Holly Farms Corporation et al. v. National Labor Relations Labor Board et al. (517 U.S. 392)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided April 23, 1996 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 517 U.S. 392 · 116 S. Ct. 1396
- Decided
- April 23, 1996
- Term
- October Term 1995
- Vote
- 5–4
- Majority author
- Justice Ginsburg
- Issue area
- Unions
- Disposition
- Affirmed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party lost
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
Opinion excerpt
Justice Ginsburg delivered the opinion of the Court. This controversy stems from a dispute concerning union representation at the Wilkesboro, North Carolina, headquarters facility of Holly Farms, a corporation engaged in the production, processing, and marketing of poultry products. The parties divide, as have federal courts, over the classification of certain workers, described as “live-haul” crews— teams of chicken catchers, forklift operators, and truckdriv-ers, who collect for slaughter chickens raised as broilers by independent contract growers, and transport the birds to Holly Farms’ processing plant. Holly Farms maintains that members- of “live-haul” crews are “agricultural laborers],” a category of workers exempt from National Labor Relations Act coverage. The National Labor Relations Board disagreed and approved a Wilkesboro plant bargaining unit including those employees. Satisfied that the Board reasonably aligned the “live-haul” crews with the corporation’s processing operations, typing them covered “employee[s],” not exempt “agricultural laborers], ” we affirm the Court of Appeals’ judgment, which properly deferred to the Board’s determination. i-h <ri Petitioner Holly Farms Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Tyson Foods, Inc., is a vertically integrated poultry producer headquartered in Wilkesboro, North Carolina. Holly Farms’ activities encompass…
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