Petitioner union (IUE) and respondent employer entered into a
collective bargaining agreement covering workers at several plants,
including one where the dispute here involved occurred. The
agreement states that the employer recognizes IUE and its locals as
exclusive bargaining representatives for each of those units for
which IUE or its locals have been certified by the National Labor
Relations Board as the exclusive bargaining representative, and the
agreement lists among those units for which IUE has been certified
a unit of "all production and maintenance employees" at the plant
where the controversy arose, "but excluding all salaried technical
. . . employees." The agreement also contains a grievance procedure
for the use of arbitration in case of unresolved disputes,
including those involving the "interpretation, application or
claimed violation" of the agreement. IUE filed a grievance
asserting that certain employees in the engineering laboratory at
the plant in question, represented by another union which had been
certified as the exclusive bargaining representative for a unit of
"all salaried, technical" employees, excluding "all production and
maintenance" employees, were performing production and maintenance
work. The employer refused to arbitrate on the ground that the
controversy presented a representation matter for the National
Labor Relations Board. IUE petitioned a New York state court for an
order compelling arbitration.
Held: Whether the dispute be considered one involving
work assignment or one concerning representation, it is not within
the exclusive jurisdiction of the National Labor Relations Board,
and there is no barrier to use of the arbitration procedure. Pp.
375 U. S.
263-273.
11 N.Y.2d 452, 184 N.E.2d 298, reversed.
Page 375 U. S. 262
MR. JUSTICE DOUGLAS delivered the opinion of the Court.
The petitioner union (IUE) and respondent employer
(Westinghouse) entered into a collective bargaining agreement
covering workers at several plants, including one where the present
dispute occurred. The agreement states that Westinghouse recognizes
IUE and its locals as exclusive bargaining representatives for each
of those units for which IUE or its locals have been certified by
the National Labor Relations Board as the exclusive bargaining
representative, and the agreement lists among those units for which
IUE has been certified a unit of "all production and maintenance
employees" at the plant where the controversy arose, "but excluding
all salaried technical . . . employees." The agreement also
contains a grievance procedure for the use of arbitration in case
of unresolved disputes, including those involving the
"interpretation, application or claimed violation" of the
agreement.
IUE filed a grievance asserting that certain employees in the
engineering laboratory at the plant in question, represented by
another union, Federation, which had been certified as the
exclusive bargaining representative for a unit of "all salaried,
technical" employees, excluding "all production and maintenance"
employees, were performing production and maintenance work.
Westinghouse refused to arbitrate on the ground that the
controversy presented a representation matter for the National
Labor
Page 375 U. S. 263
Relations Board. IUE petitioned the Supreme Court of New York
for an order compelling arbitration. That court refused. The
Appellate Division affirmed, one judge dissenting, 15 A.D.2d 7, 221
N.Y.S.2d 303. The Court of Appeals affirmed, one judge dissenting,
holding that the matter was within the exclusive jurisdiction of
the Board, since it involved a definition of bargaining units. 11
N.Y.2d 452, 230 N.Y.S.2d 703, 184 N.E.2d 298. The case is here on
certiorari. 372 U.S. 957.
We have here a so-called "jurisdictional" dispute involving two
unions and the employer. But the term "jurisdictional" is not a
word of a single meaning. In the setting of the present case, this
"jurisdictional" dispute could be one of two different, though
related, species: either -- (1) a controversy as to whether certain
work should be performed by workers in one bargaining unit or those
in another, or (2) a controversy as to which union should represent
the employees doing particular work. If this controversy is
considered to be the former, the National Labor Relations Act (61
Stat. 136, 73 Stat. 519, 29 U.S.C. § 151
et seq.) does not
purport to cover all phases and stages of it. While § 8(b)(4)(D)
makes it an unfair labor practice for a union to strike to get an
employer to assign work to a particular group of employees, rather
than to another, [
Footnote 1]
the Act does not deal with the controversy anterior to a strike,
nor provide any machinery for resolving such a dispute absent a
strike. The Act and its remedies for "jurisdictional" controversies
of that nature come into play only by a strike or a threat of a
Page 375 U. S. 264
strike. Such conduct gives the Board authority under § 10(k) to
resolve the dispute. [
Footnote
2]
Are we to assume that the regulatory scheme contains a hiatus,
allowing no recourse to arbitration over work assignments between
two unions but forcing the controversy into the strike stage before
a remedy before the Board is available? The Board, as admonished by
§ 10(k), [
Footnote 3] has often
given effect to private agreements to settle disputes of this
character, [
Footnote 4] and
that is in accord
Page 375 U. S. 265
with the purpose as stated even by the minority spokesman in
Congress [
Footnote 5] -- "that
full opportunity is given the parties to reach a voluntary
accommodation without governmental intervention if they so desire."
