Court Opinion

ID: 9794808
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 03:12:06.391718+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T08:20:41.740044
License: Public Domain

Fatzer, J.,
concurring: I am in accord with the majority opinion that the judgment of the district court must be affirmed, particularly that portion dealing with plaintiff’s second jurisdictional contention based on the holdings in Meat Cutters v. Fairlawn Meats, 353 U. S. 20, 1 L. Ed. 2d 613, 77 S. Ct. 604; San Diego Unions v. Garmon, 353 U. S. 26, 1 L. Ed. 2d 618, 77 S. Ct. 607, and Electrical Workers Local Union v. Farnsworth & Chambers Co., 353 U. S. 969, 1 L. Ed. 2d 1133, 77 S. Ct. 1056, and more particularly Fairlawn and Farnsworth. We are bound by those decisions and are required to apply their holding to the facts of the instant case. However, I believe more extensive comment should be made with respect to § 14 (b) than that contained in the majority opinion; hence, this concurring opinion.
In my judgment the Supreme Court failed in Fairlawn and Farnsworth to give due consideration to the express provisions of § 14 (b), since that statute was not mentioned or referred to in those opinions, and, as a result, the court has unduly construed Taft-Hartley in favor of a policy of requiring total uniformity of administration of that act by the federal board, contrary to the express intention of Congress.
To demonstrate my point of view, a brief résumé of those decisions is in order. Fairlawn reversed the Supreme Court of Ohio (164 Ohio St. 285, 130 N. E. 2d 237) holding that conduct of a labor organization not representing a majority of his employees, to compel an employer to enter into a union shop contract, is conduct of which Taft-Hartley takes hold, and that “Garner v. Teamsters Union, supra, teaches that in such circumstances a state cannot afford a remedy parallel to that provided by the act.” Garmon reversed the Supreme Court of California (45 Cal. 2d 657, 291 P. 2d 1) against the claim that conduct of a labor organization directed toward the same objective as that in Fairlawn, violated § 8 (a) (3) *792of Taft-Hartley and was, therefore, not privileged in the state of California. The claim of state jurisdiction in that case did not involve, as does the instant case, state laws regulating union security agreements. The Supreme Court held that what was said in Fair-lawn was applicable and controlled Garmon in its major aspects. The decision appears to be correct since the employer relied upon violation of § 8 (a) (3) (29 U. S. C. A. §158.[a] [3]) regulating union shop agreements and not upon a remedy under §14 (b). Farnsworth reversed the Supreme Court of Tennessee (_Tenn. _, 299 S. W. 2d 8) in a per curiam opinion citing only Garner v. Teamsters Union, 346 U. S. 485, 98 L. Ed. 228„ 74 S. Ct. 161 and Weber v. Anheuser-Busch, Inc., 348 U. S. 468, 99 L. Ed. 546, 75 S. Ct. 480, where the claim was made by an interstate employer that peaceful picketing either prohibited or protected by Taft-Hartley, was in violation of the state’s right-to-work statute (25 Law Week, 3309 “Labor”), and hence, subject to state jurisdiction. The reversal apparently means that conduct directed toward the ultimate purpose of securing a union shop agreement violative of state law is subject to no remedy under § 14 (b).
It is toward those decisions and the application of the policy of total uniformity that I direct these remarks. In doing so I do not wish to be intransigent, nor participate in any popular hue and cry against a course of settled decisions, nor give any comfort to the fallacy of interposition; I agreeably accept decisions of the Supreme Court manifesting an obvious purpose of securing uniformity in the administration of national labor relations, but I should prefer to understand the rationale of the Supreme Court’s limitation of § 14 (b). Without this understanding, it is a burdensome task thrust upon a judge of a state court by the supremacy clause to apply the laws of the United States in matters relating to the adjustment of federal-state relations. Perhaps this misunderstanding arises from the Supreme Court’s failure to apply the principle, paraphrased from Mr. Justice Frankfurter, that Congress needs no help from generous judicial implications to achieve the supersession of state authority because it can speak with drastic clarity whenever it chooses to assure full federal authority and completely displace state power. Section 14 (b) reads:
“Nothing in this subchapter shall be construed as authorizing the .execution or application of agreements requiring membership in a labor organization as a condition of employment in any State or Territory in which such execution of application is prohibited by State or Territorial law.” (Emphasis supplied.)
