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Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 301', '§ 301', '§ 301', '§ 301', '§ 301', '§ 301', '§ 185', '§ 301', '§ 301', '§ 301', '§ 301', '§ 301', '§ 301', '§ 301', '§ 301', '§ 301', '§ 301', '§ 301', '§ 10', '§ 301', '§ 301', '§ 10', '§ 10', '§ 10', '§ 301', '§ 301', '§ 301', '§ 7', '§ 7', '§ 12', '§ 12', '§ 303', '§ 303', '§ 301', '§ 301', '§ 303', '§ 303', '§ 301', '§ 301', '§ 301', '§ 301', '§ 301', '§ 185', '§ 301', '§ 185', '§ 185', '§ 301', '§ 301', '§ 185', '§ 185', '§ 301', '§ 301', '§ 301']

Complete Auto Transit, Inc. v. Reis (full text) :: 451 U.S. 401 (1981) :: Justia U.S. Supreme Court Center Log In
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Complete Auto Transit, Inc. v. Reis 451 U.S. 401 (1981)
U.S. Supreme CourtComplete Auto Transit, Inc. v. Reis, 451 U.S. 401 (1981)Complete Auto Transit, Inc. v. ReisNo. 79-1777Argued February 24, 1981Decided May 4, 1981451 U.S. 401CERTIORARI TO TIE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
Petitioner trucking companies are parties to a collective bargaining agreement with the Teamsters Union that contains a no-strike clause. Respondent employees of petitioners commenced a wildcat strike because they believed the union was not properly representing them in negotiations to amend the collective bargaining agreement. Thereafter, petitioners brought an action against respondents in Federal District Court under § 301 (a) of the Labor Management Relations Act, which confers jurisdiction on federal district courts to decide suits alleging violations of collective bargaining agreements. Petitioners sought, inter alia, damages against respondents in their individual capacities for all losses arising out of the wildcat strike. The District Court dismissed the damages claim, and the Court of Appeals affirmed, holding that Congress had not intended through § 301 to create a cause of action for damages against individual union members for breach of a no-strike agreement.
Held: Section 301 (a) does not sanction damages actions by employers against individual employees for violating the no-strike provision of a collective bargaining agreement, whether or not the union participated in or authorized the strike. The legislative history of § 301 clearly reveals Congress' intent to shield individual employees from liability for such damages, even though this results in leaving the employer unable to recover for his losses. While § 301 (b), which provides that any money judgment against a union for violation of a collective bargaining agreement shall be enforceable only against the union, and not against any individual member, explicitly addresses only union-authorized violations, the "penumbra" of § 301 (b), as informed by its legislative history, establishes that Congress meant to exclude individual strikers from damages liability, whether or not they were authorized by their union to strike. The history demonstrates that Congress deliberately chose to allow a damages remedy for breach of a no-strike provision only against unions, not individuals, and, as to unions, only when they participated in or authorized the illegal strike. Pp. 451 U. S. 405 417.
614 F.2d 1110, affirmed. Page 451 U. S. 402
BRENNAN, J.,. delivered the opinion of the Court, in which STEWART, WHITE, MARSHALL, BLACKMUN, and STEVENS, JJ., joined. POWELL, J., filed an opinion concurring in part and concurring in the judgment, post, p. 451 U. S. 417. BURGER, C.J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which REHNQUIST, J., joined, post, p. 451 U. S. 424.
In Atkinson v. Sinclair Refining Co., 370 U. S. 238 (1962), the Court held that § 301(a) of the Labor Management Relations Act, 1947, 61 Stat. 156, 29 U.S.C. § 185(a), does not authorize a damages action against individual union officers and members when their union is liable for violating a no-strike clause in a collective bargaining agreement. We expressly reserved the question whether an employer might maintain a suit for damages against "individual defendants acting not in behalf of the union, but in their personal and nonunion capacity" where their "unauthorized, individual action" violated the no-strike provision of the collective bargaining agreement. 370 U.S. at 370 U. S. 249, n. 7. We granted certiorari to decide this important question of federal labor law. 449 U.S.898 (1980).
Petitioners are three companies engaged in the transportation by truck of motor vehicles. All three are parties to a collective bargaining agreement with the Teamsters Union that covers operations at their respective facilities in Flint, Page 451 U. S. 403 Mich. Respondents are employees of petitioners and members of Teamsters Local Union No. 332. The collective bargaining agreement contains a no-strike clause [Footnote 1] and subjects all disputes to a binding grievance and arbitration procedure.