93 Cong.Rec. 4035; 2 Leg. Hist. L.M.R.A. (1947) 1046.
And see
Labor Board v. Radio Engineers, 364 U.
S. 573,
364 U. S.
577.
As Judge Fuld, dissenting below, said:
"The underlying objective of the national labor laws is to
promote collective bargaining agreements and to help give substance
to such agreements through the arbitration process."
11 N.Y.2d 452, 458, 230 N.Y.S.2d 703, 706, 184 N.E.2d 298.
Grievance arbitration is one method of settling disputes over
work assignments, and it is commonly used, we are told. To be sure,
only one of the two unions involved in the controversy has moved
the state courts to compel arbitration. So unless the other union
intervenes, an adjudication of the arbiter might not put an end to
the dispute. Yet the arbitration may, as a practical matter, end
the controversy or put into movement forces that will resolve it.
The case in its present posture is analogous to
Whitehouse v.
Illinois Central R. Co., 349 U. S. 366,
where a railroad and two unions were disputing a jurisdictional
matter, when the National Railroad Adjustment Board served notice
on the railroad and one
Page 375 U. S. 266
union of its assumption of jurisdiction. The railroad, not being
able to have notice served on the other union, sued in the courts
for relief. We adopted a hands-off policy, saying, "Railroad's
resort to the courts has preceded any award, and one may be
rendered which could occasion no possible injury to it."
Id. at
349 U. S.
373.
Since § 10(k) not only tolerates but actively encourages
voluntary settlements of work assignment controversies between
unions, we conclude that grievance procedures pursued to
arbitration further the policies of the Act.
What we have said so far treats the case as if the grievance
involves only a work assignment dispute. If, however, the
controversy be a representational one, involving the duty of an
employer to bargain collectively with the representative of the
employees as provided in § 8(a)(5), [
Footnote 6] further considerations are necessary. Such a
charge, made by a union against the employer, would, if proved, be
an unfair labor practice, as § 8(a)(5) expressly
Page 375 U. S. 267
states. Or the unions, instead of filing such a charge, might
petition the Board under § 9(c)(1) to obtain a clarification of the
certificates they already have from the Board; and the employer
might do the same.
Thus, in
Kennametal, Inc., 132 N.L.R.B. 194, a union
was certified to represent "production and maintenance employees"
excluding, among others, "technical" and "laboratory" employees. It
filed a motion for clarification of its certificates, contending
that certain employees in the laboratory were
"an accretion to the existing certified production and
maintenance unit, and are not embraced in the classification of
laboratory employees excluded from the established unit."
Id. at 196-197. The employer contended that the laboratory
operation in question was still in the research and development
stage. The Board found that some of the employees in question were
performing production, rather than experimental laboratory work,
and constituted an accretion to the existing unit, and it clarified
the certification by specifically including those employees in the
production and maintenance unit. What a union can do, an employer
can do, as evidenced by numerous Board decisions.
See Western
Cartridge Co., 134 N.L.R.B. 67;
Blaw-Knox Co.,
135
Page 375 U. S. 268
N.L.R.B. 862;
Lumber & Millwork Industry Labor
Committee, 136 N.L.R.B. 1083.
If this is truly a representation case, either IUE or
Westinghouse can move to have the certificate clarified. But the
existence of a remedy before the Board for an unfair labor practice
does not bar individual employees from seeking damages for breach
of a collective bargaining agreement in a state court, as we held
in
Smith v. Evening News Assn., 371 U.
S. 195. We think the same policy considerations are
applicable here; and that a suit either in the federal courts, as
provided by § 301(a) of the Labor Management Relations Act of 1947
(61 Stat. 156, 29 U.S.C. § 185(a);
Textile Workers v. Lincoln
Mills, 353 U. S. 448), or
before such state tribunals as are authorized to act (
Charles
Dowd Box Co. v. Courtney, 368 U. S. 502;
Teamsters Local v. Lucas Flour Co., 369 U. S.
95) is proper, even though an alternative remedy before
the Board is available, which, if invoked by the employer, will
protect him.
