Hawaiian Airlines, Inc. v. Norris, 512 U.S. 246, 18 (1994)

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Cite as: 512 U. S. 246 (1994)

Opinion of the Court

at 324, that a state-law claim is pre-empted where it "depend[s] on the interpretation" of the CBA, and with the description in Conrail, 491 U. S., at 305, of a minor dispute as one that can be "conclusively resolved" by reference to an existing CBA. Lingle, in fact, expressly relied on Buell, see 486 U. S., at 411-412, just as earlier RLA cases have drawn analogies to LMRA principles, see, e. g., Machinists v. Central Airlines, Inc., 372 U. S. 682, 692 (1963). Given this convergence in the pre-emption standards under the two statutes, we conclude that Lingle provides an appropriate framework for addressing pre-emption under the RLA, and we adopt the Lingle standard to resolve claims of RLA pre-emption.9

E

In reaching this conclusion, we reject petitioners' suggestion that this contract-dependent standard for minor dis-9 It is true, as petitioners observe, that the RLA and the LMRA are not identical in language, history, and purpose. The LMRA, unlike the RLA, does not mandate arbitration, nor does it prescribe the types of disputes to be submitted to arbitration under bargaining agreements. Nonetheless, the common purposes of the two statutes, the parallel development of RLA and LMRA pre-emption law, see, e. g., Machinists v. Central Airlines, Inc., 372 U. S. 682, 691-692 (1963); Allis-Chalmers Corp. v. Lueck, 471 U. S. 202, 210 (1985), and the desirability of having a uniform common law of labor law pre-emption, cf. Trainmen v. Jacksonville Terminal Co., 394 U. S. 369, 383-384 (1969), support the application of the Lingle standard in RLA cases as well.

Lower courts, too, have recognized the appropriateness of the Lingle standard to RLA pre-emption analysis. See, e. g., Anderson v. American Airlines, Inc., 2 F. 3d 590, 595 (CA5 1993) (applying Lingle to analyze RLA pre-emption); Davies v. American Airlines, Inc., 971 F. 2d 463, 466- 467 (CA10 1992) (same), cert. denied, 508 U. S. 950 (1993); O'Brien v. Consolidated Rail Corp., 972 F. 2d 1, 4 (CA1 1992) (same), cert. denied, 506 U. S. 1054 (1993); Maher v. New Jersey Transit Rail Operations, Inc., 125 N. J. 455, 472-473, 593 A. 2d 750, 758 (1991) (same). But see, e. g., Hubbard v. United Airlines, Inc., 927 F. 2d 1094, 1097 (CA9 1991) (Lingle does not govern in RLA cases); Lorenz v. CSX Transp., Inc., 980 F. 2d 263, 268 (CA4 1992) (same).

263

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