National Labor Relations Board v. Truck Drivers Local Union No. 449

Background

A group of eight linen-supply employers bargained together with a union that represented their truck drivers. During contract talks in 1953 the union used a "whipsaw" plan by striking and picketing one member, Frontier, while negotiations continued. The seven other employers temporarily laid off their drivers, saying the layoffs were defensive and would end if the strike stopped. The union filed a charge alleging the temporary lockouts violated employees’ rights, and the National Labor Relations Board dismissed the charge while a federal appeals court later found the lockouts unlawful.

Reasoning

The Court addressed whether non-struck employers may lawfully lock out workers to protect multi-employer bargaining. It concluded Congress did not intend to forbid multi-employer bargaining and left delicate conflict resolution to the Board’s judgment. The Board reasonably inferred the whipsaw strike threatened the association’s bargaining position, and it permissibly balanced employee strike rights against employers’ interest in preserving group bargaining, finding the lockouts defensive rather than retaliatory.

Real world impact

The ruling means employers who bargain jointly can, in limited cases, use short lockouts to defend the group bargaining unit against whipsaw strikes. It preserves the Board’s discretion to weigh competing interests and does not endorse lockouts meant to destroy unions or evade bargaining duties. The decision reverses the appeals court and leaves future disputes to administrative factfinding and limited judicial review.

Dissents or concurrances

The Court noted the Court of Appeals had required proof of unusual economic hardship to justify a lockout, a view the Supreme Court rejected as too narrow.