The policy considerations behind
Smith v. Evening News
Assn., supra, are highlighted here by reason of the blurred
line that often exists between work assignment disputes and
controversies over which of two or more unions is the appropriate
bargaining unit. It may be claimed that A and B, to whom work is
assigned as "technical" employees, are in fact "production and
maintenance" employees, and if that charge is made and sustained,
the Board, under the decisions already noted, clarifies the
certificate. But IUE may claim that when the work was assigned to A
and B, the collective agreement was violated because "production
and maintenance" employees, not "technical" employees, were
entitled to it. As noted, the Board clarifies certificates where a
certified union seeks to represent additional employees; but it
will not entertain a motion to clarify a certificate where the
union merely seeks additional work for employees already
Page 375 U. S. 269
within its unit.
See General Aniline & Film Corp.,
89 N.L.R.B. 467;
American Broadcasting Co., 112 N.L.R.B.
605;
Employing Plasterers Assn., 118 N.L.R.B. 17. The
Board's description of the line between the two types of cases is
as follows:
". . . a Board certification in a representation proceeding is
not a jurisdictional award; it is merely a determination that a
majority of the employees in an appropriate unit have selected a
particular labor organization as their representative for purposes
of collective bargaining. It is true that such certification
presupposes a determination that the group of employees involved
constitute an appropriate unit for collective bargaining purposes,
and that, in making such determination, the Board considers the
general nature of the duties and work tasks of such employees.
However, unlike a jurisdictional award, this determination by the
Board does not freeze the duties or work tasks of the employees in
the unit found appropriate. Thus, the Board's unit finding does not
per se preclude the employer from adding to, or
subtracting from, the employees' work assignments. While that
finding may be determined by, it does not determine, job content;
nor does it signify approval, in any respect, of any work task
claims which the certified union may have made before this Board or
elsewhere."
Plumbing Contractors Assn., 93 N.L.R.B. 1081, 1087.
As the Board's decisions indicate, disputes are often difficult
to classify. In the present case, the Solicitor General, who
appears
amicus, believes the controversy is essentially a
representational one. So does Westinghouse. IUE, on the other hand,
claims it is a work assignment dispute. Even if it is in form a
representation problem, in substance it may involve problems of
seniority when layoffs occur (
see Sovern, Section 301 and
the
Page 375 U. S. 270
Primary Jurisdiction of the NLRB, 76 Harv.L.Rev. 529, 574-575
(1963)) or other aspects of work assignment disputes. If that is
true, there is work for the arbiter whatever the Board may
decide.
If, by the time the dispute reaches the Board, arbitration has
already taken place, the Board shows deference to the arbitral
award, [
Footnote 7] provided
the procedure was
Page 375 U. S. 271
a fair one and the results were not repugnant to the Act.
[
Footnote 8] As the Board
recently stated:
"There is no question that the Board is not precluded from
adjudicating unfair labor practice charges even though they might
have been the subject of an arbitration proceeding and award.
Section 10(a) of the Act expressly makes this plain, and the courts
have uniformly so held. However, it is equally well established
that the Board has considerable discretion to respect an
arbitration award and decline to exercise its authority over
alleged unfair labor practices if to do so will serve the
fundamental aims of the Act."
"The Act, as has repeatedly been stated, is primarily designed
to promote industrial peace and stability by encouraging the
practice and procedure of collective bargaining. Experience has
demonstrated that collective bargaining agreements that provide for
final and binding arbitration of grievance and disputes arising
thereunder, 'as a substitute for industrial strife,' contribute
significantly to the attainment of this statutory objective."
International Harvester Co., 138 N.L.R.B. 923,
925-926.
Thus, the weight of the arbitration award is likely to be
considerable, if the Board is later required to rule on phases of
the same dispute. The Board's action and the awards of arbiters are
at times closely brigaded. Thus, where grievance proceedings are
pending before an arbiter, the Board defers decision on the
eligibility of discharged employees to vote in a representation
case, until the awards are made.
See Pacific Tile &
Porcelain Co., 137 N.L.R.B 1358, 1365-1367, overruling
Dura Steel Products Co., 111 N.L.R.B. 590.
See
137 N.L.R.B., p. 1365, n. 11.
Page 375 U. S. 272
Should the Board disagree with the arbiter, by ruling, for
example, that the employees involved in the controversy are members
of one bargaining unit or another, the Board's ruling would, of
course, take precedence; and if the employer's action had been in
accord with that ruling, it would not be liable for damages under §
301. But that is not peculiar to the present type of controversy.
Arbitral awards construing a seniority provision (
Carey v.
