American Federation of Labor v. National Labor Relations Board

Background

A group of unions affiliated with one labor federation challenged a National Labor Relations Board decision. The Board had investigated and then certified a rival union as the exclusive bargaining representative for longshore workers employed by many West Coast shipping employers. The AFL-affiliated unions said that combining employees of many employers into one bargaining unit and naming the rival union deprived some workers of choosing their own representatives. They asked the federal Court of Appeals in Washington to set aside the certification, but that court dismissed the petition for lack of authority to review.

Reasoning

The key question was whether the Board’s certification counts as a “final order” that an appeals court can review under the Act’s review procedure. The Court explained that the statute draws a clear line between two Board functions: certifications of who represents employees (under one section) and orders that stop unfair labor practices (under another). The law and its legislative history show Congress meant appellate review to reach Board orders about unfair practices, not routine representation certificates. The Court therefore concluded the certification was not the kind of “order” reviewable in the courts of appeals under the Act, except when a certification is folded into a later unfair-practice case as the statute describes. The Court affirmed the dismissal.

Real world impact

The ruling leaves most challenges to Board representation certifications outside immediate appeals-court review. Rival unions and employers cannot usually get direct appellate relief from a certification; their remedies come through the enforcement procedures tied to unfair-practice orders or through Congress. The Court did not decide whether a different kind of lawsuit in a lower court might be possible on a suitable record.