21-1449 Glacier Northwest, Inc. v. Teamsters (06/01/2023)

The drivers at concrete producer Glacier Northwest went on strike, returring their trucks to Glacier loaded with cement.  To avoid damage to the trucks Glacier dumped the cement.  They sued the unoin for sploiaiton of Glacier's property - the cement in the trucks.  The Union asserts that it was acting lawfully when it struck and that the NLRB should determine that question.

But not according to eight members of the U.S. Supreme Court.  Only Justice Jackson dissented.  Even Justices Kagan and Sotomayor folded their cards on this latest step to dismantle a federal agency.

- GWC

21-1449 Glacier Northwest, Inc. v. Teamsters (06/01/2023)

Justice Ketanji-Brown, dissenting:

Congress’s passage of the NLRA “marked a fundamental change in the Nation’s labor policies.” Sears, Roebuck & Co. v. Carpenters, 436 U. S. 180, 190 (1978). Prior to that point, union activity had been viewed as “a species of ‘conspiracy,’” prompting substantial conflict between labor and management. Ibid. With the enactment of the NLRA in 1935, “Congress expressly recognized that collective organization of segments of the labor force into bargaining units capable of exercising economic power comparable to that possessed by employers may produce benefits for the entire economy in the form of higher wages, job security, and improved working conditions.” Ibid. The heart of the NLRA is §7, which safeguards workers’ rights “to self-organization, to form, join, or assist labor organizations, to bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing, and to engage in other concerted activities for the purpose of collective bargaining or other mutual aid or protection.” 29 U. S. C. §157. Among the “‘concerted activities’” that the Act unquestionably protects is “the vital, economic instrumen[t] of the strike.” Garmon, 359 U. S., at 241; see §163.