Court Opinion

ID: 9430960
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:31:00.765642+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:16:07.644048
License: Public Domain

Justice White,
with whom The Chief Justice and Justice O’Connor join, dissenting.
The majority has once again substituted its judgment for a fair and reasonable interpretation by the National Labor Relations Board of § 8(b)(1)(B), and I, once again, respectfully dissent. See Florida Power & Light Co. v. Electrical Workers, 417 U. S. 790, 813 (1974) (White, J., dissenting).
*599The Board concluded that a union violates § 8(b)(1)(B) when it disciplines a member, who serves as an employer representative,1 for working for an employer which does not have a collective-bargaining agreement with the union. The purpose of such discipline is to force the member to leave his or her job and its effect is to deprive the employer of the services of the representative which it has selected. International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 340 (Royal Electric Co.), 271 N. L. R. B. 995, 1000 (1984). The Board’s interpretation of § 8(b)(1)(B) is longstanding. New Mexico District Council of Carpenters and Joiners of America (A. S. Horner, Inc.), 177 N. L. R. B. 500 (1969), enf’d, 454 F. 2d 1116 (CA10 1972).
As we have often stated, “[t]he function of striking [the] balance to effectuate national labor policy is often a difficult and delicate responsibility, which the Congress committed primarily to the National Labor Relations Board, subject to limited judicial review.” American Broadcasting Cos. v. Writers Guild, West, Inc., 437 U. S. 411, 431 (1978) (ABC) (internal quotations omitted). We do not sit as a “super-B oard authorized to overrule an agency’s choice between reasonable constructions of the controlling statute. We should not impose *600our views on the Board as long as it stays within the outer boundaries of the statute it is charged with administering.” Florida Power, supra, at 816. The Board has done so here. By its plain language, § 8(b)(1)(B) protects an employer’s right to select grievance-adjustment and collective-bargaining representatives, and does not merely ensure that union control does not affect the manner in which a selected representative thereafter performs his or her duties. And I see nothing in the language or legislative history of the NLRA which indicates congressional intent to foreclose the Board from applying § 8(b)(1)(B) to the type of union interference with an employer’s right to select its representatives which is presented here. The section was primarily intended to prevent unions from forcing employers into multi-employer bargaining units and from dictating the identity of employers’ representatives for collective bargaining and grievance adjusting. NLRB v. Amax Coal Co., 453 U. S. 322, 334-335 (1981); Florida Power, supra, at 803-804. There is no reason why the Board cannot fairly interpret the interdiction against dictating an employer’s choice of representative to encompass both requiring an employer to select Mr. Y, see Florida Power, supra, and preventing an employer from selecting anyone who is a member of a union which does not have a collective-bargaining agreement with the employer.2
Moreover, we traveled this road previously in ABC. We stated there: “Union pressure on supervisors can affect either their willingness to serve as grievance adjustors or collective bargainers, or the manner in which they fulfill these functions; and either effect impermissibly coerces the *601employer in his choice of representative.” 437 U. S., at 436 (emphasis added). The majority mischaracterizes this statement- as “dictum,” “unnecessary to the disposition of ABC.” Ante, at 691-592, n. 15. The union discipline threatened in that case was found to have kept some supervisor-members from reporting to work during the strike and to have adversely affected those who reported to work in the performance of their grievance-adjustment duties. 437 U. S., at 431-436. As to the former group, we agreed with the Board that ABC was “restrained and coerced within the meaning of § 8(b)(1)(B) by being totally deprived of the opportunity to choose these particular supervisors as [its] collective-bargaining or grievance-adjustment representatives during the strike.” Id., at 432. The manner in which these supervisor-members performed their duties was obviously not affected since they performed no duties during the strike; as here, it was their willingness to serve as employer representatives that was at issue. We cited approvingly the Board’s disposition of an unfair labor practice claim analogous to the claim asserted in ABC and virtually identical to the one asserted here. In A. S. Horner, Inc., supra, the Board held that union discipline imposed on a member who worked as a supervisor for an employer which had no contract with the union violated § 8(b)(1)(B) because it would have required the supervisor to leave his job and thus would have deprived the employer of the services of its selected representative. 437 U. S., at 436, n. 36.
Also at issue in ABC was a group of employees — directors — who were members of the striking union but who performed grievance-adjustment duties only with respect to members of other unions. That fact did not lead us to a different analysis or result under § 8(b)(1)(B). “A union may no more interfere with the employer’s choice of a grievance representative with respect to employees represented by other unions than with respect to those employees whom it itself represents. International Organization of Masters, Mates *602and Pilots, International Marine Division, 197 N. L. R. B. 400 (1972), enf’d, 159 U. S. App. D. C. 11, 14, 486 F. 2d 1271, 1274 (1973), cert. denied, 416 U. S. 956 (1974), and International Organization of Masters, Mates and Pilots v. NLRB, 539 F. 2d 554, 559-560 (CA5 1976).” Id., at 438, n. 37. The majority seeks to distinguish ABC on the ground that respondent here has no collective-bargaining relationship at all with Royal and Nutter, ante, at 590-591, n. 14, but this fact is without significance. The harm is the same in both cases —the union discipline would deprive the employer of the services of its selected representative.3
The majority further attempts to distance itself from ABC by asserting that Pattern Makers v. NLRB, 473 U. S. 95 (1985), in which we held that union members have a right to resign from a union during a strike or when a strike is imminent and avoid imposition of union discipline, undercuts the force of ABC. Ante, at 594-595. But Pattern Makers does not significantly affect the rationale of ABC. Although ABC at the time could not have required its supervisor-members to renounce union membership when it received notice that the union was calling a strike, it could have required them to renounce their union membership when they were first promoted to a supervisory position. 437 U. S., at 436-437. Nevertheless, the Board concluded that this employer option did not render § 8(b)(1)(B) inapplicable and we accepted that decision. Id., at 437. Clearly, the position of a supervisor-member creates some tension in the administration of labor relations. Both unions and employers have the power to resolve the tension, however. Unions can expel members who *603serve as supervisors4 and employers can forbid supervisors to retain their union membership. Unions and employers do not always do so, however, obviously because each believes that there is some benefit to be gained from accepting supervisor-members. The Board has interpreted § 8(b)(1)(B) to require unions that choose to accept the benefits of supervisor-members to bear the burden of their immunity from certain disciplinary rules, in furtherance of the federal policy that employers should select their representatives free of union coercion. The majority simply disagrees with this judgment by the Board and would place the burden on employers; that is, if an employer chooses to accept the benefits of supervisor-members, it must bear the risk that it may be deprived of their services as representatives for collective bargaining and grievance adjustment. But this choice between reasonable constructions of the statute has been entrusted to the NLRB, not to this Court. Hence, I dissent.

