| Lechmere, Inc. v. National Labor Relations Board | ||||||||||||
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| Argued November 12, 1991 Decided January 27, 1992 |
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| Holding | ||||||||||||
| Store owner did not committ unfair labor practice under 8(a)(1) of National Labor Relations Act by barring nonemployee union organizers from parking lot. | ||||||||||||
| Court membership | ||||||||||||
| Chief Justice: William Rehnquist Associate Justices: Byron White, Harry Blackmun, John Paul Stevens, Sandra Day O'Connor, Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy, David Souter, Clarence Thomas |
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| Case opinions | ||||||||||||
| Majority by: Thomas Joined by: Rehnquist, O'Connor, Scalia, Kennedy, Souter Dissent by: White, Blackmun, Stevens |
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| Laws applied | ||||||||||||
| National Labor Relations Act, | ||||||||||||
Lechmere, Inc. William Hubbs Rehnquist (October 1 1924 – September 3 2005 was an American lawyer, jurist, and a political figure who served as an Associate Justice Byron Raymond White ( June 8, 1917 &ndash April 15, 2002) won fame both as a football Running back and as an associate justice of Harry Andrew Blackmun ( November 12, 1908 &ndash March 4, 1999) was an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States John Paul Stevens (born April 20, 1920) is currently the most senior Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Sandra Day O'Connor (born March 26, 1930) is an American Jurist. (born March 11, 1936) is an American Jurist and the second most senior Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States Anthony McLeod Kennedy (born July 23, 1936) has been an Associate Justice of the U For the Australian artist see David Henry Souter. David Hackett Souter (ˈsutɚ born September 17, 1939) has been an Clarence Thomas (born June 23, 1948) is an American Jurist. He has been serving as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United Title 29 of the United States Code is a code that outlines labor in the United States v. National Labor Relations Board, 502 U.S. 527 (1992), is a landmark decision of the Supreme Court of the United States case on union rights and private property rights. Case citation is the system used in many countries to identify the decisions in past Court cases either in special series of books called reporters Year 1992 ( MCMXCII) was a Leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1992 Gregorian calendar) The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest judicial body in the United States and leads the federal judiciary. A trade union or labour union is an organization of workers who have banded together to achieve common goals in key areas such as wages hours and working conditions forming Property is any physical or virtual entity that is owned by an individual It forbids nonemployee union organizers from soliciting support on private property, except in the case where no reasonable alternatives exist.
Background
Lechmere, Inc. owned a retail store in a shopping plaza in a metropolitan area, and also was part owner of the plaza's parking lot. Employees of Lechmere, Inc. who drove to work used this lot to park their vehicles during their shifts. This parking lot was separated from a public highway by a strip of land which was almost entirely public property. Local union organizers, not employees of Lechmere, Inc. , attempted to organize Lechmere employees by placing promotional handbills on the windshields of cars parked in the employee area of the lot. After this, Lechmere denied the organizers access to the lot. This act caused the organizers to instead distribute their handbills from the aforementioned strip of public land between the lot and the highway.
The union filed an unfair labor practice charge to the NLRB (the National Labor Relations Board), claiming that Lechmere had violated §7 of the NLRA (the National Labor Relations Act) by barring them access to the parking lot. The National Labor Relations Board (or NLRB) is an Independent agency of the United States Government charged with conducting The National Labor Relations Act (or Wagner Act) is a 1935 United States federal law that protects the rights of most workers in the Private sector The applicable language of the law cited was the guarantee of the NLRA that employees have, "the right to self-organization, to form, join, or assist labor organizations," (§7) and that it is an unfair labor practice for an employer, "to interfere with, restrain, or coerce employees" in exercising their §7 rights. The NLRB affirmed the union's grievance, and the Court of Appeals enforced the NLRB's decision.
The Decision
The Supreme Court reversed the lower court's decision based on three primary faults observed with the complaint:
- The NLRA "confers rights only on employees, not on unions or their nonemployee organizers. The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest judicial body in the United States and leads the federal judiciary. " They reasoned that the NLRA, while guaranteeing that employees would be free to organize if those so chose, the employer is not obligated to allow nonemployee union representatives access to their private property.
- §7 of the NLRA does not apply to nonemployee union organizers except when, "the inaccessibility of employees makes ineffective the reasonable attempts by nonemployees to communicate with them through the usual channels. " The Court reasoned it was improper to even begin a balancing test with regards to 7 and private property rights unless "reasonable access to employees is infeasible. "
- The union failed in demonstrating that there were any "unique obstacles" that prevented reasonable union access to the employees. The employees did not live in the shopping plaza, so they were not beyond the union's reach, and the Court further reasoned that the mere size of the city itself did not render the employees "inaccessible. " The Court cited the fact that the union had been able to directly contact at least 20 employees regarding the organization.
The opinion of the Court was delivered by Justice Thomas, who was joined by Chief Justice Rehnquist and Justices O'Connor, Scalia, Kennedy, and Souter. Clarence Thomas (born June 23, 1948) is an American Jurist. He has been serving as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United William Hubbs Rehnquist (October 1 1924 – September 3 2005 was an American lawyer, jurist, and a political figure who served as an Associate Justice Sandra Day O'Connor (born March 26, 1930) is an American Jurist. (born March 11, 1936) is an American Jurist and the second most senior Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States Anthony McLeod Kennedy (born July 23, 1936) has been an Associate Justice of the U For the Australian artist see David Henry Souter. David Hackett Souter (ˈsutɚ born September 17, 1939) has been an Justice White filed a dissenting opinion, joined by Justice Blackmun. Byron Raymond White ( June 8, 1917 &ndash April 15, 2002) won fame both as a football Running back and as an associate justice of Harry Andrew Blackmun ( November 12, 1908 &ndash March 4, 1999) was an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States Justice Stevens filed a separate dissenting opinion. John Paul Stevens (born April 20, 1920) is currently the most senior Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.
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