William O. Douglas

“ The certification in these cases has been reviewed and sustained by the highest court of Wisconsin. While that certification is not irrevocable for all time, [2] it fixes a status to which Wisconsin provides a sanction. For it is an unfair labor practice for an employer to refuse to bargain with the representative of a majority of the employees. ”

“ Disposition of controversies on an administrative as distinguished from a formal basis will often reflect the attitudes of the National Board which have not been reduced to orders in those specific cases. ”

“ We assumed in Allegheny Ludlum Steel Corp. v. Kelley, 330 U.S. 767, 67 S.Ct. 1026, 91 L.Ed. 1234, that the certification of a collective bargaining representative, sustained by the highest court of the state, was a final judgment, although it did not of itself command action but like the certification here was enforcible in law only by another proceeding. [6]
We think that is the correct view. The fact that Wisconsin's certification was not in the form of a command is immaterial. See American Federation of Labor v. National Labor Relations Board, 308 U.S. 401, 408, 60 S.Ct. ”

“ The argument is that under Wisconsin law the certification is no more than a report on the results of an investigation made known to the parties for such use as they may desire, that nothing can be done by any state agency to enforce observance of the certification, that the company cannot be required to bargain with the certified union until and unless an unfair practice charge is lodged against it, and that in such p oceeding all the issues involved in the certification proceeding can be relitigated. ”

“ In practical effect the true measure of conflict between the state and federal scheme of regulation may not be found only in the collision between the formal orders that the two boards may issue. We know that administrative practice also disposes of cases in which no order has been entered. ”