International Union, United Automobile, Aircaft & Agricultural Implement Workers of America, Local 283 v. Wisconsin Employment Relations Board

15 N.W.2d 873, 245 Wis. 417, 1944 Wisc. LEXIS 351, 14 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 771
CourtWisconsin Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 17, 1944
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 15 N.W.2d 873 (International Union, United Automobile, Aircaft & Agricultural Implement Workers of America, Local 283 v. Wisconsin Employment Relations Board) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Wisconsin Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
International Union, United Automobile, Aircaft & Agricultural Implement Workers of America, Local 283 v. Wisconsin Employment Relations Board, 15 N.W.2d 873, 245 Wis. 417, 1944 Wisc. LEXIS 351, 14 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 771 (Wis. 1944).

Opinions

Fowler, J.

The case is an appeal by the Wisconsin Employment Relations Board, hereinafter referred to as the “state board,” from judgments of the circuit court vacating orders of the board and dismissing the complaints charging the Wisconsin Motor Corporation, hereinafter referred to as the “company” or the “employer,” with unfair labor practices under the State Employment Relations Act. The National Labor Relations Board, hereinafter referred to as the “federal board,” on application had supervised an election to select a bargaining agent to act for the employees in collective bargaining with the company, and found the company was engaged in interstate commerce and had certified the union as such agent. The state board took jurisdiction of the complaints and found the company guilty of unfair labor practices charged and issued a “cease-and-desist” order. The union brought actions to vacate the orders and the state board petitioned for their enforcement.

The complainants, Schoemann and Bezie, were employees of the company of long standing and had priority rights respecting tenure of employment and re-employment. Both were *431 members of an A. F. L. union. The company entered into a contract with the respondent unión, which is affiliated with the C. I. O. Sec. 3, art. I, of this contract reads as follows:

“All new employees at the end of their probationary period shall be required to either join the union or secure a working permit from the union. The union agrees that the cost of its working permits shall at no time exceed one and one-half times the cost of its monthly dues. The members of the union shall remain in good standing in the union as a condition of employment. Present employees who at the date of signing of this agreement are not members of the union shall be required to secure a working permit from the union as a condition of further employment. The union reserves the right to refuse to grant either membership in the union or a working permit of the union to not to exceed one per cent (1 %) of the employees covered by the terms of this agreement.”

The complainants were discharged by the company for not being either members of the union or having work permits issued by it. The state board found that the making of this contract and discharging employees for not being members of the union or having a permit issu'ed by it constituted an unfair labor practice under the Wisconsin Employment Relations Act because it discriminated “in regard to hiring and tenure of employment” and thereby encouraged membership in the union.

The respondent contends that the judgment of the circuit court should be affirmed for two reasons : (1) That the .board had no jurisdiction to entertain the proceeding because exclusive jurisdiction of controversies as to unfair labor practices involving interstate commerce is vested in the National Labor Relations Board; (2) that the findings of the state board are not supported by the evidence. The appellant contends to the contrary. The claims of the parties under (1) will first be considered.

(1) The extreme positions of the parties on this question may be stated as follows:

*432 The union claims that where a national act makes a specific regulation respecting interstate commerce, and commits the enforcement of that regulation to a federal board, the states have no power to make a regulation respecting that specific regulation, and no state administrative board has jurisdiction of a controversy respecting that specific regulation.

The state board claims that the supreme court of the United States has decided the proposition above stated against the union in Allen-Bradley Local v. Wis. E. R. Board, 315 U. S. 740, 62 Sup. Ct. 820, 86 L. Ed. 1154, and Hotel Employees' Local v. Wis. E. R. Board, 315 U. S. 437, 62 Sup. Ct. 706, 86 L. Ed. 946. A statement in the Allen-Bradley Case, supra, may be noted for its indirect bearing on the proposition contended for by the union. It is said at page 751 of the opinion: “Indeed, if the portions of the state act here invoked are invalid because they conflict with the federal act, then so long as the federal act is on the books it is difficult to see how any state could under any circumstances regulate picketing or disorder growing out of labor disputes of companies whose business affects interstate commerce.” This implies that if the provisions of the statutes here involved do conflict then the state board does not have jurisdiction of the instant cases. But it definitely makes the jurisdictional question rest on absence of conflict and leaves for consideration whether they do conflict. The Allen-Bradley opinion is to the express point that the court deals only with specific cases, and in deciding one case does not anticipate any other, and leaves other cases involving a different state of facts to be determined when that case comes before it upon a record appropriately raising the precise point involved. Thus the Allen-Bradley Case cannot be taken as anticipating or indicating the decision in the instant cases. And while the Allen-Bradley and Hotel Employees’ Cases upheld the jurisdiction of the state board in those cases it does not follow as the state board contends that those cases settle the jurisdictional question in all cases. The ground on which those cases upheld the jurisdiction of *433 the state board was that in those cases there was no conflict between the state and federal acts respecting the matter there in controversy, because the state act made conduct of employees an unfair labor practice, and the federal act contains no provision relating to the conduct of employees. Violence of employees in conducting strikes was one of the unfair labor practices involved in those cases and the United States supreme court decision considers no others, and here no violence and no conduct of employees is involved. The instant Schoemann case only involves the questions whether the employer by its conduct committed an unfair labor practice under the act and whether the federal act contains provisions as to that matter. The question here is whether the provisions of the two acts so conflict as to oust the state board of jurisdiction, and whether such conflict does exist must be determined by comparison of the federal and state statutes defining unfair labor practices. Before making this comparison we will discuss the contentions of the union and the state board above stated.

The union cites as authority for its claim that the board is without jurisdiction Gilvary v. Cuyahoga Valley R. Co. 292 U. S. 57, 54 Sup. Ct. 573, 78 L. Ed. 1123; Napier v. Atlantic Coast Line R. Co. 272 U. S. 605, 47 Sup. Ct. 207, 71 L. Ed. 432; Erie R. Co. v. New York, 233 U. S. 671, 34 Sup. Ct. 756, 58 L. Ed. 1149; Apex Hosiery Co. v. Leader, 310 U. S. 469, 60 Sup. Ct. 982, 84 L. Ed. 1311;

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Bluebook (online)
15 N.W.2d 873, 245 Wis. 417, 1944 Wisc. LEXIS 351, 14 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 771, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/international-union-united-automobile-aircaft-agricultural-implement-wis-1944.