 In Part II, the majority holds that Schoux and Choate were not “representatives” of their employers within the meaning of § 8(b)(1)(B). This issue is not properly before this Court. . The Board concluded that Schoux and Choate acted as grievance-adjustment or collective-bargaining representatives for their employers under § 8(b)(1)(B) and the Ninth Circuit agreed with the Board’s conclusion. Ante, at 577, 578-579. The Board obviously did not raise this issue in its petition for certiorari since it had prevailed on the issue. The only question presented for our review was “[w]hether the National Labor Relations Board reasonably concluded that a union violated Section 8(b)(1)(B) of the National Labor Relations Act by disciplining supervisor-members (who represent management in grievance adjustment or collective bargaining) for working for an employer that does not have a collective bargaining agreement with that union.” Respondent did not cross-petition for certiorari nor did it challenge the Court of Appeals’ conclusion in its brief in opposition to the petition for writ of certiorari or in its brief on the merits. We should therefore judge the case as it comes to us.

 The Senate Report stated that “this subsection would not permit a union to dictate who shall represent an employer in the settlement of employee grievances, or to compel the removal of a personnel director or supervisor who has been delegated the function of settling grievances.” S. Rep. No. 105, 80th Cong., 1st Sess., pt. 1, p. 21 (1947) (emphasis added).

 Section 8(b)(1)(B) is not on its face limited to coercion by a union with a collective-bargaining relationship with an employer. In contrast, § 8(b)(3), 29 U. S. C. § 158(b)(3), for example, makes it an unfair labor practice for a union to refuse to bargain collectively with an employer, “provided it is the representative of his employees.”

 The majority asserts that the Board’s construction of §8(b)(1)(B) requires that it also interpret the section to prohibit a union from excluding supervisors from membership, since such a union rule would similarly make members less willing to serve in supervisory positions. Ante, at 593-594. The Board has not, however, interpreted § 8(b)(1)(B) so broadly. In National Association of Letter Carriers, 240 N. L. R. B. 519 (1979), the Board held that it was no violation of § 8(b)(1)(B) for a union to adopt a rule rendering letter carriers who accepted positions as temporary supervisors ineligible for membership as long as they worked in that capacity, despite the fact that the rule diminished the pool of letter carriers available to serve as temporary supervisors. I see no fatal inconsistency in the Board’s positions. In the case of a union rule which excludes all supervisors from membership regardless of their employers, the primary relationship affected is the one between the union and its members, whereas in the case of a union rule prohibiting members from working for particular employers (those without collective-bargaining agreements with the union), the primary relationship affected is the one between the union and the employers. A union more easily infringes upon a “policy Congress has imbedded in the labor laws,” ante, at 592, n. 16, in the latter situation.