On June 8, 1976, respondents commenced a wildcat strike, because they believed that "the union was not properly representing them in . . . negotiations for amendments to the collective bargaining agreement." 614 F.2d 1110, 1111 (CA6 1980). Soon thereafter, petitioners brought this § 301(a) action in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, seeking injunctive relief and "damages against the [employee], in their individual capacity, for all losses arising out of the unlawful work stoppage and for attorneys fees." App. 21. Petitioners alleged that the strike was neither authorized nor approved by the union, and, therefore, sought no damages from the union. See 614 F.2d at 1115; App. 18, 20-21. After a hearing, the District Court found that "the issue which had caused the work stoppage was not arbitrable" because it was "an internal dispute between factions in the Local," App. to Pet. for Cert. 15a-16a, and accordingly denied preliminary injunctive relief, citing Boys Markets, Inc. v. Retail Clerks, 398 U. S. 235 (1970). [Footnote 2] Page 451 U. S. 404 Following additional hearings and settlement of the "internal dispute," the District Court concluded that
Nine months later, respondents moved to dissolve the preliminary injunction and to dismiss the complaint for damages. Relying on this Court's intervening decision in Buffalo Forge Co. v. Steelworkers, 428 U. S. 397 (1976), [Footnote 3] the District Court dissolved the injunction on the ground that the work stoppage was not precipitated by an arbitrable issue. App. to Pet. for Cert. 18a. The court also dismissed petitioners' claim for damages, holding that
The United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit reversed the District Court's dissolution of the injunction, holding that an injunction may be granted even where the issue which precipitated the strike was nonarbitrable provided an arbitrable issue, other than the simple legality of the strike itself, caused the continuation of the strike with Page 451 U. S. 405 the purpose of "compel[ling] the employer to concede on the arbitrable issue." 614 F.2d at 1114. Petitioners do not seek review of this part of the Court of Appeals' ruling. [Footnote 4]
Since Textile Workers v. Lincoln Mills, 353 U. S. 448 (1957), it has been settled that § 301(a) [Footnote 5] does more than confer jurisdiction on federal courts to decide lawsuits alleging violations of collective bargaining agreements. Section 301(a) also "authorizes federal courts to fashion a body of federal law for the enforcement of these collective bargaining agreements." Textile Workers v. Lincoln Mills, 353 U.S. at 353 U. S. 451. Page 451 U. S. 406 Lincoln Mills defined the mode of analysis for fashioning this body of federal law as follows:
Id. at 353 U. S. 457. Of course,
"Lincoln Mills did not envision any free-wheeling inquiry into what the federal courts might find to be the most desirable rule, irrespective of congressional pronouncements."
Howard Johnson Co. v. Hotel & Restaurant Employees, 417 U. S. 249, 417 U. S. 255 (1974). Rather, it is clear that, in fashioning federal law under § 301(a), substantial deference should be paid to revealed congressional intention. See Atkinson v. Sinclair Refining Co., 370 U.S. at 370 U. S. 248-249.
In Atkinson, the Court relied on the intent of Congress in passing § 301(b) to hold that individual union members may not be sued for damages where the union has breached the no-strike provision of its collective bargaining agreement. Section 301(b) states in pertinent part that
Thus, in Atkinson, we noted that,
Ibid. Accordingly, we consulted and relied on the legislative history of § 301(b), which made it
"clear that th[e] third clause [of § 301(b)] was a deeply felt congressional reaction against the Danbury Hatters case . . . and an expression Page 451 U. S. 407 of legislative determination that the aftermath . . . of that decision was not to be permitted to recur."
Id. at 370 U. S. 248. [Footnote 6] Similarly, in deciding the question presented in this case, we "discharg[e] the duty Congress imposed on us to formulate the federal law to govern § 301(a) suits," id. at 370 U. S. 248-249, by looking to the "penumbra" of § 301(b), 353 U.S. at 353 U. S. 457, as informed by its legislative history. See Howard Johnson Co. v. Hotel & Restaurant Employees, supra, at 417 U. S. 255.
Section 301(b), by its terms, prohibits a money judgment entered against a union from being enforced against individual union members. See Atkinson v. Sinclair Refining Co., supra. It is a mistake to suppose that Congress thereby suggested by negative implication that employees should be held liable where their union is not liable for the strike. See Sinclair Oil Corp. v. Oil, Chemical & Atomic Workers, 452 F.2d 49, 52 (CA7 1971). Although lengthy and complex, the legislative history of § 301 clearly reveals Congress' intent to shield individual employees from liability for damages arising from their breach of the no-strike clause of a collective bargaining agreement, whether or not the union participated in or authorized the illegality. Indeed, Congress intended this result even though it might leave the employer unable Page 451 U. S. 408 to recover for his losses. See Atkinson v. Sinclair Refining Co., supra, at 370 U. S. 248.
The legislative history of § 301 begins with a review of congressional efforts in the year prior to adoption of the Labor Management Relations Act. Section 10 of the Case bill, H.R. 4908, 79th Cong., 2d Sess. (1946), passed by both Houses of Congress, but vetoed by the President in 1946, was "the direct antecedent of § 301." Charles Dowd Box Co. v. Cortney, 368 U. S. 502, 368 U. S. 509 (1962). Since § 10 "contained provisions substantially the same . . . as the provisions of § 301," ibid., its legislative history is highly relevant in ascertaining congressional intent with respect to § 301, see id. at 368 U. S. 511-512.
