Building & Constr. Trades Council v. Associated Builders & Contractors of Mass./R. I., Inc., 507 U.S. 218, 8 (1993)

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Cite as: 507 U. S. 218 (1993)

Opinion of the Court

two separate remedies are brought to bear on the same activity, a conflict is imminent"). Garmon pre-emption prohibits regulation even of activities that the NLRA only arguably protects or prohibits. See Wisconsin Dept. of Industry v. Gould Inc., 475 U. S. 282, 286 (1986). This rule of pre-emption is designed to prevent conflict between, on the one hand, state and local regulation and, on the other, Congress' "integrated scheme of regulation," Garmon, 359 U. S., at 247, embodied in §§ 7 and 8 of the NLRA, which includes the choice of the NLRB, rather than state or federal courts, as the appropriate body to implement the Act. Metropolitan Life Ins. Co. v. Massachusetts, 471 U. S., at 748-749, and n. 26.

In Garmon, this Court held that a state court was precluded from awarding damages to employers for economic injuries resulting from peaceful picketing by labor unions that had not been selected by a majority of employees as their bargaining agent. 359 U. S., at 246. The Court said: "Our concern is with delimiting areas of conduct which must be free from state regulation if national policy is to be left unhampered." Ibid. In Gould, we held that the NLRA pre-empts a statute that disqualifies from doing business with the State persons who have violated the NLRA three times within a 5-year period. We emphasized there that "the Garmon rule prevents States not only from setting forth standards of conduct inconsistent with the substantive requirements of the NLRA, but also from providing their own regulatory or judicial remedies for conduct prohibited or arguably prohibited by the Act." 475 U. S., at 286 (citing 359 U. S., at 247).

A second pre-emption principle, "Machinists preemption," see Machinists v. Wisconsin Employment Relations Comm'n, 427 U. S., at 147, prohibits state and municipal regulation of areas that have been left " 'to be controlled by the free play of economic forces.' " Id., at 140 (citation omitted). See also Golden State Transit Corp. v. Los

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