596
Ginsburg, J., dissenting
The Court does not deny that the phrase "in the interest of the employer" was intended to limit, not to expand, the category "supervisor." 15 Yet the reading the Court gives to the phrase allows it to provide only one example of workers who would not fit the description: "The language ensures . . . that union stewards who adjust grievances are not considered supervisory employees and deprived of the Act's protections." Ante, at 579. Section 2(11)'s expression, "in the interest of the employer," however, modifies all 12 of the listed supervisory activities, not just the adjustment of grievances. Tellingly, the single example the Court gives, "union stewards who adjust grievances," rests on the very distinction the Board has endeavored to apply in all quarters of the workplace: one between "management" interests peculiar to the employer, and the sometimes conflicting interests of employees.16
15 The Court does maintain, however, that Congress meant to embrace our statement in Packard Motor Car Co. v. NLRB, 330 U. S. 485 (1947), that "[e]very employee, from the very fact of employment in the master's business, is required to act in his interest." Id., at 488; see ante, at 578. But Congress' purpose, in enacting § 2(11), was to overturn the Court's holding in Packard Motor Car. Thus it is more likely that Congress was taken by Justice Douglas' dissenting view that "acting in the interest of the employer" fits employees who act for management "not only in formulating but also in executing its labor policies." 330 U. S., at 496. Moreover, Congress had included the phrase, "in the interest of the employer," the year before Packard Motor Car, in a predecessor bill to the Labor-Management Relations Act that defined the term "supervisor" almost identically. See n. 14, supra. Finally, the Court acknowledged in Packard Motor Car that the phrase "interest of the employer" may also be read more narrowly, in contradistinction to employees' interests in improving their compensation and working conditions. 330 U. S., at 489, 490. Packard Motor Car, then, does not support the conclusion that the words, "interest of the employer," have a plain meaning inconsistent with the interpretation the Board has given them in supervisor cases.
16 The Court suggests that the Board has "rea[d] the responsible direction portion of § 2(11) out of the statute in nurse cases." Ante, at 579 (referring to the words "responsibly to direct" in § 2(11)'s list of supervisory activities). The author of the amendment that inserted those words
Page: Index Previous 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 NextLast modified: October 4, 2007