The purpose of § 10 was "to establish a mutual responsibility when the collective bargaining process has resulted in a contract." 92 Cong.Rec. 838 (1946) (remarks of Rep. Case). As introduced in the House, § 10 provided for collective bargaining agreements to be enforceable "against each of the parties thereto." [Footnote 7] The Senate adopted a bill which Page 451 U. S. 409 encompassed the purposes of § 10 of the House version and which, in addition, explicitly permitted an employer to discharge an employee who participated in a strike which was not authorized by the union. [Footnote 8] Senator Taft, principal proponent of the provision, explained:
92 Cong.Rec. 5705-5706 (1946). Thus, the Senator stopped short of proposing that individual Page 451 U. S. 410 employees be held liable in damages for engaging in unauthorized strikes.
"Individual members of a union are not made liable for any money judgment, I might point out, but only the union as an entity. If employees strike in violation of their agreement, the only individual penalty that can be employed is the forfeiture of their right to employment under that contract which is cured when the employer reemploys them."
Id. at 5930-5931 (emphasis added). [Footnote 9] The House then passed the Senate version. In doing so, the House, like the Senate, clearly intended to protect employees from the sanction of a suit for damages for a strike in breach of the collective bargaining agreement, whether or not the union participated in or authorized the strike. It is true that the President vetoed this bill, and that his veto was sustained. Nevertheless, the substantial similarity between the pertinent language of the Case bill as passed by Congress and of § 301 as it reads today makes the legislative history of the Case bill vitally significant to a full understanding of the policy behind § 301 (b).
Six months after the veto, Congress began work on the legislation which became § 301. [Footnote 10] The bill ultimately passed Page 451 U. S. 411 by the House created a federal cause of action for breach of a collective bargaining agreement. [Footnote 11] The Committee Report explained that "actions and proceedings involving violations of contracts between employers and labor organizations may be brought by either party." H.R.Rep. No. 245, 80th Cong., 1st Sess., 45-46 (1947). Section 302 (b) also contained express language precluding enforcement against individuals Page 451 U. S. 412 of judgments entered against unions. [Footnote 12] In addition, the bill included an amendment to § 7 of the National Labor Relations Act providing that "violations of collective bargaining agreements" would not be protected under the Act, H.R. 3020, 80th Cong., 1st Sess. (1947), § 7 (a), thereby allowing employers to discharge wildcat strikers. [Footnote 13] The House bill also included a provision, however, which allowed an employer to recover damages from individual employees. Section 12 created a damages action against any person engaging in an unlawful concerted activity. The bill defined "unlawful concerted activities" to include, inter alia, jurisdictional strikes, sympathy strikes, and certain picketing activities.
Significantly, however, the Senate rejected the House's imposition in § 12 of damages liability against individuals for unlawful concerted activity, and a Conference Committee adopted the Senate version. [Footnote 14] The Senate counterpart to Page 451 U. S. 413 § 12 of the House bill was § 303. Senator Taft offered a floor amendment to § 303 which would have established a damages action against individuals who engage in certain types of unlawful concerted activity, such as secondary boycotts and jurisdictional strikes. 93 Cong.Rec. 4900 (1947). In a critical exchange during the debate on the proposed amendment, Senator Taft altered the language to limit damages actions to claims against unions, in order to conform with § 301(b) and bar imposition of individual damages liability against employees:
"The proposal would very definitely take us back at least 40 years, and we would again have the spectacle of mass suits against employees, similar to the infamous Danbury Hatters case. Senators will recall that, in that case, some 150 members of the union were sued by their employer and the Supreme Court of the United States sustained a judgment against them in the neighborhood of a quarter million dollars. . . ."
"It also should be pointed out that the substitute proposal is inconsistent with the present provision in the bill allowing a union to be sued for breach of contract. Section 301 of the bill permits suits against labor organizations Page 451 U. S. 414 only, whereas the substitute proposal allows damage suits against 'any person.' Also, section 301 limits recovery to the assets of the union; the substitute allows the attachment of employees' bank accounts and all their property."
"* * * *" "Mr. TAFT: On request by . . . Senator [Ives] from New York and others who raised the point, I am amending the proposal by striking out the word 'person,' in the second line and inserting, in lieu thereof, 'labor organization,' so the action will be open only against labor organizations promoting this type of strike."
Id. at 4839-4841. [Footnote 15] The Senate passed this version of the bill, foreclosing individual damages liability in both § 301 and § 303 lawsuits.
H.R.Conf.Rep. No. 510, 80th Page 451 U. S. 415 Cong., 1st Sess., 39 (1947). The Committee, therefore, opted for a discharge remedy for violations of § 303 by individuals, rather than for the damages remedy that had been proposed by the House. At the same time, it preferred discharge as the employer's remedy under § 301 where employees violate the no-strike provision of their collective bargaining agreement. [Footnote 16]
Thus, while § 301(b) explicitly addresses only union-authorized violations of a collective bargaining agreement, the "penumbra" of § 301(b), Textile Workers v. Lincoln Mills, 353 U.S. at 353 U. S. 457, as informed by its legislative history, establishes that Congress meant to exclude individual strikers from damages liability, whether or not they were authorized by their union to strike. [Footnote 17] The legislative debates and the process of legislative amendment demonstrate that Congress deliberately chose to allow a damages remedy for breach of the Page 451 U. S. 416 no-strike provision of a collective bargaining agreement only against unions, not individuals, and, as to unions, only when they participated in or authorized the strike. See Carbon Fuel Co. v. Mine Workers, 444 U. S. 212, 444 U. S. 216 (1979). Congress itself balanced the competing advantages and disadvantages inherent in the possible remedies to combat wildcat strikes, and "we are strongly guided by" its choice. [Footnote 18] Atkinson Page 451 U. S. 417 v. Sinclair Refining Co., 370 U.S. at 370 U. S. 249. See Howard Johnson Co. v. Hotel & Restaurant Employees, 417 U.S. at 417 U. S. 255. Accordingly, we hold that § 301(a) does not sanction damages actions against individual employees for violating the no-strike provision of the collective bargaining agreement, whether or not their union participated in or authorized the strike.
