Slocum, General Chairman, Lackawanna Division No. 30, Order of Railroad Telegraphers, v. Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad Co. (339 U.S. 239)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided April 10, 1950 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 339 U.S. 239 · 70 S. Ct. 577
- Decided
- April 10, 1950
- Term
- October Term 1949
- Vote
- 7–1
- Majority author
- Justice Black
- Issue area
- Federalism
- Disposition
- Reversed and remanded
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
Opinion excerpt
Mr. Justice Black delivered the opinion of the Court. Section 3 of the Railway Labor Act confers jurisdiction on the National Railroad Adjustment Board to hold hearings, make findings, and enter awards in all disputes between carriers and their employees “growing out of grievances or out of the interpretation or application of agreements concerning rates of pay, rules, or working conditions . ...” The question presented is whether state courts have power to adjudicate disputes involving such interpretations when the Adjustment Board has not acted. The respondent railroad has separate collective-bargaining agreements with the Order of Railroad Telegraphers and the Brotherhood of Railway Clerks. A dispute arose between the two unions concerning the scope of their respective agreements. Each claimed for its members certain jobs in the railroad yards at Elmira, New York. The railroad agreed with the Clerks Union. The chairman of Telegraphers protested, urging reassignment of the work to members of his union and claiming back pay on behalf of certain individual members. The claims were pursued in “the usual manner” required by § 3 First (i) of the Railway Labor Act, 45 U. S. C. § 153 First (i), as a prerequisite to invoking jurisdiction of the Adjustment Board. That section further provides that, “failing to reach an adjustment in this manner, the disputes may be referred by…
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