Michigan State AFL-CIO v. Callaghan

15 F. Supp. 3d 712, 2014 WL 1424463, 198 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2853, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 57028
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Michigan
DecidedMarch 31, 2014
DocketCase No. 13-cv-10557
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 15 F. Supp. 3d 712 (Michigan State AFL-CIO v. Callaghan) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Michigan primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Michigan State AFL-CIO v. Callaghan, 15 F. Supp. 3d 712, 2014 WL 1424463, 198 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2853, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 57028 (E.D. Mich. 2014).

Opinion

ORDER GRANTING IN PART AND DENYING IN PART DEFENDANTS’ MOTION TO DISMISS (document no. 17)

STEPHEN J. MURPHY, III, District Judge.

In December 2012, Michigan enacted Public Act 348 of 2012 (“PA 348”) (codified at Mich. Comp. Laws § 423.1 et seq.). The law describes employees’ labor rights, prescribes certain conditions of employment, and prohibits certain coercive practices. PA 348 also provides civil and criminal remedies to redress violations of the law. After the law’s passage, labor organizations sued state and local officials for a declaration that federal law preempts PA 348 and for an injunction against its enforcement. The defendants move to dismiss.1 For the reasons stated below, the Court will grant the motion in part and deny it in part.

BACKGROUND

With the passage of PA 348, Michigan became one of the twenty-four states that regulate union-security agreements. A feature common to Michigan’s “freedom to work” law and others like it is a prohibition on agreements making union membership a condition of employment. See Mich. Comp. Laws § 423.14(l)(b); James R. Eis-singer, The Righh-to-Work Imbroglio, 51 N.D L.Rev. 571, 573-74 (1975) (describing right to work laws generally).

PA 348 also articulates other labor policies. PA 348, for example, declares that employees have a right to organize, undertake concerted activity and bargain collectively through freely chosen representatives. Mich. Comp. Laws § 423.8. Elsewhere, PA 348 prohibits “condition[s] of obtaining or continuing employment” that require workers to refrain from joining or supporting a labor organization, to join or remain a member of a labor organization, pay dues or anything of value to a labor organization, or pay third-parties a charge in lieu of union dues. Mich. Comp. Laws § 423.14(1). And another section prohibits coercion designed to compel workers to join, leave, or support a labor organization. Mich. Comp. Laws § 423.17(1).

Each of these prohibitions are enforceable through various means. PA 348 authorizes state courts to grant “any appropriate legal or equitable remedy,” limits the enforcement of some contracts, authorizes civil fines for certain violations, and makes conspiring to violate the law a misdemeanor. Mich. Comp. Laws §§ 423.14(2), (5)-(6), 423.17(2), 423.22(3), 423.24.

[715]*715STANDARD OF REVIEW

Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12 permits a court to dismiss a complaint that fails “to state a claim upon which relief can be granted.” Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6). Under this standard, dismissal is appropriate if — taking all well-pleaded factual allegations as true and drawing all reasonable inferences for the non-moving party — the claimant could not recover under a viable legal theory. See Hunter v. Sec’y of the U.S. Army, 565 F.3d 986, 992 (6th Cir.2009); Bishop v. Lucent Techs., Inc., 520 F.3d 516, 519 (6th Cir.2008).

DISCUSSION

The plaintiffs argue that PA 348 is invalid on its face for three reasons. The first is that PA 348 regulates conduct that San Diego Bldg. Trades v. Garmon, 359 U.S. 236, 79 S.Ct. 773, 3 L.Ed.2d 775 (1959), makes subject to the federal government’s exclusive jurisdiction. The second is that federal regulation of collective bargaining agreements preempts the section of PA 348 that regulates contracts containing illegal conditions of employment. And the third is that PA 348 improperly regulates conduct on federal enclaves. Only the first theory has merit.2

1. Federal-State Power over Labor Relations

While distinct, the plaintiffs’ first two theories both turn on the balance federal labor law strikes overall between federal and state power. Hence, the Court will briefly consider this subject before examining the specific preemption arguments.

In 1935, Congress enacted the National Labor Relations Act (“NLRA”), Pub.L. 74-189, 49 Stat. 449 (1935). Broadly speaking, the NLRA — also known as the Wagner Act — articulated a national labor policy and created the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) to implement it. See N.L.R.B. v. Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp., 301 U.S. 1, 22-24, 57 S.Ct. 615, 81 L.Ed. 893 (1937) (sketching the Wagner Act). But while Sections 7 and 8 of the Wagner Act described federal policy towards employee rights and unfair labor practices, the law said little about the respective roles of federal and state officials in regulating these areas. See Bethlehem Steel Co. v. New York State Labor Relations Bd., 330 U.S. 767, 771, 67 S.Ct. 1026, 91 L.Ed. 1234 (1947) (“Congress has not seen fit to lay down even the most general of guides to construction of the Act, as it sometimes does, by saying that its regulation either shall or shall not exclude state action.”). Congress’s silence thus left open the validity of state right to work laws.

Interpreting Section 8(3) of the Wagner Act, however, the Supreme Court held that Congress has not preempted state regulation of union security agreements. See Algoma Plywood & Veneer Co. v. Wisconsin Employment Relations Bd., 336 U.S. 301, 69 S.Ct. 584, 93 L.Ed. 691 (1949). Section 8(3) of the Wagner Act forbade employers from discriminating against employees based on union membership or non-membership, but provided that the section should not be interpreted to prevent employers and labor organizations from agreeing to make union membership a condition of employment. See id. at 307, 69 S.Ct. 584. The Supreme Court read this proviso merely to “disclaim! ] a national policy hostile to the closed shop” and “other forms of union-security agreement[s].” Id.; see also N.L.R.B. v. Gener[716]*716al Motors Corp., 373 U.S. 734, 739-40, 83 S.Ct. 1453, 10 L.Ed.2d 670 (1963). So interpreted, the Wagner Act then left states “free to pursue their own more restrictive policies on the matter of union-security agreements.” Algoma Plywood, 336 U.S. at 307, 69 S.Ct. 584; see also id. at 305-13, 69 S.Ct. 584.

Over a decade after passing the Wagner Act, Congress amended the NLRA with the Taft-Hartley Act. Labor Management Relations Act (Taft-Hartley Act), Pub.L. 80-101, 61 Stat. 136 (1947). The amendments left intact the prohibition against discrimination based on union-membership status, but having found the closed shop susceptible to abuse, Congress outlawed it. See General Motors, 373 U.S. at 740-41, 83 S.Ct. 1453. Congress accordingly rewrote Section 8(3) — which it renumbered as Section 8(a)(3) — to permit only union-shop and agency-shop arrangements requiring union membership (or its equivalent) no earlier than 30 days after the start of employment.3 Id.; see also 29 U.S.C.

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15 F. Supp. 3d 712, 2014 WL 1424463, 198 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2853, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 57028, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/michigan-state-afl-cio-v-callaghan-mied-2014.