See Exhibit A to Complaint of Complete Auto Transit, Inc., 24-25.
In Boys Markets, Inc. v. Retail Clerks, 398 U.S. at 398 U. S. 253-254, this Court held that the Norris-LaGuardia Act's prohibition against enjoining strikes does not apply where the "collective bargaining contract contains a mandatory grievance adjustment or arbitration procedure," where the grievance is subject to arbitration, and where the usual requirements for obtaining equitable relief have been satisfied.
In Buffalo Forge Co. v. Steelworkers, 428 U.S. at 428 U. S. 407 (emphasis in original), this Court held that the Federal District Court properly refused to enjoin a sympathy strike because
"the strike was not over any dispute between the Union and the employer that was even remotely subject to the arbitration provisions of the contract."
The Court further held that, even though the "dispute whether the sympathy strike violated the Union's no-strike undertaking . . . was arbitrable," injunctive relief was not warranted, since to hold otherwise "would cut deeply into the policy of the Norris-LaGuardia Act and make the courts potential participants in a wide range of arbitrable disputes." Id. at 428 U. S. 410.
In the Danbury Hatters case,
"by providing that the union may sue and be sued as a legal entity for a violation of contract, and the liability for damages will lie against union assets only, will prevent a repetition of the Danbury Hatters case, in which many members lost their homes."
Atkinson v. Sinclair Refining Co., 370 U.S. at 370 U. S. 248. See Savings Bank of Danbury v. Loewe, 242 U. S. 357 (1917); Lawlor v. Loewe, 235 U. S. 522 (1915); Loewe v. Lawlor, 208 U. S. 274 (1908).
"* * * *" "(d) Any employee who participates in a strike or other stoppage of work in violation of an existing collective bargaining agreement, if such strike or stoppage is not ratified or approved by the labor organization party to such agreement and having exclusive bargaining rights for such employee, shall lose his status as an employee of the employer party to such agreement for the purposes of sections 8, 9, and 10 of the National Labor Relations Act: Provided, That such loss of status for such employee shall cease if and when he is reemployed by such employer."
Id. at 5932.
In the House, Representative Case introduced a bill containing a provision establishing federal court jurisdiction over actions for breaches of collective bargaining agreements. Subsections (a) and (b) were virtually identical to their counterparts in the bill passed in the previous session of Congress. As Representative Case explained the bill before the House Committee on Education and Labor, "there is no provision for suing individual workers, as such, or rendering any judgment against them." Hearings before the House Committee on Education and Labor on Amendments to the National Labor Relations Act, 80th Cong., 1st Sess., 125 (1947). Instead, wildcat strikers would be subject to discharge. Ibid. .
H.R. 3020, supra.
"[W]e give to employers the right to sue a union in interstate commerce, in a Federal court, for violation of contract. It does not go beyond that."
Petitioners' reliance on the statement in Hines v. Anchor Motor Freight, Inc., 424 U. S. 554, 424 U. S. 562 (1976) (emphasis added), that "Section 301 contemplates suits by and against individual employees" is misplaced. We decide a much narrower question not before the Court in Hines: that § 301 does not contemplate recovery of damages from individual employees as a result of a breach of the no-strike provision of a collective bargaining agreement. Whether Hines contemplated injunctive suits against individuals was not decided by the Court in Hines, and we have no occasion to decide that issue now. See n 18, infra.
Boys Markets, Inc. v. Retail Clerks, 398 U.S. at 398 U. S. 248 (footnote omitted); see Gateway Coal Co. v. Mine Workers, 414 U. S. 368, 414 U. S. 381, n. 14 (1974).
