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Timestamp: 2020-01-21 08:54:22
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Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 108', '§ 301', '§ 301', '§ 301', '§ 4', '§ 104']

US Supreme Court Decisions On-Line> Volume 398 > BOYS MARKETS, INC. V. RETAIL CLERKS UNION, 398 U. S. 235 (1970)
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(c) Arbitration is an important instrument of federal policy for resolving labor disputes, and a refusal to arbitrate is not an chanrobles.com-red
416 F.2d 368, reversed and remanded. chanrobles.com-red
In this case, we reexamine the holding of Sinclair Refining Co. v. Atkinson, 370 U. S. 195 (1962), that the anti-injunction provisions of the Norris-LaGuardia Act [Footnote 1] preclude a federal district court from enjoining a strike in breach of a no-strike obligation under a collective chanrobles.com-red
In February, 1969, at the time of the incidents that produced this litigation, petitioner and respondent were parties to a collective bargaining agreement which provided, inter alia, that all controversies concerning its interpretation or application should be resolved by adjustment and arbitration procedures set forth therein [Footnote 3] and that, during the life of the contract, there should chanrobles.com-red
The following day, since the strike had not been terminated, petitioner filed a complaint in California chanrobles.com-red
We do not agree that the doctrine of stare decisis bars a reexamination of Sinclair in the circumstances of this case. We fully recognize that important policy considerations militate in favor of continuity and predictability in the law. Nevertheless, as Mr. Justice Frankfurter chanrobles.com-red
Nor can we agree that conclusive weight should be accorded to the failure of Congress to respond to Sinclair on the theory that congressional silence should be interpreted as acceptance of the decision. The Court has cautioned that "[i]t is, at best, treacherous to find in congressional silence alone the adoption of a controlling rule of law." Girouard v. United States, 328 U. S. 61, 328 U. S. 69 chanrobles.com-red
353 U.S. at 353 U. S. 456, and, more specifically, that a union can obtain specific performance of an employer's promise to arbitrate grievances. We rejected the contention that the anti-injunction proscriptions of the Norris-LaGuardia Act prohibited this type of relief, noting that a refusal to arbitrate was not "part and parcel of the abuses against which the Act was aimed," id. at 353 U. S. 458, and that the Act itself manifests a policy determination that arbitration should be encouraged. See 29 U.S.C. § 108. [Footnote 8] Subsequently, in the Steelworkers chanrobles.com-red
Shortly after the decision in Dowd Box, we sustained, in Teamsters Local 174 v. Lucas Flour Co., 369 U. S. 95 (1962), an award of damages by a state court to an employer for a breach by the union of a no-strike provision in its contract. While emphasizing that, "in enacting § 301, Congress intended doctrines of federal labor law uniformly to prevail over inconsistent local rules," id. at 369 U. S. 104, we did not consider the applicability of the Norris-LaGuardia Act to state court proceedings because the employer's prayer for relief sought only chanrobles.com-red
The decision in Avco, viewed in the context of Lincoln Mills and its progeny, has produced an anomalous situation which, in our view, makes urgent the reconsideration of Sinclair. The principal practical effect of Avco and Sinclair, taken together, is nothing less than to oust state courts of jurisdiction in § 301(a) suits where injunctive chanrobles.com-red
On the other hand, to the extent that widely disparate remedies theoretically remain available in state, as opposed to federal, courts, the federal policy of labor law chanrobles.com-red
uniformity elaborated in Lucas Flour Co., is seriously offended. This policy, of course, could hardly require, as a practical matter, that labor law be administered identically in all courts, for undoubtedly a certain diversity exists among the state and federal systems in matters of procedural and remedial detail, a fact that Congress evidently took into account in deciding not to disturb the traditional jurisdiction of the States. The injunction, however, is so important a remedial device, particularly in the arbitration context, that its availability or nonavailability in various courts will not only produce rampant forum shopping and maneuvering from one court to another, but will also greatly frustrate any relative uniformity in the enforcement of arbitration agreements. Furthermore, the existing scheme, with the injunction remedy technically available in the state courts but rendered inefficacious by the removal device, assigns to removal proceedings a totally unintended function. While the underlying purposes of Congress in providing for federal question removal jurisdiction remain somewhat obscure, [Footnote 13] there has never been a serious contention that Congress intended that the removal mechanism be utilized to foreclose completely remedies otherwise available in the state courts. Although federal question removal jurisdiction may well have been intended to provide a forum for the protection of federal rights where such protection was deemed necessary or to encourage the development of expertise by the federal courts in the chanrobles.com-red
An additional reason for not resolving the existing dilemma by extending Sinclair to the States is the devastating implications for the enforceability of arbitration agreements and their accompanying no-strike obligations if equitable remedies were not available. [Footnote 15] As we have chanrobles.com-red
previously indicated, a no-strike obligation, express or implied, is the quid pro quo for an undertaking by the employer to submit grievance disputes to the process of arbitration. See Textile Workers Union v. Lincoln Mills, supra, at 353 U. S. 455. [Footnote 16] Any incentive for employers to enter into such an arrangement is necessarily dissipated if the principal and most expeditious method by which the no-strike obligation can be enforced is eliminated. While it is, of course, true, as respondent contends, that other avenues of redress, such as an action for damages, would remain open to an aggrieved employer, an award of damages after a dispute has been settled is no substitute for an immediate halt to an illegal strike. Furthermore, an action for damages prosecuted during or after a labor dispute would only tend to aggravate industrial strife and delay an early resolution of the difficulties between employer and union. [Footnote 17] chanrobles.com-red