*793It is clear to me the evident purpose of that statute was to permit the states to prohibit or regulate the execution or application of union security agreements and to immunize against federal jurisdiction in that area of national labor relations, except as provided by § 8 (a) (3) (29 U. S. C. A. § 158 [a] [3]) hereafter referred to. The express provisions of § 14 (b) negate the assertion that this power was not fully returned to the states by Taft-Hartley. Indeed, the congressional declaration that “Nothing in this subchapter shall be construed” to authorize the “execution or application” of union security agreements prohibited by state law, precludes any other interpretation. This is the obvious inference to be drawn from the language of that section, and the legislative history confirms that construction (93 Cong Rec 6383, -84, 6446; HR Cong Rep No. 510, 80th Cong 1st Sess p. 60; HR Rep No. 245, 80th Cong 1st Sess p. 44). The following is from the Conference Committee Report of the House and Senate, supra:
“Under the House bill there was included a new section 13 of the National Labor Relations Act to assure that nothing in the act was to he construed as authorizing any closed shop, union shop, maintenance of membership, or other form of compulsory unionism agreement in any State where the execution of such agreement would he contrary to State law. . . . The conference agreement, in section 14 (b), contains a provision having the same effect.” (Emphasis supplied.)
In Algoma Plywood Co. v. Wis. Board, 336 U. S. 301, 93 L. Ed. 691, 69 S. Ct. 584, cited by plaintiff, the Supreme Court held that where a state law is more restrictive than Taft-Hartley with respect to union security agreements, a state may, under § 14 (b), assume jurisdiction of a controversy affecting interstate commerce and enforce its policies without a cession agreement with the National Labor Relations Board under §10 (a) (29 U. S. C. A. §160 [a]). That case had to do with the “application” of a union security agreement in violation of a Wisconsin statute making it an unfair labor practice for an employer to enter into a union security agreement unless at least two-thirds of the employees to be affected voted affirmatively by secret ballot. An election was not held in the employer’s plant. Unlike the instant case, conduct definable as an unfair labor practice by § 8 (29 U. S. C. A. § 158) was not involved since the union security agreement was in effect when that controversy arose. But in concluding that the agreement was unenforceable, the court said:
“. . . the express disclaimer in § 8 (3) of the National Labor Relations *794Act (the Wagner Act) of intention to interfere with State law and the permission granted the States by § 14 (b) of the Taft-Hartley Act to carry out policies inconsistent with the Taft-Hartley Act itself, would be practically meaningless if so easily avoided. For these provisions can have application, obviously, only where State and federal power are concurrent; it would have been futile to disclaim the assertion of federal policy over areas which the commerce power does not reach.”
Union security agreements are regulated by §8 (a) (3) (29 U. S. C. A. § 158 [a] [3] of Taft-Hartley. That section prohibits the closed shop and prescribes conditions under which a union shop may be entered, and, as stated in Algoma, supra, “§ 14 (b), 29 U. S. C. A. § 164 (b), 9 FCA title 29, § 164(b) was included to forestall the inference that federal policy was to be exclusive.” As I interpret that decision, state power to prohibit union security agreements includes power to regulate their execution or application. Writers on this subject assert that 14 (b) permits state regulation of union security agreements, including their total prohibition, notwithstanding that they affect interstate commerce and that the factual plexus involves federal power under § 8 (a) (3). In 1 Wayne Law Review, p. 167, it was said:
“Although the LMRA does not prohibit all fonns of union security, Section 14 (b) provides that more stringent state provisions shall be controlling even in interstate commerce. Section 14 (b) reads: (Section set forth.)
“The United States Supreme Court has ruled that where the state law is more restrictive than the LMRA, the state labor relations agency can take cases affecting interstate commerce without making a cession agreement with the National Labor Relations Board. Section 10 (a) of the LMRA requires such agreements before states may assume jurisdiction in industries affecting interstate commerce.
“Repeal of Section 14 (b) would prevent the application of state Right-to-Work acts (also, such regulatory laws as G. S. 1955 Supp. 44-802 [5], 44-809 [4]) to interstate commerce and greatly reduce the effectiveness of the state laws. This is why much union effort to eliminate these laws or to limit their effectiveness is concentrated at the federal level. In its resolution of opposition to these acts, the 1954 American Federation of Labor convention, for example, created machinery to induce Congress to repeal Section 14 (b). The CIO, for the same reason, devoted a portion of its recent study on these laws to Section 14 (b) and to reasons for its appeal.”
