Cite as: 512 U. S. 246 (1994)
Opinion of the Court
of pay, rules, or working conditions." 45 U. S. C. § 151a. Minor disputes involve "controversies over the meaning of an existing collective bargaining agreement in a particular fact situation." Trainmen v. Chicago R. & I. R. Co., 353 U. S. 30, 33 (1957). Thus, "major disputes seek to create contractual rights, minor disputes to enforce them." Conrail, 491 U. S., at 302, citing Burley, 325 U. S., at 723.
Petitioners contend that the conflict over respondent's firing is a minor dispute. If so, it must be resolved only through the RLA mechanisms, including the carrier's internal dispute-resolution processes and an adjustment board established by the employer and the unions. See 45 U. S. C. § 184; Buell, 480 U. S., at 563; Conrail, 491 U. S., at 302. Thus, a determination that respondent's complaints constitute a minor dispute would pre-empt his state-law actions.
B
The Court's inquiry into the scope of minor disputes begins, of course, with the text of the statute. Petitioners point out that the statute defines minor disputes to include "disputes . . . growing out of grievances, or out of the interpretation or application of [CBA's]." Petitioners argue that this disjunctive language must indicate that "grievances" means something other than labor-contract disputes, else the term "grievances" would be superfluous. Accordingly, petitioners suggest that "grievances" should be read to mean all employment-related disputes, including those based on statutory or common law. Even if we were persuaded that the word "or" carried this weight, but cf. United States v. Olano, 507 U. S. 725, 732 (1993) (reading "error or defect" to create one category of "error"), citing United States v. Young, 470 U. S. 1, 15, n. 12 (1985); McNally v. United States, 483 U. S. 350, 358-359 (1987) (second phrase in disjunctive added simply to make the meaning of the first phrase "unmistakable"), petitioners' interpretation produces an overlap not unlike the one it purports to avoid. Their
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