NLRB, 407 U. S. 539 (1972), explained the limited nature of the intrusion upon property rights permitted by Babcock:
407 U.S. at 407 U. S. 544-545. [Footnote 2/2] Page 437 U. S. 583