In the area of union security agreements, state and federal power is concurrent, but §14 (b) permits state power to extend beyond § 8 (a) (3), or to restate the assertion, it immunizes against federal jurisdiction beyond the frontier of § 8 (a) (3), and a state has a free rein to adopt its own more restrictive policies in union security *795agreements including their total prohibition. When having done so, "Nothing in this subchapter shall be construed’ to authorize the execution or application of such agreements in violation of state law.
Implicit in § 14 (b) is the implication that all proper and necessary means to effectuate its purpose accompany the express power granted. The power of a state to prohibit or regulate the execution or application of union security agreements includes, therefore, the power to prevent their execution or application in violation of state law, notwithstanding that in all other matters, national labor relations are within federal jurisdiction. It is an unwarranted conclusion, denying the effect of § 14 (b), which permits the states to regulate or prohibit on the one hand, and denies enforcement of such regulations or prohibitions on the other. Nor is it necessary that cession be made under §10 (a) to grant jurisdiction to the states for this purpose.
In Guss v. Utah Labor Board, 353 U. S. 1, 1 L. Ed. 2d 601, 77 S. Ct. 598, it was said:
“. . . the proviso to § 10 (a) is the exclusive means whereby States may be enabled to act concerning the matters which Congress has entrusted to the National Labor Relations Board. . . .”
Whether the power of a state to adopt union security regulations is considered as a direct grant from Congress, or whether it be said that state power is immunized by § 14 (b) against federal jurisdiction, the result is the same, and state power, in either event, finds its source in Taft-Hartley in § 14 (b). In this area the state acts under the auspices of federal power, and not, as in Weber v. Anheuser-Busch, Inc., 348 U. S. 468, 99 L. Ed. 546, 75 S. Ct. 480 and in Garner, supra, by attempting to pit state jurisdiction against federal pre-empted jurisdiction. In this area a cession agreement becomes unnecessary since the federal board had nothing to grant. It is conceded that if jurisdiction is ceded by the federal board to state agencies, state laws dealing with labor relations may then be applied. No valid distinction may be made between jurisdiction granted to the states under § 14 (b) and that ceded a state agency by the federal board under the proviso of § 10 (a) — the result is the same. The source of jurisdiction in both instances stems from Congress through Taft-Hartley; one is given directly by § 14 (b) and the other indirectly by the federal board. Indeed, the immunization against federal jurisdiction by § 14 (b) requiring no implementation, should be given more status, if distinction be made.
*796Defendants assert that because their conduct is definable as an unfair labor practice by § 8, it is remedial only by the federal board. Although that board is granted plenary jurisdiction over unfair labor practices (§10 [a]), defendants’ contention overlooks the fact that conduct, which might otherwise be defined as an unfair labor practice by § 8, is immunized against federal jurisdiction by § 14 (b). Congress has provided that state jurisdiction shall not cease at the threshold of conduct definable as an unfair labor practice. Sec. 14 (b) grants to the states power to regulate the “execution or application” of union security agreements, or, if the terminology is preferred, it immunizes against federal jurisdiction in that area; but however characterized, it is more plenary in its field of operation than power granted the federal board by § 10 (a), since § 14 (b) provides that “Nothing in this subchapter shall be construed” to authorize the execution or application of union security agreements in violation of state law. Indeed, when § 14 (b) is paraphrased it provides that “Nothing contained in §10 (a)” or “Nothing contained in § 8,” defining unfair labor practices, shall be construed, etc. Nullification of § 14 (b) results if § 8 is permitted to control its application with respect to conduct directed ultimately toward the execution of union security agreements in violation of state law. This conclusion necessarily follows since, as a practical matter, conduct surrounding the “execution” of an illegal union security agreement is, in the main, conduct otherwise definable as an “unfair labor practice,” “affecting commerce” within the extensive scope of those terms. Furthermore, the assertion that state power does not extend to prohibit conduct surrounding an attempt to procure an illegal union security agreement denies credence to the language of § 14 (b), and is contrary to its express purpose. (See Legislative history, supra.) To limit the construction of the term “execution” as used in that section merely to the flourishing of a pen in the signing of a union security agreement procured by illegal conduct is unwarranted, since, in my judgment, coercive conduct directed toward the ultimate purpose of compelling an employer to execute a union security agreement in violation of state law, is conduct over which § 14 (b) empowers states to control, or, if the term is otherwise preferred, immunizes against federal jurisdiction. To require the states to await the perpetration of a union security agreement in violation of their laws and to deny to them power to prevent con*797duct surrounding that perpetration, defeats the express and deliberate intent of Congress to confer state jurisdiction.
