Cite as: 517 U. S. 392 (1996)
Opinion of the Court
1106 (per curiam), cert. denied, 459 U. S. 1069 (1982), and Valmac Industries, Inc. v. NLRB, 599 F. 2d 246, 249 (1979). 48 F. 3d, at 1371-1372.4 Other Federal Courts of Appeals, in conflict with the Fourth and Eighth Circuits, have held that live-haul workers employed by vertically integrated poultry producers are engaged in "agriculture." See, e. g., Coleman v. Sanderson Farms, Inc., 629 F. 2d 1077, 1079 (CA5 1980); NLRB v. Ryckebosch, Inc., 471 F. 2d 20, 21 (CA9 1972). We granted certiorari to resolve the division of authority. 516 U. S. 963 (1995).
II
The NLRA's protections extend only to workers who qualify as "employee[s]" under § 2(3) of the Act. 29 U. S. C. § 152(3). The term "employee," NLRA § 2(3) states, "[does] not include any individual employed as an agricultural laborer." Ibid. No definition of "agricultural laborer" appears in the NLRA. But annually since 1946, Congress has instructed, in riders to Appropriations Acts for the Board: "[A]gricultural laborer," for NLRA § 2(3) purposes, shall derive its meaning from the definition of "agriculture" supplied by § 3(f) of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA). See Bayside Enterprises, Inc. v. NLRB, 429 U. S. 298, 300, and n. 6 (1977).5
Section 3(f) of the FLSA provides:
" 'Agriculture' includes farming in all its branches and among other things includes the cultivation and tillage
4 Judge Niemeyer dissented in relevant part; like dissenting Board member Oviatt, see supra, at 396, n. 3, he ranked the live-haul employees as "agricultural laborer[s]" unprotected by the NLRA. 48 F. 3d, at 1373.
5 The most recent congressional rider states: "[N]o part of [the Board's] appropriation shall be available to organize or assist in organizing agricultural laborers or used in connection with investigations, hearings, directives, or orders concerning bargaining units composed of agricultural laborers as referred to in section 2(3) of the [NLRA] . . . and as defined in section 3(f) of the [FLSA]." Pub. L. 103-333, Tit. IV, 108 Stat. 2569-2570.
397
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