The significant array of other remedies available to employers to achieve adherence to collective bargaining agreements casts further doubt on petitioners' proposition. First, an employer may seek damages against the union where responsibility may be traced to the union for the contract breach. See 29 U.S.C. § 185(b), Carbon Fuel Co. v. Mine Workers, 444 U. S. 212, 444 U. S. 216-218 (1979); Atkinson v. Sinclair Refining Co., 370 U.S. at 370 U. S. 247-249. Second, an employer may discharge, or otherwise discipline, an employee who unlawfully walks off the job. See id. at 370 U. S. 246; NLRB v. Rockaway News Supply Co., 345 U. S. 71, 345 U. S. 80 (1953); Lakeshore Motor Freight Co. v. International Brotherhood of Teamsters, 483 F.Supp. 1150, 1154, n. 2 (WD Pa.1980) (wildcat strikers discharged, and those allowed to return were rehired as new employees). Third, the union itself may discipline its members. See Carbon Fuel Co. v. Mine Workers, supra, at 444 U. S. 220; Sinclair Oil Corp. v. Oil, Chemical & Atomic Workers, 452 F.2d 49, 54 (CA7 1971); see 92 Cong.Rec. 5706 (1946) (Sen. Capehart) (debate on Case bill). Finally, an employer may seek injunctive relief against unions for breach of a no-strike provision in a collective bargaining agreement where the underlying dispute giving rise to the breach is subject to binding arbitration. See Buffalo Forge Co. v. Steelworkers, 428 U.S. at 428 U. S. 407; Gateway Coal Co. v. Mine Workers, supra, at 414 U. S. 380-387; Boys Markets, Inc. v. Retail Clerks, supra. Whether a Boys Markets-Buffalo Forge injunction could have issued against individual union members engaged in the wildcat strike at issue here is not before us. It may be that an injunction would not issue against a participating or authorizing union in circumstances otherwise the same: in the instant case, the District Judge found that the strike commenced over a nonarbitrable labor dispute, and that ruling was not disturbed by the Court of Appeals.
The Court's opinion makes clear that Congress, in enacting the Taft-Hartley amendments to the National Labor Relations Act, did not intend to hold individuals liable in damages for wildcat strikes. I therefore join the Court's judgment and most of its opinion. I do not, however, share the Court's view that there remains to management a "significant array of other remedies," ante at 451 U. S. 416, n. 18, with which to deter or obtain compensation for illegal strikes. In fact, the "remedies" said to be available are largely chimerical.
Collective bargaining agreements typically contain a promise by the union not to strike during the agreement's term. Unions agree to these no-strike clauses in exchange for the employer's promise to arbitrate disputes arising in contract Page 451 U. S. 418 administration. Textile Workers v. Lincoln Mills, 353 U. S. 448, 353 U. S. 449, 455(1957). Each promise is the "quid pro quo" for the other, Steelworkers v. American Mfg. Co., 363 U. S. 564, 363 U. S. 567 (1960), because the employer yields traditional managerial autonomy in exchange for industrial peace.
Despite the mutual benefits of the no-strike grievance arbitration pact, strikes in breach of contract occur with disturbing frequency. In some cases, these strikes are encouraged or even instigated by union leaders. [Footnote 2/1] Often, however, they are true "wildcats" -- strikes that arise spontaneously to protest grievances against the company and, occasionally, against the union leadership itself. Responsible unions disapprove of such strikes, but some officials, especially those at the local level, may acquiesce in them because of the fervor of intransigent members.
Whatever the cause, strikes in breach of contract frequently injure all concerned: the employer, [Footnote 2/2] employees, and the public. Strikes and lockouts, by their nature, squander human working capacity, the full use of which is essential to the enjoyment of the Nation's productive potential. To be sure, the national labor policy recognizes that, in some circumstances, the use of weapons of strike and lockout is consistent Page 451 U. S. 419 with and.protected by law. Labor, management, and the public nevertheless share a "common goal of uninterrupted production." Steelworkers v. Warrior & Gulf Navigation Co., 363 U. S. 574, 363 U. S. 582 (1960). T he essential tenet of our labor policy is that "a system of industrial self-government" based on consensual (albeit vigorously negotiated) labor contracts, see Steelworkers v. American Mfg. Co., supra, at 570 (BRENNAN, J., concurring), is preferable to "strikes, lockouts, or other self-help," Boys Markets, Inc. v. Retail Clerks, 398 U. S. 235, 398 U. S. 249 (1970).
When the Taft-Hartley amendments were enacted in 1947, the Nation had experienced a wave of labor unrest. [Footnote 2/3] Congress found that "the balance of power in collective bargaining" had been destroyed, because employers, who had promised to arbitrate disputes in exchange for no-strike promises, often failed to obtain the industrial peace for which they bargained. S.Rep. 14. [Footnote 2/4]
It is increasingly clear that the 1947 Taft-Hartley amendments did not provide employers with an effective remedy for wildcat strikes. The Court today holds, properly I think, that Congress intended to foreclose a damages remedy against individual wildcat strikers. The Court states, however, that Page 451 U. S. 420 there remain a number of legal weapons with which to deter or terminate illegal strikes, or to obtain compensation when they occur. Ante at 451 U. S. 416-417, n. 18. In support of its view, the Court contends that the employer may (1) obtain an injunction, (ii) discharge the strikers, (iii) request the union to use its internal disciplinary powers, or (iv) sue the union entity for damages. Ibid. In reality, more often than not, each of these remedies is illusory.
Injunctions in labor disputes are generally prohibited by the Norris-LaGuardia Act. [Footnote 2/5] In Boys Markets, Inc. v. Retail Clerks, supra, the Court recognized a limited exception to the anti-injunction provisions of that Act. Boys Markets permits injunctions to terminate strikes pending arbitration if the grievance underlying the strike is arbitrable. However, Boys Markets offers only "narrow" relief, 398 U.S. at 398 U. S. 253, because injunctions cannot be obtained in strikes of other kinds. E.g., Buffalo Forge Co. v. Steelworkers, 428 U. S. 397 (1976) (injunctions not available in sympathy strikes). Moreover, even when an injunction is available, workers on strike often are disinclined to obey it. [Footnote 2/6] Courts may be reluctant to impose contempt penalties on individual workers; if ordered, such penalties are difficult to enforce.
