Allentown Mack Sales & Service, Inc. v. NLRB, 522 U.S. 359, 3 (1998)

Page:   Index   Previous  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10  11  12  13  14  15  Next

Cite as: 522 U. S. 359 (1998)

Opinion of the Court

Stephen D. Shawe argued the cause for petitioner. With him on the briefs were Earle K. Shawe and Er ic Hemmendinger.

Jonathan E. Nuechterlein argued the cause for respondent. With him on the brief were Acting Solicitor General Dellinger, Deputy Solicitor General Wallace, Linda Sher, Norton J. Come, and John Emad Arbab.*

Justice Scalia delivered the opinion of the Court. Under longstanding precedent of the National Labor Relations Board, an employer who believes that an incumbent union no longer enjoys the support of a majority of its employees has three options: to request a formal, Board-supervised election, to withdraw recognition from the union and refuse to bargain, or to conduct an internal poll of employee support for the union. The Board has held that the latter two are unfair labor practices unless the employer can show that it had a "good-faith reasonable doubt" about the union's majority support. We must decide whether the Board's standard for employer polling is rational and consistent with the National Labor Relations Act, and whether the Board's factual determinations in this case are supported by substantial evidence in the record.

I

Mack Trucks, Inc., had a factory branch in Allentown, Pennsylvania, whose service and parts employees were represented by Local Lodge 724 of the International Association

*Briefs of amici curiae urging reversal were filed for the Chamber of Commerce of the United States by John S. Irving, Christopher Landau, Stephen A. Bokat, Robin S. Conrad, and Mona C. Zeiberg; for the American Trucking Associations, Inc., by James D. Holzhauer, Timothy S. Bishop, and Daniel R. Barney; and for the Labor Policy Association by Robert E. Williams and Daniel V. Yager.

Laurence Gold, Jonathan P. Hiatt, and Marsha S. Berzon filed a brief for the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations as amicus curiae urging affirmance.

361

Page:   Index   Previous  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10  11  12  13  14  15  Next

Last modified: October 4, 2007