Bakery Drivers' Union Appeal

48 Pa. D. & C. 372, 1943 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 67
CourtPennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Alleghany County
DecidedJune 4, 1943
Docketno. 1981
StatusPublished

This text of 48 Pa. D. & C. 372 (Bakery Drivers' Union Appeal) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Alleghany County primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bakery Drivers' Union Appeal, 48 Pa. D. & C. 372, 1943 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 67 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1943).

Opinion

Thompson, J.,

On petition of the Bakery Drivers’ Union, Local 485, this court on February 15,1943, granted an appeal for review of an order or certification of the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board. This order of February 15,1943, was made by the assignment room judge of this court in the course of numerous formal ex parte orders made on that day. The basis of the appeal of the Bakery Drivers’ Union, Local 485, was that the order of the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board directing that an-election be held by the employes of the Great American Tea Company to determine the proper bargaining unit for said company was beyond the power of the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board because the Great American Tea Company “was engaged in a business which had a substantial effect on interstate commerce and that jurisdiction over its labor relations was, therefore, vested not in the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board, but in the National Labor Relations Board”.

We have before us also a rule granted on the petition of the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board to show cause why the petition for review above mentioned should not be dismissed on the ground that it was premature. The motion filed on behalf of the State Labor Relations Board avers in substance that no judicial review of the action of the board in ordering an election of employes is permissible at this stage of the administrative process under the State Labor Relations Board legislation. It becomes necessary in determining this motion to refer to the State Labor Relations Act of 1937 and the amending Act of 1939. The Pennsylvania Labor Relations Act is based largely on the National Labor Relations Act, and the same is true of the labor relations acts of several other States to which we will make reference.

The Pennsylvania Labor Relations Act of June 1, 1937, P. L. 1168, deals in section 7 with “Representatives and Elections”; section 8 — “Prevention of Un[374]*374fair Labor Practices”; section 9 — “Judicial Review”. Section 9 provides, in part, for judicial review by the court of common pleas of the county where the unfair labor practice in question occurred, or wherein any person charged with the commission of any unfair labor practice resides or transacts business.

All that the board has done in the case now before us is to order an election. No election has yet been held nor a certificate issued certifying the results thereof.

Section 7(c) of-the Labor Relations Act of 1937 reads as follows:

“ (c) Whenever a question arises concerning the representation of employes the board may investigate such controversy and certify to the parties, in writing, the name or names of the representatives who have been designated or selected. In any such investigation, the board shall provide for an appropriate hearing upon due notice, either in conjunction with a proceeding under section eight, or otherwise, and may take a secret ballot of employes or utilize any other suitable method to ascertain such representatives.”

There is a similar provision in the National Labor Relations Act, although the section in the National Labor Relations Act has a different number.

Section 7(d) of the Labor Relations Act of 1937, at P. L. 1173, reads as follows:

“(d) Whenever an order of the board, made pursuant to section eight, subsection (c), is based, in whole or in part, upon facts certified following an investigation pursuant to subsection (c) of this section, and there is a petition for the enforcement or review of such order, such certification and the record of such investigation shall be included in the transcript of the entire record required to be filed under subsections (a) or (b) of section nine, and thereupon the decree of the court enforcing, modifying or setting aside, in whole or in part, the order of the board, shall be made and entered upon the pleadings, testimony, and proceedings set forth in such transcript.”

[375]*375No question or doubt arises as to the right of judicial review at a later stage of the administrative process and such review exists in some jurisdictions when there has been a finding on the question of an unfair labor practice. Whether or not judicial review may be had at the preliminary stage of an election to determine bargaining agents has already been answered by this court in a case involving the Labor Relations Act of 1937, to wit, McNary’s Appeal, 33 D. & C. 429.. In McNary’s Appeal, the opinion of this court was written by Richardson, J., and the last page of his comprehensive opinion (p. 434), after referring to cases dealing with the National Labor Relations Act, states:

“We believe that the circuit court of appeals was correct in its interpretation of the National Labor Relations Act and in holding that the certification of a bargaining representative is not a final order. It seems to us also that the refusal to certify a bargaining agent is not a final order which can be appealed from and reviewed in this court . . .
“Under the view we take of this case, the question of constitutionality of the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Act can not be raised until a final order of the board by which some person is aggrieved is issued, at which time a review may be had of all questions concerning the jurisdiction of the board, the regularity of its proceedings, and all questions of constitutional right or statutory authority: National Labor Relations Board v. Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp., 301 U. S. 1.”

The United States Supreme. Court in several cases has held that the action of the National Labor Relations Board in the matter of the selection of a bargaining agent was not reviewable by the Federal courts. In National Labor Relations Board v. Falk Corp., 308 U. S. 453, the court said, at page 459:

“The fundamental error of the court below lay in its assumption that there was before it ‘for final disposition, the matter of the selection of the bargaining [376]*376agent.’ The court has no right to review a proposed election and in effect to supervise the manner in which it shall thereafter be conducted. There can be no court review under 9 (d) until the Board issues an order and requires the employer to do something predicated upon the result of an election.”

See also American Federation of Labor et al. v. National Labor Relations Board, 308 U. S. 401, and National Labor Relations Board v. International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers et al., 308 U. S. 413. In this latter case, Mr. Justice Stone, beginning his opinion, said:

“This is a companion case to American Federation of Labor v. National Labor Relations Board, ante, p. 401. The decisive question raised by the petition is whether a direction for an election made by the National Labor Relations Board in a representation proceeding under §9 (c) of the Wagner Act, 49 Stat. 449, 453, 29 U. S. C., Supp. IV. §§151-166, is reviewable by a circuit court of appeals under §10 (f) of the Act.”

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48 Pa. D. & C. 372, 1943 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 67, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bakery-drivers-union-appeal-pactcomplallegh-1943.