Cite as: 512 U. S. 246 (1994)
Opinion of the Court
subject to arbitration under the RLA does not deprive an employee of his opportunity to bring an FELA action for damages. . . . The FELA not only provides railroad workers with substantive protection against negligent conduct that is independent of the employer's obligations under its collective-bargaining agreement, but also affords injured workers a remedy suited to their needs, unlike the limited relief that seems to be available through the Adjustment Board. It is inconceivable that Congress intended that a worker who suffered a disabling injury would be denied recovery under the FELA simply because he might also be able to process a narrow labor grievance under the RLA to a successful conclusion." 480 U. S., at 564-565.
It likened Buell to other cases in which the Court had concluded that "notwithstanding the strong policies encouraging arbitration, 'different considerations apply where the employee's claim is based on rights arising out of a statute designed to provide minimum substantive guarantees to individual workers,' " id., at 565, quoting Barrentine v. Arkansas-Best Freight System, Inc., 450 U. S. 728, 737 (1981), and distinguished it from Andrews, which involved a state wrongful-discharge claim "based squarely" on an alleged breach of a CBA, 480 U. S., at 566.6
6 Buell, of course, involved possible RLA preclusion of a cause of action arising out of a federal statute, while this case involves RLA pre-emption of a cause of action arising out of state law and existing entirely independent of the CBA. That distinction does not rob Buell of its force in this context. See Lingle v. Norge Div. of Magic Chef, Inc., 486 U. S. 399, 412 (1988) (Buell principles applicable to determine whether federal labor law pre-empts a state statute). Principles of federalism demand no less caution in finding that a federal statute pre-empts state law. See Fort Halifax Packing Co. v. Coyne, 482 U. S. 1, 21 (1987) (pre-emption of state statute "should not be lightly inferred in this [labor] area, since the establishment of labor standards falls within the traditional police power of the State").
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