Source: https://www.chanrobles.com/usa/us_supremecourt/369/17/case.php
Timestamp: 2020-06-02 09:19:21
Document Index: 279342857

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 301', '§ 301', '§ 301', '§ 301', '§ 301', '§ 301']

US Supreme Court Decisions On-Line> Volume 369 > RETAIL CLERKS V. LION DRY GOODS, INC., 369 U. S. 17 (1962)
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286 F.2d 235 reversed. chanrobles.com-red
286 F.2d 235. We granted certiorari because of the importance of the questions to the enforcement chanrobles.com-red
The petitioners, local unions of the Retail Clerks International Association, brought this action on the sole jurisdictional basis of § 301(a) and (b), seeking to compel respondents' compliance with two allegedly binding arbitration awards. Respondents are two department stores in Toledo, Ohio, covered by the Labor Management Relations Act. For some years prior to 1957, petitioners had been the collective bargaining representatives of respondents' employees, and had been parties to collective bargaining agreements with respondents. In November, 1957, negotiations for renewal contracts ended in impasse. A strike ensued against one of the respondents, Lasalle's, and continued until December 24, 1958; the dispute with the other respondent, Lion Dry Goods, continued during the whole of those 13 months, although no strike occurred. On December 24, 1958, the parties ended their dispute with the aid of the Toledo Labor-Management-Citizens' Committee (hereinafter, LMC), a local mediation and arbitration body. [Footnote 3] Negotiations chanrobles.com-red
The Statement contained such key points of settlement as the unions' acknowledgement that they were not then chanrobles.com-red
entitled to recognition as exclusive representatives, and would not seek such recognition unless and until certified as so entitled in single store unit elections conducted by the National Labor Relations Board, and Lasalle's agreement chanrobles.com-red
A few days later, the Locals wrote the LMC that "we herewith agree to the conditions and guarantees of the Statement of Understanding." The conditions to be performed by each side were performed, and the dispute was terminated. In a few months, however, new grievances arose, including the two that generated this case. First. The unions claimed under the Statement the right of access to the employees' cafeteria in order to communicate with employees during their non-working time. The stores claimed that Statement ¦ 6 gave no right of access to the employees' cafeterias, for those are not "areas of the store which are open to customers." [Footnote 5] Second. Two Lasalle's employees, salesladies in the men's furnishings department, had been fully reinstated except that the saleslady formerly assigned to sell men's shirts was assigned to sell men's sweaters, and the other saleslady, who had been selling sweaters, now was assigned to sell shirts. The Locals submitted these matters to the LMC under the procedure of Statement ¦ 7; the stores and the Locals participated fully in the ensuing arbitration proceedings; and the award went to the Locals on both grievances. The stores' refusal to accede to those awards prompted this suit.
The District Court viewed as crucial the question whether the Statement given by the stores to the LMC and then concurred in by the Locals, constituted "such a contract as is contemplated by Section 301(a)." 179 F.Supp. at 567. Although the opinion is somewhat ambiguous, we read it as holding that there was a contract between the Locals and the stores, but that only certain kinds of contracts are within the purview of § 301(a) and chanrobles.com-red
this was not one of them. [Footnote 6] We interpret the District Court as holding that, to be within § 301(a), contracts must be "collective bargaining contracts, or agreements arrived at through collective bargaining," ibid.; and further, chanrobles.com-red
Whatever the proper construction of that Section, insofar as it reflects upon chanrobles.com-red
§ 301(a) at all, it supports the inference that "contracts" does include more than "collective bargaining agreements," at least as respondents would define them. Second. If "contracts," the subsequent words "or between any such labor organizations" are superfluous, for if there is a collective bargaining agreement between unions, it follows that, as to that agreement, one union is the employer and the other represents employees. See Office Employes Intern. Union v. Labor Board, 353 U. S. 313. Congress was not indulging in surplusage: a federal forum was provided for actions on other labor contracts besides collective bargaining contracts. See, e.g., United Textile Workers v. Textile Workers Union, 258 F.2d 743 (no-raiding agreement). But, it is urged, though Congress meant that labor organizations could sue one another in federal courts on other contracts between themselves, suits between employers and unions were still limited to actions on collective bargaining contracts: the provision for suits between labor organizations was inserted in Conference. [Footnote 9] Differing House and Senate bills were reconciled in Conference. The House bill spoke of suits involving a violation of "an agreement between an employer and a labor organization or other representative of employees. . . ." The Senate bill read "contracts concluded as the result of collective bargaining between an employer and a labor organization. . . ." [Footnote 10] It is urged that the Conference compromise upon the word "contracts" reflects a desire to use one word to cover both suits between employers and unions, and suits between unions. But it seems obvious that, had Congress intended any limiting differentiation, this would have been accomplished by retaining the Senate bill's phrasing for agreements between employers and chanrobles.com-red
Lastly, legislative history refutes the argument that Congress intended to omit agreements of the kind in suit from "contracts" falling within the purview of § 301(a). [Footnote 12] chanrobles.com-red
Only a few words are necessary to dispose of respondents' second contention, that, even if this agreement were otherwise within § 301(a), petitioners' disclaimer of entitlement of recognition as exclusive representatives puts them out of court. This issue does not touch upon whether minority unions may demand that employers enter into particular kinds of contracts or the circumstances under which employers may accord recognition to chanrobles.com-red