Fred M. Vinson

“ The utility companies, the State of Wisconsin and other states as amici stress the importance of gas and transit service to the local community and urge that predominately local problems are best left to local governmental authority for solution. On the other hand, petitioners and the National Labor Relations Board, as amicus, argue that prohibition of strikes with reliance upon compulsory arbitration for ultimate solution of labor disputes destroys the free collective bargaining declared by Congress to be the bulwark of the national labor policy. ”

“ Michigan, in O'Brien, sought to impose conditions on the right to strike and now Wisconsin seeks to abrogate that right altogether insofar as petitioners are concerned. [22] Such state legislation must yield as conflicting with the exercise of federally protected labor rights.
'If we begin with public utilities, it will be said that coal and steel are just as important as public utilities. I do not know where we could draw the line. So far as the bill is concerned, we have proceeded on the theory that there is a right to strike and that labor peace must be based on free collective bargaining. ”

“ In upholding the constitutionality of the Public Utility Anti-Strike Act, the Wisconsin Supreme Court stressed the importance of utility service to the public welfare and the plenary power which a state is accustomed to exercise over such enterprises. Petitioners' claim that the Wisconsin law conflicts with federal legislation enacted under the Commerce Clause of the Constitution (Art. I, § 8) was overruled, as were petitioners' contentions that the Wisconsin Act violates the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and the Thirteenth Amendment. ”

“ May the 'right' to strike be also limited by an otherwise valid State statute aimed at preventing a breakdown of public-utility service?
'Public utility employer' is defined in the Wisconsin Act to mean an employer 'engaged in the business of furnishing water, light, heat, gas, electric power, public passenger transportation or communication * * *.' § 111.51. Labor relations in such utilities have traditionally been subjected to regulation in a way that those in other industries have not. ”

“ Respondents rely upon that action as showing a congressional intent to carve out a separate field of 'emergency' labor disputes and, pointing to the fact that Congress acted only in respect to 'national emergencies,' respondents ask us to hold that Congress intended, by silence, to leave the states free to regulate 'local emergency' disputes. However, the Wisconsin Act before us is not 'emergency' legislation but a comprehensive code for the settlement of labor disputes between public-utility employers and employees. ”

“ Section 7 of the Labor Management Relations Act not only guarantees the right of self-organization and the right to strike, but also guarantees to individual employees the 'right to refrain from any or all of such activities', at least in the absence of a union shop or similar contractual arrangement applicable to the individual. Since the N.L.R.B. was given jurisdiction to enforce the rights of the employees, it was clear that the Federal Act had occupied this field to the exclusion of state regulation. ”

“ In any event, congressional imposition of certain restrictions on petitioners' right to strike, far from supporting the Wisconsin Act, shows that Congress has closed to state regulation the field of peaceful strikes in industries affecting commerce. ”

“ Due regard for basic elements in our federal system makes it appropriate that Congress be explicit if it desires to remove from the orbit of State regulation matters of such intimate concern to a locality as the continued maintenance of services on which the decent life of a modern community rests.
The real issue before the Court is whether the Wisconsin legislation os conflicts with the specific terms or the policy fairly attributable to the provisions of the federal statute that the two cannot stand together. ”

“ The conditions developed in industry may be such that those engaged in it cannot continue their struggle without danger to the community. But it is not for judges to determine whether such conditions exist, nor is it their function to set the limits of permissible contest and to declare the duties which the new situation demands. ”

“ But we content ourselves with citation of examples of direct conflict found in the records before us. In the case of the transit workers, the union agreed to continue collective bargaining after the strike became imminent, whereas the company insisted upon invocation of the compulsory arbitration features of the Wisconsin Act. That act requires that collective bargaining continue until an 'impasse' is reached, Wis.Stat. 1949, § 111.52, whereas the Federal Act requires that both employer and employees continue to bargain collectively, [26] even though a strike may actually be in progress. ”

“ Rather, they imply that the States retain the power to protect the public interest in emergencies economically and practically confined within a State. It is not reasonable to impute to Congress the desire to leave States helpless in meeting local situations when Congress restricted national intervention to national emergencies.
Only one other of the petitioners' arguments raises a substantial question of conflict. [31] Section 111.58 of the Wisconson Act prohibits the arbitrator from making an award 'which would infringe upon the right of the employer to manage his business'. ”

“ Wisconsin Board, supra, a conflict was found in the bargaining units determined under the State and federal acts. In Plankinton Packing Co. v. Winconsin Board, 338 U.S. 953, 70 S.Ct. 491, a State superimposed upon federal outlawry of conduct as an 'unfair labor practice' its own finding of unfairness. In International Union of United Automobile Workers v. O'Brien, 339 U.S. 454, 70 S.Ct. 781, 94 L.Ed. 978, a State act covering all industry permitted strikes at a different time than the federal act and required, unlike federal law, a majority authorization for any strike. ”

“ That act vests in the state circuit courts jurisdiction to enjoin violations of the Act, Wis.Stat.1949, § 111.63, the substantive provision involved in these cases providing as follows: 'It shall be unlawful for any group of employes of a public utility employer acting in concert to call a strike or to go out on strike, or to cause any work stoppage or slowdown which would cause an interruption of an essential service; it also shall be unlawful for any public utility employer to lock out his employes when such action would cause an interruption of essential service ”

“ Compare Conspiracy and Protection of Property Act, 38 & 39 Victoria, c. 86, par. 4 (1875) . The range of control over business generally has been greatly extended by modern law. But the historic amenability to legal control of public calling is rooted deep. ”