General Electric Co., 315 F.2d 499, 509-510), or awards
concerning unfair labor practices, may later end up in conflict
with Board rulings.
See International Association of
Machinists, 116 N.L.R.B. 645;
Monsanto Chemical Co.,
97 N.L.R.B. 517. Yet, as we held in
Smith v. Evening News
Assn., supra, the possibility of conflict is no barrier to
resort to a tribunal other than the Board.
However the dispute be considered -- whether one involving work
assignment or one concerning representation -- we see no barrier to
use of the arbitration procedure. If it is a work assignment
dispute, arbitration conveniently fills a gap and avoids the
necessity of a strike to bring the matter to the Board. If it is a
representation matter, resort to arbitration may have a pervasive,
curative effect even though one union is not a party.
By allowing the dispute to go to arbitration, its fragmentation
is avoided to a substantial extent; and those conciliatory measures
which Congress deemed vital to "industrial peace" (
Textile
Workers v. Lincoln Mills, supra, at
353 U. S. 455)
and which may be dispositive of the entire dispute are encouraged.
The superior authority of the Board may be invoked at any time.
Meanwhile, the therapy of arbitration is brought to bear in a
complicated and troubled area.
Reversed.
MR. JUSTICE GOLDBERG took no part in the consideration or
decision of this case.
Page 375 U. S. 273
[
Footnote 1]
§ 8(b)(4)(D):
"It shall be an unfair labor practice for a labor organization
or its agents --"
"
* * * *"
"(4) (i) to engage in, or to induce or encourage any individual
employed by any person engaged in commerce or in an industry
affecting commerce to engage in, a strike or a refusal in the
course of his employment to use, manufacture, process, transport,
or otherwise handle or work on any goods, articles, materials, or
commodities or to perform any services; or (ii) to threaten,
coerce, or restrain any person engaged in commerce or in an
industry affecting commerce, where in either case an object thereof
is --"
"
* * * *"
"(D) forcing or requiring any employer to assign particular work
to employees in a particular labor organization or in a particular
trade, craft, or class rather than to employees in another labor
organization or in another trade, craft, or class, unless such
employer is failing to conform to an order or certification of the
Board determining the bargaining representative for employees
performing such work."
29 U.S.C. (Supp. IV) § 158(b)(4)(D).
[
Footnote 2]
Section 10(k) provides:
"Whenever it is charged that any person has engaged in an unfair
labor practice within the meaning of paragraph (4)(D) of section
8(b), the Board is empowered and directed to hear and determine the
dispute out of which such unfair labor practice shall have arisen,
unless, within ten days after notice that such charge has been
filed, the parties to such dispute submit to the Board satisfactory
evidence that they have adjusted, or agreed upon methods for the
voluntary adjustment of, the dispute. Upon compliance by the
parties to the dispute with the decision of the Board or upon such
voluntary adjustment of the dispute, such charge shall be
dismissed."
29 U.S.C. § 160(k).
[
Footnote 3]
Section 10(k),
supra, note 2 provides that the Board shall determine the
dispute
". . . unless . . . the parties to such dispute submit to the
Board satisfactory evidence that they have adjusted, or agreed upon
methods for the voluntary adjustment of, the dispute."
[
Footnote 4]
See United Brotherhood of Carpenters, 96 N.L.R.B. 1045;
Wood, Wire & Metal Lathers Union, 119 N.L.R.B. 1345;
Millwrights Local 1102, 121 N.L.R.B. 101, 106-107;
Ironworkers Local No. 708, 137 N.L.R.B. 1753, 1757.
Section 201 of the Labor Management Relations Act of 1947 declares
the national policy to be the use of governmental facilities for
conciliation, mediation, and voluntary arbitration of disputes
between employers and employees. 61 Stat. 152, 29 U.S.C. § 171(b).
Section 203(d) provides:
"Final adjustment by a method agreed upon by the parties is
hereby declared to be the desirable method for settlement of
grievance disputes arising over the application or interpretation
of an existing collective bargaining agreement. The Service is
directed to make its conciliation and mediation services available
in the settlement of such grievance disputes only as a last resort
and in exceptional cases."
61 Stat. 154, 29 U.S.C. § 173(d).
[
Footnote 5]
Senator Murray of Montana.
And see S. Rep. No. 105,
80th Cong., 1st Sess., p. 27, 1 Leg.Hist.L.M.R.A. (1947) 433.
