| Lechmere, Inc. v. National Labor Relations Board | ||||||
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Supreme Court of the United States |
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| Argued November 12, 1991 Decided January 27, 1992 |
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| Full case name | Lechmere, Inc. v. National Labor Relations Board | |||||
| Citations | 502 U.S. 527 (more) 112 S. Ct. 841; 117 L. Ed. 2d 79; 1992 U.S. LEXIS 555; 60 U.S.L.W. 4145; 120 Lab. Cas. (CCH) P11,066; 139 L.R.R.M. 2225; 92 Cal. Daily Op. Service 743; 92 Daily Journal DAR 1235 |
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| Prior history | On appeal from the Court of Appeals for the First Circuit | |||||
| Holding | ||||||
| Store owner did not commit unfair labor practice under 8(a)(1) of National Labor Relations Act by barring nonemployee union organizers from parking lot. | ||||||
| Court membership | ||||||
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| Case opinions | ||||||
| Majority | Thomas, joined by Rehnquist, O'Connor, Scalia, Kennedy, Souter | |||||
| Dissent | White, joined by Blackmun | |||||
| Dissent | Stevens | |||||
| Laws applied | ||||||
| National Labor Relations Act, 29 U.S.C. § 157 | ||||||
Lechmere, Inc. v. National Labor Relations Board, 502 U.S. 527 (1992), is a landmark decision of the Supreme Court of the United States case on union rights and private property rights. It forbids nonemployee union organizers from soliciting support on private property, except in the case where no reasonable alternatives exist.
Contents |
Lechmere, Inc. owned a retail store in a shopping plaza in a metropolitan area, and also was part owner of the plaza's parking lot. Employees of Lechmere, Inc. who drove to work used this lot to park their vehicles during their shifts. This parking lot was separated from a public highway by a strip of land which was almost entirely public property. Local union organizers, not employees of Lechmere, Inc., attempted to organize Lechmere employees by placing promotional handbills on the windshields of cars parked in the employee area of the lot. After this, Lechmere denied the organizers access to the lot. This act caused the organizers to instead distribute their handbills from the aforementioned strip of public land between the lot and the highway.
The union filed an unfair labor practice charge to the NLRB (the National Labor Relations Board), claiming that Lechmere had violated §7 of the NLRA (the National Labor Relations Act) by barring them access to the parking lot. The applicable language of the law cited was the guarantee of the NLRA that employees have, "the right to self-organization, to form, join, or assist labor organizations," (§7) and that it is an unfair labor practice for an employer, "to interfere with, restrain, or coerce employees" in exercising their §7 rights. The NLRB affirmed the union's grievance, and the Court of Appeals enforced the NLRB's decision.
The Supreme Court reversed the lower court's decision based on three primary faults observed with the complaint:
The opinion of the Court was delivered by Justice Thomas, who was joined by Chief Justice Rehnquist and Justices O'Connor, Scalia, Kennedy, and Souter. Justice White filed a dissenting opinion, joined by Justice Blackmun. Justice Stevens filed a separate dissenting opinion.
After the decision, the Court of Appeals remanded the case to the NLRB to consider whether the Lechmere Company had violated Section 8(a)(1) by directing the non-employee union organizers to leave the public grassy area. The NLRB reaffirmed its previous ruling, holding that "the Supreme Court's vindication of the [employer's] private-property rights, if anything, elevates the gravity of [the employer's] attempt to bar union access to public property."