National Labor Relations Board v. International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 340 (481 U.S. 573)

U.S. Supreme Court · decided May 18, 1987 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)

Citation
481 U.S. 573 · 107 S. Ct. 2002
Decided
May 18, 1987
Term
October Term 1986
Vote
6–3
Majority author
Justice Brennan
Issue area
Unions
Disposition
Affirmed
Outcome
Petitioning party lost
Ideological direction
Liberal

Opinion excerpt

Justice Brennan delivered the opinion of the Court. The question for decision is whether a union “restraints] or coerce[s] ... an employer in the selection of his representatives for the purposes of collective bargaining or the adjustment of grievances,” 29 U. S. C. § 158(b)(1)(B), when it disciplines a supervisor union member who does not participate in collective bargaining or adjust contractual grievances, and whose employer has not entered into a collective-bargaining agreement with the union. I Royal Electric (Royal) and Nutter Electric (Nutter) are members of the National Electrical Contractors Association (NECA). In May 1981, the last in a series of collective-bargaining agreements between NECA and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 340 (IBEW or Union), expired. Negotiations for a new agreement failed shortly thereafter, and the Union struck all NECA employers, including Royal and Nutter. The strike lasted several months. On September 15,1981, the Union sent NECA a disclaimer of interest “in representing . . . the employees of the multi-[employer] bargaining unit previously established,” 271 N. L. R. B. 995, 996 (1984); NECA accepted the disclaimer the following day. The Union then filed petitions seeking to represent the employees of 17 NECA members in single-employer units. Neither then nor thereafter did the Union file a petition to represent…

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