Nor is discharge a realistic remedy in most cases. Because a strike in breach of contract is unprotected conduct under the National Labor Relations Act, see NLRB v. Sands Mfg. Co., 306 U. S. 332 (1939), workers who strike illegally may be terminated. It therefore has been argued that discharge Page 451 U. S. 421 effectively deters strikes and punishes wrongdoers because discharge is "the industrial equivalent of capital punishment." M. Jay Whitman, Wildcat Strikes: The Union's Narrowing Path to Rectitude?, 50 Ind.L.J. 472, 481 (1975). There are at least three reasons why this remedy, in practice, often is not effective. First, in a large wildcat strike, wholesale discharges are not practical, because an employer cannot terminate all or most of his labor force without crippling production. See Boys Markets, supra, at 398 U. S. 248-249, n. 17. [Footnote 2/7] Second, certain kinds of selective discharges arguably are illegal. The National Labor Relations Board takes the position that an employer may not discipline a union officer more severely than other strike participants, even where the union officer failed to fulfill a contractual undertaking to help terminate strikes. [Footnote 2/8] In any event, discharging only selected strikers is unlikely to influence the rank and file to return to work. Such discharges actually may aggravate worker discontent, and thereby prolong the strike. Cedar Coal Co. v. United Mine Workers, 560 F.2d 1153, 1157 (CA4 1977), cert. denied, 434 U.S. 1047 (1978); see 86 Harv.L.Rev. 447, 454 Page 451 U. S. 422 n. 33 (1972). At a minimum, strikers may insist that their discharged colleagues be reinstated as a condition to returning to work. Fishman & Brown, Union Responsibility for Wildcat Strikes, 21 Wayne L.Rev. 1017, 1022 (1975). Third, arbitrators not infrequently refuse to sustain discharges of strikers. See Handsaker & Handsaker, Remedies and Penalties for Wildcat Strikes: How Arbitrators and Federal Courts Have Ruled, 22 Cath.U.L.Rev. 279, 284 (1973).
The union itself normally will not discipline its striking members. Most unions have the legal authority to take such action, see Summers, Legal Limitations on Union Discipline, 64 Harv.L.Rev. 1049, 1065 (1951), but the power seldom is used. In a wildcat strike, worker recalcitrance sometimes is directed at the incumbent union leadership as much as at company management. In these circumstances, the union's attempt to discipline is unlikely to be effective, and may be counterproductive. Moreover, under this Court's decision in Carbon Fuel Co. v. Mine Workers, 444 U. S. 212 (1979), a parent union normally is not obligated to take affirmative steps to prevent or terminate a wildcat strike. Absent such an obligation, there is little incentive for the union to intervene, even where intervention would be useful.
Finally, a suit for damages against the union entity rarely is feasible. [Footnote 2/9] Last Term, in Carbon Fuel, supra, we largely Page 451 U. S. 423 foreclosed this possibility when we held that liability normally may not be imposed on a parent union [Footnote 2/10] absent proof that it authorized or ratified the strike. [Footnote 2/11] It is a foolish union that would invite a damages suit by explicitly endorsing a strike in this manner. See n. 1, supra.
The Court plainly is unrealistic, therefore, when it suggests that employers have at their disposal a battery of alternative remedies for illegal strikes. Ante at 451 U. S. 416-17, n. 18. The result of the absence of remedies is a lawless vacuum. Despite a no-strike clause, a plant may be closed with adverse consequences that often are far-reaching. The strike injures the employer, other companies and their employees, and consumers in general. Frequently, the strike is harmful even to the majority of strikers, who feel obligated to honor the picket line of minority wildcatters.
It is, of course, the province of Congress to set the Nation's labor policy. I do not suggest that authorizing a damages remedy against individual wildcat strikers would be desirable. I do believe, however, that the absence of an effective Page 451 U. S. 424 remedy leaves such strikes undeterred, and the public interest unprotected. The National Labor Relations Act, as amended in 1947, was intended to further broader national interests than those of either labor or management. It was conceived not only as a charter for labor rights, but also as a framework of law to promote orderly labor relations. Wildcat strikes are at war with these objectives.
Strike encouragement sometimes is explicit, but more often is cryptic. A union may employ subtle signals to convey the message to strike. One court noted that unions sometimes employ "a nod or a wink or a code . . . in place of the word strike.'" United States v. UMW, 77 F.Supp. 563, 566 (DC 1948), aff'd, 85 U.S.App.D.C. 149, 177 F.2d 29, cert. denied, 338 U.S. 871 (1949).