[
Footnote 6]
Section 8(a)(5) provides,
"It shall be an unfair labor practice for an employer -- . . .
to refuse to bargain collectively with the representatives of his
employees, subject to the provisions of section 9(a)."
29 U.S.C. § 158(a)(5).
Section 9(a) provides that the representatives shall be chosen
by the majority of employees "in a unit appropriate" for collective
bargaining. 29 U.S.C. § 159(a). Section 9(b) gives the Board
authority to determine what unit is the appropriate one -- "the
employer unit, craft unit, plant unit, or subdivision thereof." 29
U.S.C. § 159(b).
Section 9(c)(1) provides:
"Whenever a petition shall have been filed, in accordance with
such regulations as may be prescribed by the board --"
"(A) by an employee or group of employees or any individual or
labor organization acting in their behalf alleging that a
substantial number of employees (i) wish to be represented for
collective bargaining and that their employer declines to recognize
their representative as the representative defined in section 9(a),
or (ii) assert that the individual or labor organization, which has
been certified or is being currently recognized by their employer
as the bargaining representative, is no longer a representative as
defined in section 9(a); or"
"(B) by an employer, alleging that one or more individuals or
labor organizations have presented to him a claim to be recognized
as the representative defined in section 9(a); the Board shall
investigate such petition and if it has reasonable cause to believe
that a question of representation affecting commerce exists shall
provide for an appropriate hearing upon due notice. Such hearing
may be conducted by an officer or employee of the regional office,
who shall not make any recommendations with respect thereto. If the
Board finds upon the record of such hearing that such a question of
representation exists, it shall direct an election by secret ballot
and shall certify the results thereof."
29 U.S.C. § 159(c)(1).
[
Footnote 7]
See, e.g., Raley's, Inc., 143 N.L.R.B. 256,
258-259:
"In the recently decided
International Harvester
Company case, a majority of the Board indicated that it would
give 'hospitable acceptance to the arbitral process' in order 'to
promote industrial peace and stability by encouraging the practice
and procedure of collective bargaining.' Relying on various
statutory provisions, particularly Section 203(d) of the
Labor-Management Relations Act, 1947, and on decisions of the
United States Supreme Court which recognize arbitration as 'an
instrument of national labor policy for composing contractual
differences,' the Board concluded that it would withhold its
undoubted authority to adjudicate unfair labor practice charges and
give effect to arbitration awards involving the same subject
matter"
" unless it clearly appears that the arbitration proceedings
were tainted by fraud, collusion, or serious procedural
irregularities or that the award was clearly repugnant to the
purposes and policies of the Act."
"While it is true that
International Harvester, as well
as other cases in which the Board honored arbitration awards,
involved unfair labor practice proceedings, we believe that the
same considerations which moved the Board to honor arbitration
awards in unfair labor practice cases are equally persuasive to a
similar acceptance of the arbitral process in a representation
proceeding such as the instant one. Thus, where, as here, a
question of contract interpretation is in issue, and the parties
thereto have set up in their agreement arbitration machinery for
the settlement of disputes arising under the contract, and an award
has already been rendered which meets Board requirements applicable
to arbitration awards, we think that it would further the
underlying objectives of the Act to promote industrial peace and
stability to give effect thereto. It is true, of course, that,
under Section 9 of the Act, the Board is empowered to decide
questions concerning representation. However, this authority to
decide questions concerning representation does not preclude the
Board, in a proper case, from considering an arbitration award in
determining whether such a question exists."
[
Footnote 8]
Monsanto Chemical Co., 97 N.L.R.B. 517;
Wertheimer
Stores Corp., 107 N.L.R.B. 1434.
MR. JUSTICE HARLAN, concurring.
I join the Court's opinion with a brief comment. As is
recognized by all, neither position in this case is without its
difficulties. Lacking a clear-cut command in the statute itself,
the choice, in substance, lies between a course which would
altogether preclude any attempt at resolving disputes of this kind
by arbitration and one which, at worst, will expose those concerned
to the hazard of duplicative proceedings. The undesirable
consequences of the first alternative are inevitable, those of the
second conjectural. As between the two, I think the Court at this
early stage of experience in this area rightly chooses the
latter.
MR. JUSTICE BLACK, with whom MR. JUSTICE CLARK joins,
dissenting.
The International Union of Electrical Workers (IUE), of which
petitioner is president, and another union, the Federation, each
have collective bargaining contracts with and are certified
bargaining agents for employees of the respondent, Westinghouse
Electric Corporation. IUE's contract covers "all production and
maintenance" employees, but not "salaried technical" employees.
