Cite as: 512 U. S. 246 (1994)
Opinion of the Court
Burley suggesting that minor disputes encompass state-law claims that exist independent of the CBA.
Conrail, like Burley, involved no pre-emption analysis. The parties agreed that the dispute—a workers' challenge to the railroad's drug-testing policies—was governed by the RLA, because Conrail's policy of conducting physical examinations was an implied term of the CBA. 491 U. S., at 301. The only question before the Court was whether the employer's drug-testing policy constituted an attempt to add a new term to the existing agreement, making it a major dispute subject to a "protracted process" of bargaining and mediation, id., at 303, or whether the testing reflected the employer's interpretation and application of an implied term of the existing contract, producing a minor dispute subject to a less onerous process of arbitration. We concluded that the dispute was minor, stating that "[t]he distinguishing feature of [a minor dispute] is that the dispute may be conclusively resolved by interpreting the existing [CBA]." Id., at 305, citing Garrison, The National Railroad Adjustment Board: A Unique Administrative Agency, 46 Yale L. J. 567, 568, 576 (1937). Obviously, to say that a minor dispute can be "conclusively resolved" by interpreting the CBA is another way of saying that the dispute does not involve rights that exist independent of the CBA.
Petitioners, however, pin their hopes on the observation that "[w]here an employer asserts a contractual right to take the contested action, the ensuing dispute is minor if the action is arguably justified by the terms of the parties' collective-bargaining agreement." 491 U. S., at 307 (emphasis added). They argue that this action involves a minor dispute because the termination of respondent was "arguably justified" by the CBA's provision permitting termination for "just cause." This "arguably justified" standard, however, was employed only for policing the line between major and minor disputes. Recognizing that accepting a party's characterization of a dispute as "minor" ran the risk of under-
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