Production disruptions have obvious short-term adverse consequences. And one commentator tans pointed out that the long-term consequences of these strikes may be even more severe. A strike rends the "closely integrated supply and distribution systems" that the company has developed. M. J. Whitman, Wildcat Strikes: The Unions' Narrowing Path to Rectitude?, 50 Ind.L.J. 472, 473 (1975). Such systems "presume predictability. A business with a reputation for labor problems, let alone wildcats, simply cannot provide its customers with that predictability," ibid., leading once-regular customers to seek other sources of supply.
Compare Old Ben Coal Corp. v. Local 187, UMW, 457 F.2d 162 (CA7 1972), with Old Ben Coal Corp. v. Local 187, UMW, 500 F.2d 950, 952 (CA7 1974). See Gould, On Labor Injunctions Pending Arbitration: Recasting Buffalo Forge, 30 Stan.L.Rev. 533, 541, and n. 47 (1978).
E.g., Miller Brewing Co., 254 N.L.R.B. 266 (1981); South Central Bell Telephone Co., 254 N.L.R.B. 315 (1981); Precision Casting Co., 233 N.L.R.B. 183 (1977). The Board's position is so clear that employers may be deterred from conducting selective discharges. This Court has not addressed the question, but some Courts of Appeals have not warmly received the Board's reasoning. See Gould, Inc. v. NLRB, 612 F.2d 728 (CA3) (denying enforcement to 237 N.L.R.B. 881 (1978)), cert. denied sub nom. Moran v. Gould Corp., 449 U.S. 890 (1980); Indiana & Mich. Electric Co. v. NLRB, 599 F.2d 227 (CA7 1979) (denying enforcement to 237 N.L.R.B. 226 (1978)); see also NLRB v. Armour-Dial, Inc., 638 F.2d 51, 54-56 (CA8 1981).
Sophisticated employers, for tactical reasons, may elect to forgo tenable post-strike suits for damages. As the Court points out, such suits may "exacerbate industrial strife," ante at 451 U. S. 416, n. 18, and thereby delay the dissipation of the acrimony engendered by the strike. Employers also may elect not to sue for damages because they do not want to subject themselves to the disclosure attendant to litigation. A damages suit
M. Jay Whitman, supra, n. 2, at 474 (footnote omitted). Finally, part of the price of settling the strike often is a promise that the company will waive its claim for damages. Ransdell v. International Assn. of Machinists, 97 LRRM 2738 (ED Wis.1978); Gould, On Labor Injunctions, Unions, and the Judges: The Boys Market Case, 1970 S.Ct.Rev. 215, 231.
Carbon Fuel did not consider the quantum of proof necessary to establish damages liability against a local union. Because of the local's proximity to workers, an inference of agency -- and hence, liability -- arguably may arise even without explicit proof of strike authorization or ratification. See § 301(e) of the Act, 29 U.S.C. § 185(e). The possibility that the local will be liable may be of little practical benefit, however, because the local often is judgment-proof.
Carbon Fuel recognized, of course, that an explicit contractual undertaking by the parent to intervene to terminate wildcats could be the basis for damages liability. See 444 U.S. at 444 U. S. 218-222.
App. 14-15. Despite this covenant, the respondents embarked on what is commonly called a "wildcat" strike; it is admitted that the local union "did not aid, assist or authorize the work stoppage or a tie-up of any equipment." Id. at 25.
Section 301(a) of the Labor Management Relations Act, 29 U.S.C. § 185(a), makes collective bargaining agreements enforceable in federal courts against both unions and employers. Page 451 U. S. 425 See H.R.Rep. No. 245, 80th Cong., 1st Sess., 46 (1947); S.Rep. No. 105, 80th Cong., 1st Sess., 15-16 (1947). Of course the union, acting on behalf of its members, may sue the employer for any breaches of the agreement, and the employer may sue the union for its breaches. This is no more than a corollary to the enforceability of the contract under § 301(a). Moreover, the Court has had no problem in the past in holding the parties responsible for a breach accountable for their conduct. An employee may sue the employer directly for breach of the agreement even though the employee is not technically a party to the agreement, Smith v. Evening News Assn., 371 U. S. 195 (1962), but the employer may not sue an individual worker for a union-sponsored breach, Atkinson v. Sinclair Refining Co., 370 U. S. 238 (1962) (applying Labor Management Relations Act § 301(b), 29 U.S.C. § 185(b)). Nor may the employer sue the union for members' breaches that the union has not condoned, Carbon Fuel Co. v. Mine Workers, 444 U. S. 212 (1979). [Footnote 3/1] This case presents the final unresolved situation: may individual union members be held accountable in a suit by the employer for a plain violation of the agreement committed without the approval of the union?
On the basis of literally centuries of the common law of contracts, one would have thought that the traditional notions of accountability for one's voluntary actions would govern. Instead, the Court holds that individual workers, acting without union approval, are a special, privileged class who may with impunity violate an agreement voluntarily reached in arm's-length bargaining. This result finds no support in the statute, it significantly undermines the usefulness and Page 451 U. S. 426 reliability of the collective bargaining process, and it will not advance the goals the Court claims for it.