Federation's contract covers "all salaried, technical" employees,
but not "production and maintenance" employees. IUE demanded that
Westinghouse stop permitting a number of Federation employees to do
certain work, claiming that what they were doing was "production
and maintenance" work, and that therefore IUE's members, not
Federation's, were entitled to these jobs. Westinghouse refused to
make the change, whereupon IUE, instead of filing an appropriate
proceeding to have the dispute decided by the National Labor
Relations Board (as I understand the Court to hold that it could
have done), called on Westinghouse to arbitrate the dispute
Page 375 U. S. 274
with IUE. This demand rested on a provision of the
IUE-Westinghouse contract agreeing to arbitration of grievances
growing out of the "interpretation, application or claimed
violation" of the contract. Westinghouse resisted arbitration,
contending that the dispute ought to be resolved by the National
Labor Relations Board, and the Court of Appeals of New York,
agreeing with Westinghouse, refused to compel Westinghouse to
arbitrate. [
Footnote 2/1]
I agree with the New York court, and would affirm its judgment.
Stripped of obscurantist arguments, this controversy is a plain,
garden-variety jurisdictional dispute between two unions. The Court
today holds, however, that the National Labor Relations Act not
only permits, but compels, Westinghouse to arbitrate the dispute
with only one of the two warring unions. Such an arbitration could
not, of course, bring about the "final and binding arbitration of
grievance[s] and disputes" that the Court says contributes to the
congressional objectives in passing the Labor Act. Unless all the
salutary safeguards of due process of law are to be dissipated and
obliterated to further the cause of arbitration, the rights of
employees belonging to the Federation should not, for "policy
considerations," be sacrificed by an arbitration award in
proceedings between IUE and Westinghouse alone. Although I do not
find the Court's opinion so clear on the point as I would like, I
infer that it is not holding that this misnamed "award" would be
completely final and binding on the Federation and its members.
What the Court does plainly hold, however -- that "the weight of
the arbitration award is likely to be considerable, if the Board is
later required to rule on phases of the same dispute" -- seems only
a trifle less offensive to established due process concepts. And
this means, I suppose, that this same award,
ex parte as
to Federation, must be given
Page 375 U. S. 275
the same or greater weight in any judicial review of the Board's
final order involving the same "phases of the same dispute."
Moreover, the Court holds that suits for damages can be filed
against the employer in state courts or federal courts under § 301
of the Taft-Hartley Act, 29 U.S.C. § 185, for the "unfair labor
practice" of failing to bargain with the right union when two
unions are engaged in a jurisdictional dispute. The employer,
caught in that jurisdictional dispute, is ordinarily in a helpless
position. He is trapped in a cross-fire between two unions. All he
can do is guess as to which union's members he will be required by
an arbitrator, the Labor Board, or a court to assign to the
disputed jobs. If he happens to guess wrong, he is liable to be
mulcted in damages. I assume it would be equally difficult for him
to prophesy what award an arbitrator, the Labor Board, or a judge
will make as to guess how big a verdict a court or a jury would
give against him. It must be remembered that the employer cannot
make a choice which will be binding on either an arbitrator, the
Board, or a court. The Court's holding, thus subjecting an employer
to damages when he has done nothing wrong, seems to me contrary to
the National Labor Relations Act, as well as to the basic
principles of common everyday justice.
The result of all this is that the National Labor Relations
Board, the agency created by Congress finally to settle labor
disputes in the interest of industrial peace, is to be supplanted
in part by so-called arbitration which, in its very nature, cannot
achieve a final adjustment of those disputes. One of the main evils
it had been hoped the Labor Act would abate was jurisdictional
disputes between unions over which union members would do certain
work. [
Footnote 2/2]
Page 375 U. S. 276
The Board can make final settlements of such disputes.
Arbitration between some but not all the parties cannot. I fear
that the Court's recently announced leanings to treat arbitration
as an almost sure and certain solvent of all labor troubles has
been carried so far in this case as unnecessarily to bring about
great confusion and to delay final and binding settlements of
jurisdictional disputes by the Labor Board, the agency which I
think Congress intended to do that very job.
I would affirm.
[
Footnote 2/1]
11 N.Y.2d 452, 230 N.Y.S.2d 703, 184 N.E.2d 298.
[
Footnote 2/2]
See Labor Board v. Radio & Television Broadcast
Engineers Union, 364 U. S. 573;
cf. Order of Railway Conductors v. Pitney, 326 U.
S. 561,
326 U. S.
567.