![]() ![]() “The logical implication is that the union’s conduct is at least arguably protected by the NLRA…we have no business delving into this particular labor dispute at this time.” “Today, the Court falters,” Jackson writes. She said that because this was a labor dispute, the National Labor Relations Board-and the complaint that the Board’s General Counsel had already filed-took precedence, and the Court in fact had no reason to stick its nose in the case. Only Justice Jackson, the newest addition to the court appointed by Joe Biden last year, voted in dissent. Justice Amy Coney Barrett authored the opinion. The Supreme Court then undertook to determine who was in the right-except that, as Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson writes in her dissent, it is customarily the Board that deals with labor disputes first, and all court activity must be suspended until the Board reaches a decision.Įight of the nine Supreme Court justices voted in favor of the company. ![]() In response, the Teamsters filed an Unfair Labor Practice charge to the National Labor Relations Board, claiming that the company had sued in retaliation against striking, which is a protected union activity. No significant damage was done to the trucks, but some of that day’s concrete dried and was therefore unusable-and so, Glacier Northwest filed a tort action claiming “sabotage” and “tortious destruction” of company property. The cement-truck drivers turned around on their delivery routes and drove their trucks back to the concrete plant, and the company had to use “emergency maneuvers” to get the concrete off the trucks before it dried. However, the work day had already begun, and concrete was already being mixed and delivered when the union ordered a work stoppage. According to the brief of the case, the contract expired without the two being able to come to a resolution, and as a result, union workers went on strike. Glacier Northwest, a concrete-mixing company based in Seattle, Washington, was in the midst of renegotiating a new contract with the Teamsters, one of the oldest and largest unions in the industry. Cornell’s Legal Information Institute defines the question: “Does the NLRA preempt an employer’s state tort claims against a labor union for intentionally destroying the employer’s property during a strategically-timed labor strike?” International Brotherhood of Teamsters, debated whether a union can be held responsible for company damages or monetary losses resulting from a union’s decision to go on strike under the National Labor Relations Act. ![]()
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