We have also determined that the dissenting opinion in Sinclair states the correct principles concerning the accommodation necessary between the seemingly absolute terms of the Norris-LaGuardia Act and the policy considerations underlying § 301(a). [Footnote 18] 370 U.S. at 370 U. S. 215. chanrobles.com-red
The Norris-LaGuardia Act was responsive to a situation totally different from that which exists today. In the early part of this century, the federal courts generally were regarded as allies of management in its attempt to prevent the organization and strengthening of labor unions, and, in this industrial struggle, the injunction became a potent weapon that was wielded against the activities of labor groups. [Footnote 19] The result was a large number of sweeping decrees, often issued ex parte, drawn on an ad hoc basis without regard to any systematic elaboration of national labor policy. See Drivers' Union v. Lake Valley Co., 311 U. S. 91, 311 U. S. 102 (1940). chanrobles.com-red
A leading example of this accommodation process is Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen v. Chicago River & Ind. R. Co., 353 U. S. 30 (1957). There, we were confronted with a peaceful strike which violated the statutory duty to arbitrate imposed by the Railway Labor Act. The Court concluded that a strike in violation of a statutory arbitration duty was not the type of situation chanrobles.com-red
The Sinclair decision, however, seriously undermined the effectiveness of the arbitration technique as a method peacefully to resolve industrial disputes without resort to strikes, lockouts, and similar devices. Clearly, employers will be wary of assuming obligations to arbitrate specifically enforceable against them when no similarly efficacious remedy is available to enforce the concomitant undertaking of the union to refrain from striking. On the other hand, the central purpose of the Norris-LaGuardia Act to foster the growth and viability of labor organizations is hardly retarded -- if anything, this goal is advanced -- by a remedial device that merely enforces the obligation that the union freely undertook under chanrobles.com-red
Our holding in the present case is a narrow one. We do not undermine the vitality of the Norris-LaGuardia Act. We deal only with the situation in which a collective bargaining contract contains a mandatory grievance adjustment or arbitration procedure. Nor does it follow from what we have said that injunctive relief is appropriate chanrobles.com-red
In the present case, there is no dispute that the grievance in question was subject to adjustment and arbitration under the collective bargaining agreement, and that the petitioner was ready to proceed with arbitration at the time an injunction against the strike was sought and obtained. The District Court also concluded that, by reason of respondent's violations of its no-strike obligation, petitioner "has suffered irreparable injury and will continue to suffer irreparable injury." Since we now chanrobles.com-red
Congress, in 1932, enacted the Norris-LaGuardia Act, § 4 of which, 29 U.S.C. § 104, with exceptions not here relevant, specifically prohibited federal courts in the broadest and most comprehensive language from chanrobles.com-red
Even if the majority were correct, however, in saying that Sinclair misinterpreted the Taft-Hartley and Norris-LaGuardia Acts, I should be compelled to dissent. I believe that both the making and the changing of laws which affect the substantial rights of the people are primarily for Congress, not this Court. Most especially is this so when the laws involved are the focus of strongly held views of powerful but antagonistic political and economic interests. The Court's function in the application and interpretation of such laws must be carefully limited to avoid encroaching on the power of chanrobles.com-red
When this Court is interpreting a statute, however, an additional factor must be weighed in the balance. It is the deference that this Court owes to the primary responsibility of the legislature in the making of laws. Of course, when this Court first interprets a statute, then the statute becomes what this Court has said it is. See Gulf, C. & S. F. R. Co. v. Moser, 275 U. S. 133, 275 U. S. 136 (1927). Such an initial interpretation is proper, and unavoidable, in any system in which courts have the task of applying general statutes in a multitude of situations. B. Cardozo, The Nature of the Judicial Process 112-115 (1921). The Court undertakes the task of interpretation, however, not because the Court has any special ability to fathom the intent of Congress, but rather because interpretation is unavoidable in the decision of the case before it. When the law has been settled by an earlier case, then any subsequent "reinterpretation" of the statute is gratuitous, and neither more nor less than chanrobles.com-red
I do not believe that the principle of stare decisis forecloses all reconsiderations of earlier decisions. In the area of constitutional law, for example, where the only alternative to action by this Court is the laborious process of constitutional amendment and where the ultimate responsibility rests with this Court, I believe reconsideration is always proper. See James v. United States, 366 U. S. 213, 366 U. S. 233-234 (1961) (separate opinion chanrobles.com-red
of BLACK, J.). 398 U. S. 70 (1946). And, although bills have been introduced, cf. Helvering v. Hallock, 309 U. S. 106, 309 U. S. 119-120 (1940), Congress has declined the invitation to act.
The Court contends, however, that the result of the two cases, taken together, is the "anomalous situation" that no-strike clauses become unenforceable in state courts, and this is inconsistent with "an important goal of our national labor policy." chanrobles.com-red