P. S. Guss v. Utah Labor Relations Board

296 P.2d 733, 5 Utah 2d 68, 1956 Utah LEXIS 171, 38 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2137
CourtUtah Supreme Court
DecidedApril 30, 1956
Docket8393
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 296 P.2d 733 (P. S. Guss v. Utah Labor Relations Board) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Utah Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
P. S. Guss v. Utah Labor Relations Board, 296 P.2d 733, 5 Utah 2d 68, 1956 Utah LEXIS 171, 38 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2137 (Utah 1956).

Opinion

McDonough, chief justice.

The plaintiff, P. S. Guss, d/b/a Photo Sound Manufacturing Company, is engaged in the manufacture of specialized equipment for the United States Air Force on a contract basis. The amount of these contracts with the government or its agencies totaled $152,025.50, and materials were purchased outside the state in an amount “a little less than $50,000.” The finished products were shipped to Air Force Bases both within the state and without.

*69 In December, 19S3, the United Steelworkers of America, CIO, filed with the National Labor Relations Board, a petition for certification of that union as the bargaining representative for employees of the company. The company and the union entered into an agreement for a consent election to be conducted by the N.L.R.B., the agreement reciting that the employer is “engaged in commerce within the meaning of Section 2(6, 7) 1 of the National Labor Relations Act.” The election was won by the union and the United Steelworkers of America, CIO, was certified by the N.L.R.B.

The union filed charges of violations under Section 8 2 of the National Labor Relations Act with the N.L.R.B., alleging unfair labor practices on the part of the employer. On July 21, 1954, the National Labor Relations Board declined to consider the charges of the union, stating:

“Further proceedings are not warranted, inasmuch as the operations of the company involved are predominately local in character and it does not appear that it would effectuate the policy of the Act to exercise jurisdiction.”

Thereafter, the union filed substantially the same charges with the State Board, which, after a hearing on the charges, ordered Photo Sound to cease and desist from refusing to bargain collectively with the CIO and further directing that certain discharged employees be reinstated with compensation for the time for which they had been unemployed.

The employer obtained this Writ of Review for the purpose of questioning the jurisdiction of the Utah Labor Relations Board. The sole question before us is whether the state board may act in relation to a business admittedly engaged in interstate commerce and subject to the National Labor Relations Act and the National Labor Relations Board when that Board declines, upon the grounds stated, to exercise jurisdiction.

Apparently, the N.L.R.B. determined not to take jurisdiction of this matter on the basis of jurisdictional standards established by the Board, summarized in N.L.R.B. Press Release R-449, July 15, 1954. These standards, promulgated to relieve the federal agency of some of the weight of matters falling within its jurisdiction under the broad provisions of Section 2(6, 7) of the Act, select arbitrary lines determined by the nature of the business and its size. The difficulty here is that if the Utah Labor Board has no jurisdiction and the National Labor Board refuses to accept jurisdiction, the parties are left to their own devices in securing industrial harmony, although both the federal and local government have evidenced concern with labor relations in providing law and agencies to administer it.

Plaintiff cites to us language from many cases decided by the U. S. Supreme Court *70 concerning whether or not Congress intend-end to pre-empt the entire field of labor-management. relations within its power to do so under the commerce clause of the Constitution, but concedes that an instance of the refusal of the N.L.R.B. to take jurisdiction, as here, has never been litigated before that court.

Bethlehem Steel Co. v. New York State Labor Relations Board, 1947, 330 U.S. 767, 67 S.Ct. 1026, 1031, 91 L.Ed. 1234, involved the question of whether the state board could certify a foremen’s union subject to the National Labor Relations Act where the national board had refused to certify that union as a matter of board policy. The court stated through Mr. Justice Jackson:

“ * * * If the two boards attempt to exercise a concurrent jurisdiction to decide the appropriate unit of representation, action by one necessarily denies the discretion of the other. The second to act either must follow the first, which would make its action useless and vain, or depart from it, which would produce a mischievous conflict. The State argues for a rule that would enable it to act until the federal board had acted in the same case. But we do not think that a case by case test of federal supremacy is permissible here. The federal board has jurisdiction of the industry in which these particular employers are engaged and has asserted control of their labor relations in general. It asserts, and rightfully so, * * * its power to decide whether these foremen may constitute themselves a bargaining unit. We do not believe this leaves room for the operation of the state authority asserted.”

A similar result was reached in La Crosse Tel. Corp. v. Wisconsin Employment Relations Board, 1948, 336 U.S. 18, 69 S.Ct. 379, 383, 93 L.Ed. 463 and the Supreme Court further emphasized its view that a state’s certification of a bargaining unit in the absence of N.L.R.B. action created conflict in the field of labor relations of groups in interstate commerce:

“ * * * We know that administrative practice also disposes of cases in which no order has been entered. Disposition of controversies on an administrative as distinguished from a formal basis will often reflect the attitudes of the National Board which have not been reduced to orders in those specific cases. A certification by a state board under a different or conflicting theory of representation may therefore be as readily disruptive of the practice under the federal act as if the orders of the two boards made a head-on collision. * * *»

On the basis of these two cases, the Court reversed a. decision of the Wisconsin Supreme Court, Plankinton Packing Co. v. Wisconsin Employment Relations Board, 255 Wis. 285, 38 N.W.2d 688 which held that the State Employment Relations Board had jurisdiction over a matter of unfair *71 labor practices in the absence of a federal board ruling, Plankinton Packing Co. v. Wisconsin Employment Relations Board, 1950, 338 U.S. 953, 70 S.Ct. 491, 94 L.Ed. 588.

However, certain inroads have been made upon the doctrine of exclusiveness of the National Board’s jurisdiction under the familiar principle the Congress may determine how far its regulation of interstate commerce shall go, and when it. circumscribes its regulation, and occupies only a limited field, state regulation outside that limited field is not forbidden or displaced. Where the peace of the community is threatened by mass picketing, threats, property damage, and obstruction of streets, a state may act to enjoin such activities.

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Bluebook (online)
296 P.2d 733, 5 Utah 2d 68, 1956 Utah LEXIS 171, 38 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2137, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/p-s-guss-v-utah-labor-relations-board-utah-1956.