I would not follow the false trail leading to the conclusion that § 8 with § 10 (a) is contradictory to § 14 (b), so that one must yield to the other. It is a cardinal rule of construction that all statutes are to be construed so as to sustain them and give them a field of operation rather than ignore or defeat them, if the language will permit, instead of treating them as meaningless. (2 Lewis’ Sutherland on Statutory Construction, § 498). It is evident that neither statute is meaningless, nor were they so intended by Congress. Each has been given a field of operation; §§ 8 and 10 (a) prevent unfair labor practices affecting commerce except as § 14 (b) withdraws federal jurisdiction over conduct directed toward the ultimate purpose of securing an illegal all-union agreement, which conduct § 14(b) permits the states through their courts to enjoin when carried on in violation of state laws. It is unreasonable to assume that Congress, having immunized again the exclusive jurisdiction of §§ 8 and 10 (a), i. e., “Nothing in this subchapter shall be construed,” would contemplate that the remedy authorized by § 14(b) should be construed to a nullity. (State of Maryland v. United States, 165 F. 2d 869, 872, 873; Sutherland, Statutory Construction, Vol. 3, § 5402, pp. 19, 20.)
Under Fairlawn, Garmon and Farnsworth, supra, the Supreme Court apparently permits the federal board to follow the illegal conduct into the area immunized against federal jurisdiction, lay hold of it, and bring it before the federal board for adjustment and prevention. The effect of this is to preclude state power from operating to its legitimate end — empowering it to regulate union security agreements, but denying enforcement of its regulations. The federal board is not concerned with the texture of a state law nor with its enforcement; thus, the use of § 8 to withdraw from state power the enforcement of those regulatory measures with respect to the illegal execution of union security agreements, permits the execution of such agreements in violation of state law, particularly so in those instances where jurisdiction is declined by the federal board. The result is to leave the injured party remediless. The unrestrained conduct is permitted to achieve its illegal end, i. e., the execution of a union security agreement in violation of state law.
I am aware that the foregoing construction of Taft-Hartley would *798vest in state agencies and state courts a measureable authority; but I believe it consistent with the express language of Taft-Hartley that § 14 (b) was a deliberate concession to the states to share the burden of the amicable adjustment of labor relations which is equally the concern of the states as well as the federal government. (See reference to Legislative history.) Although some courts may erroneously characterize conduct as directed toward the ultimate purpose of securing an illegal union security agreement, thus empowering them to lay hold of the conduct, I believe the following language of the Supreme Court in Clothing Workers v. Richmond Bros., 348 U. S. 511, 99 L. Ed. 600, 75 S. Ct. 452, 457, is apropos:
“We cannot assume that this confidence (in state courts) has been misplaced. Neither the course of this case, nor the history of state court actions Since the decision in Garner v. Teamsters Union, 346 U. S. 485, demonstrates recalcitrance on the part of state courts to recognize the rather subtle line of demarcation between exclusive federal and allowable state jurisdiction over labor problems.”
This expression of confidence in state courts is justified. The Supreme Court would be no more flooded with litigation to correct contended willful misapplications of the ultimate purpose doctrine, as here stated, than it would be under the rule of Teamsters Union v. Vogt, Inc., 354 U. S. 284, 1 L. Ed. 2d 1347, 77 S. Ct. 1166, which permits the enjoining of peaceful picketing in a given situation under the “substantial purpose” doctrine as there announced.
I conclude these remarks with the statement that, under the rule announced in Fairlawn, Garmon and Farnsworth, labor organizations, employees and employers are required to wander in the semidarkness of federal jurisdiction barring state power, not by federal action, but by federal inaction. The light of state jurisdiction, illuminated by § 14 (b), has been dimmed and states may no longer look to that section as a federal authorization to enjoin conduct directed toward the execution of union security agreements in violation of their laws, which conduct is definable as an unfair labor practice under § 8. It is in the semidarkness of these precedents that I affirm the judgment of the district court.
Wertz, J., concurs in the foregoing concurring opinion.