396
Opinion of the Court
truck, with the loaded cases and the crew, to Holly Farms' processing plant. There, the birds are slaughtered and prepared for shipment to retail stores.
B
In 1989, the Chauffeurs, Teamsters and Helpers, Local 391 (Union), filed a representation petition with the National Labor Relations Board (Board or NLRB), seeking an election in a proposed unit that included live-haul employees working out of Holly Farms' Wilkesboro processing plant. Over Holly Farms' objection, the Board approved the bargaining unit, ruling that the live-haul workers were "employee[s]" protected by the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA or Act), 49 Stat. 449, as amended, 29 U. S. C. § 151 et seq., rather than "agricultural laborer[s]" excluded from the Act's coverage by § 2(3) of the NLRA, 29 U. S. C. § 152(3). See Holly Farms Corp., 311 N. L. R. B. 273, 273, n. 4, 284 (1993).3 After further proceedings not relevant here, the Board ordered the corporation to bargain with the Union as the representative of the unit. Id., at 285-286.
The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit enforced the Board's order. The court held that the Board's classification of the live-haul workers as "employee[s]," rather than "agricultural laborer[s]," rested "on a reasonable interpretation of the Act." 48 F. 3d 1360, 1372 (1995). The Board's reading, the court added, was consistent with the NLRB's prior decisions, see Imco Poultry, Div. of Int'l Multifoods Corp., 202 N. L. R. B. 259, 260-261 (1973), adhered to in Seaboard Farms of Kentucky, Inc., 311 N. L. R. B. No. 159 (1993), and Draper Valley Farms, Inc., 307 N. L. R. B. 1440 (1992), and with the Eighth Circuit's case law, see NLRB v. Hudson Farms, Inc., 681 F. 2d 1105,
3 Board member Oviatt dissented from the Board's classification of the live-haul employees. He viewed the crew members as "agricultural laborer[s]," and therefore unprotected by the NLRA. Holly Farms Corp., 311 N. L. R. B., at 287.
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