29 U.S.C. § 185(b). On its face, this clause does no more than insulate union members from personal liability for union breaches of the contract; Congress intended this provision to give union members a protection analogous to that afforded stockholders in corporations against personal liability for corporate acts. S.Rep. No. 105, 80th Cong., 1st Sess., 16 (1947) ("members of the union would secure all the advantages of limited liability, without incorporation"). It is acknowledged that Congress added this provision to the Act to prevent a recurrence of the Danbury Hatters situation, see Lawlor v. Loewe, 235 U. S. 522 (1915); Loewe v. Lawlor, 208 U. S. 274 (1908), where the participants in a strike were held personally liable for the union's actions on the theory that the union, as an unincorporated association, could not be sued. Ante at 451 U. S. 406-407, and n. 6; Atkinson v. Sinclair Refining Co., supra, at 370 U. S. 248; 93 Cong.Rec. 5014 (1947)(remarks of Sen. Ball). But the language of § 301(b) says nothing about holding union members harmless when they, without the approval of their union individually breach the contract.
The special exemption in § 301(b) affords individual union members protection against individual liability for collective action; this simultaneously encourages group action through the union -- which is what unions are all about -- and prevents potentially large damages awards against individual workers. But when Congress changed the law regarding individual liability Page 451 U. S. 427 for union conduct, it did not even hint at changing the common law rule of contract law of individual liability for individual conduct, which does no more than articulate the basic idea of individual accountability essential to an organized society. [Footnote 3/2] When an individual, either personally or, as here, through an agent, voluntarily enters into a binding agreement, that individual is liable in damages for breach. A provision whose language governs -- and whose history indicates it was designed to govern -- only situations of individual liability for collective action should not be construed to wipe out core principles of personal accountability for individual actions.
Curiously, the Court, ante at 451 U. S. 416, n. 18, and the respondents suggest that this anomaly will promote more harmonious relations between employers and striking workers by preventing a long and drawn-out fight in the courts. This argument is wholly specious, and it is contradicted by the views Congress expressed when it adopted § 301. Congress fully recognized that agreements, if breachable with impunity, "do not tend to stabilize industrial relations. The execution of an agreement does not, by itself, promote industrial peace." S.Rep. No. 105, 80th Cong., 1st Sess., 16 (1947). If workers can "have their cake and eat it too" by holding the employer liable for its breaches but receiving immunity for their own, employers will be less likely to enter into mutually satisfactory collective bargaining agreements in the first place. Page 451 U. S. 428
Ibid. Indeed, the Court's logic would insulate unions from suit as well: an action against the union for a strike it had sponsored, but that since has ended, similarly tends to "reopen old wounds." Moreover, I have difficulty seriously entertaining an argument that the employer is responsible for jeopardizing industrial harmony by seeking damages for injuries it has sustained when it was the unlawfully striking employees themselves who broke the peace in the first place. One must resist the temptation to recall the youth who, having deliberately murdered both parents, pleads for the court's mercy as an orphan.
The respondents believe -- and the Court accepts, ante at 451 U. S. 416, n. 18 -- that the threat of discharge by the employer or discipline by the union is sufficient to ensure that collective bargaining agreements generally will be followed by the union and its members. [Footnote 3/3] These measures, however, are no answer; they may be too little, [Footnote 3/4] and they surely come too late, after the employer has suffered substantial losses to its business due to a strike that, under the contract, never should have occurred. In theory, the employer might mitigate damages by hiring substitute workers, but this assumes qualified workers Page 451 U. S. 429 could be found who would be willing to cross even a "wildcat" picket line.
It seems to me that, by now, the American labor movement has matured sufficiently so that neither unions nor their members need this kind of artificial, excessively paternalistic protection for admittedly illegal acts -- a protection contrary to fundamental, centuries-old concepts of individual accountability. The stability of unions and the harmony of industrial relations will be enhanced, not impaired, by applying to union members the same standards of accountability that govern all other individuals in society. [Footnote 3/5]
The Court cites various comments by Members of Congress regarding immunity for union members when they act with union approval. Those remarks do not address the issue before us -- individual liability for individual conduct undertaken without union involvement. The nearest the Court comes to finding support on that question is a remark by Senator Taft, made during debate on a predecessor bill subsequently vetoed by the President, that employers may fire "wildcat" strikers. Ante at 451 U. S. 409. Even Senator Taft's statement does not directly touch on individual liability for individual action, and, ironically, the Court's use of it follows on the heels of the Court's own admonition to avoid "suggest[ions] by negative implication." Ante at 451 U. S. 407.
The Court also mentions the employer's suit against the union itself when the union is responsible. Obviously, that remedy is wholly irrelevant to this case. See supra at 451 U. S. 425.
JUSTICE POWELL, in his separate opinion, thoroughly analyzes the inadequacy of these measures. The union's impotence is demonstrated by its failure to control its members in the first place. In addition, union officers in some instances may reject discipline in the hope of appeasing "wildcat" members and bringing them back under union control. As JUSTICE BRENNAN, writing for the Court in NLRB v. Allis-Chalmers Manufacturing Co., 388 U. S. 175, 388 U. S. 183 (1967), aptly noted:
United States v. Park, 421 U. S. 658 (1975), in which the chief executive officer of a supermarket chain was held criminally liable for permitting food to be left in insanitary conditions after notice of those conditions.