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MACHINISTS & AEROSPACE WORKERS V. NLRB, 412 U. S. 84 (1973) - US SUPREME COURT DECISIONS ON-LINE
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MACHINISTS & AEROSPACE WORKERS V. NLRB, 412 U. S. 84 (1973)
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Where the Union's constitution and bylaws are silent on the subject of voluntary resignation from the Union, the Union committed an unfair labor practice when it sought court enforcement of fines imposed for strike-breaking activities by employees who had resigned from the Union, even though the Union constitution expressly prohibited members from strike-breaking. NLRB v. Textile Workers, 409 U. S. 213.
148 U.S.App.D.C. 119, 459 F.2d 1143, affirmed. chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
In this companion case to NLRB v. Boeing Co., ante, p. 412 U. S. 67, we must decide whether our decisions in NLRB v. Textile Workers, 409 U. S. 213, authorizes the Board to find that a union commits an unfair labor practice in seeking court enforcement of fines imposed for strike-breaking activities by employees who have resigned from the union, even though the union constitution expressly prohibits members from strike-breaking. We hold that it does.
On September 16, 1965, the day after the expiration of the collective bargaining agreement between Booster Lodge No. 405, International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, AFL-CIO (the Union), and the Boeing Co. (the Company), the Union called a lawful strike and picketed the Company's Michoud, Louisiana, plant to further its demands for a new contract. The strike continued for 18 days, during which time 143 of the 1,900 production and maintenance employees represented by the Union crossed the picket line to work. All of these employees had been members of the Union before the strike, [Footnote 1] but 61 resigned their membership prior to returning to work, and another 58 resigned after they returned to work. [Footnote 2] These resignations were tendered in registered or certified letters to the Union. Neither its constitution nor its bylaws contained chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
The strike ended on October 4, 1965, after ratification of a new collective bargaining agreement by the Union membership. During late October and early November, the Union notified all employees who had crossed the picket line to work during the strike that charges had been preferred against them under the Union constitution for "Improper Conduct of a Member" because of their having "accept[ed] employment . . . in an establishment where a strike or lockout exist[ed]." They were advised of the dates of their Union trials, which were to be held even in their absence, and of their right to be represented by any counsel who was a member of the International Union. Fines were imposed on all employees who had worked during the strike without regard to whether or not such employees had resigned or had remained members. [Footnote 3] None of the disciplined employees processed intra-union appeals. To the extent that fines were not paid, [Footnote 4] the Union sent written notices to the offending employees stating that the matter had been referred to an attorney for collection. Suits were initiated in state court against nine employees for the purpose of collecting the fines plus attorneys' fees and interest. None of these suits has been resolved.
The Company filed an unfair labor practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board alleging that the Union had violated § 8(b)(1)(A) of the National Labor Relations Act, 61 Stat. 141, 29 U.S.C. § 158(b)(1)(A). [Footnote 5] chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
In NLRB v. Textile Workers, 409 U.S. at 409 U. S. 217, we held that,
Since, in that case, there was no provision in the Union's constitution or bylaws limiting the circumstances in which a member could resign, we concluded that the members chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
were free to resign at will, and that § 7 of the Act, 29 U.S.C. § 157, [Footnote 6] protected that right to return to work during a strike which had been commenced while they were union members. [Footnote 7] The Union's imposition of court-collectible fines against the former members for such work was, therefore, held to violate § 8(b)(1)(A).
Here, as in Textile Workers, the Union's constitution and bylaws are silent on the subject of voluntary resignation from the Union. [Footnote 8] And here, as there, we leave open the question of the extent to which contractual restriction on a member's right to resign may be limited by the Act. Since there is no evidence that the employees here either knew of or had consented to any limitation on their right to resign, we need
Textile Workers, supra, at 409 U. S. 216.
The Union contends, however, that a result different from Textile Workers is warranted in this case because, chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
The provision in the Union's constitution which proscribes strike-breaking, by its terms, purports only to define "misconduct of a member." Nothing in the record indicates that Union members were informed, prior to the bringing of the charges that were the basis of this action, that the provision was interpreted as imposing any obligation on a resignee. [Footnote 9] Thus, in order to sustain the Union's position, we would first have to find, contrary to the determination of the Board and of the Court of Appeals, that the Union constitution, by implication, extended its sanctions to nonmembers, and then further conclude that such sanctions were consistent with the Act. But we are no more disposed to find an implied post-resignation commitment from the strike-breaking proscription in the Union's constitution here than we were to find it from the employees' participation in the strike vote and ratification of penalties in Textile chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Workers. [Footnote 10] Accordingly, the judgment of the Court of Appeals sustaining the Board's finding of an unfair labor practice on the part of petitioner Union is
It was stipulated in that case that all 31 of the employees who resigned from the Union during the strike and returned to work participated in the strike vote, and voted in favor of the strike. NLRB v. Textile Workers, 409 U. S. 213, 409 U. S. 219 n. 2 (BLACKMUN, J., dissenting).
I was in solitary dissent in Textile Workers, id. at 409 U. S. 218. I emphasized there that
id. at 409 U. S. 220; that the Court's opinion seemed to me "to exalt the formality of resignation over the substance of the various interests and national labor policies that [were] at stake," id. at 409 U. S. 221; that § 7 of the National Labor Relations Act "does not necessarily give him [the employee] the right to abandon these [union] activities chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
in mid-course once he has undertaken them voluntarily," id. at 409 U. S. 222, quoting from 446 F.2d 369, 373; and that the policy of § 7 would not be frustrated by a holding that an employee, in the circumstances of that case, could "knowingly waive his § 7 right to resign from the union and to return to work without sanction." 409 U.S. at 409 U. S. 222-223.
The present case, however, is a very different situation. None of the Boeing employees who resigned from the Union had been given notice of a strike-breaking penalty before the strike vote or before their participation in the strike. The imposition of a penalty was never ratified formally by the union membership. The members were not notified that post-resignation strike-breaking was proscribed and would subject them to union discipline. And the provision in the Union's constitution, referred to by the Court, ante at 412 U. S. 89, as to a member's general obligation to refrain from strike-breaking, surely does not make up for this lack of notice, and it would not do so even if it were clearly applicable, which it is not, to strike-breaking after resignation from the Union.
* See 409 U.S. at 409 U. S. 218-219, nn. 1 and 2.