U.S. Supreme Court BUFFALO FORGE CO. v. STEELWORKERS, 428 U.S. 397 (1976) 428 U.S. 397
[Page 428 U.S. 397, 398] an obligation to arbitrate or of depriving petitioner of its bargain. Boys Markets, supra, distinguished. Pp. 405-408.
(b) Nor was an injunction authorized solely because it was alleged that the sympathy strike violated the no-strike clause, since, although a 301 suit may be brought against strikes that breach collective-bargaining contracts, this does not mean that federal courts may enjoin contract violations despite the Norris-LaGuardia Act. P. 409.
(c) While the issue whether the sympathy strike violated the no-strike clause was arbitrable, it does not follow that the District Court was empowered not only to order arbitration but also to enjoin the strike pending the arbitrator's decision, since if an injunction could so issue a court could enjoin any alleged breach of a collective-bargaining contract pending the exhaustion of the applicable grievance and arbitration procedures, thus cutting deeply into the Norris-LaGuardia Act's policy and making courts potential participants in a wide range of arbitrable disputes under many collective-bargaining contracts, not just for the purpose of enforcing promises to arbitrate, but for the purpose of preliminary dealing with the factual and interpretative issues that are subjects for the arbitrator. Pp. 409-412.
517 F.2d 1207, affirmed.
WHITE, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which BURGER, C. J., and STEWART, BLACKMUN, and REHNQUIST, JJ., joined. STEVENS, J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which BRENNAN, MARSHALL, and POWELL, JJ., joined, post, p. 413.
Jeremy V. Cohen argued the cause and filed briefs for petitioner.
George H. Cohen argued the cause for respondents. With him on the brief were Elliot Bredhoff, Michael H. Gottesman, Robert M. Weinberg, Bernard Kleiman, Carl Frankel, Thomas P. McMahon, J. Albert Woll, and Laurence S. Gold.*
[Footnote *] Briefs of amici curiae urging reversal were filed by George R. Fearon and Charles E. Cooney. Jr., for Associated Industries of New York State, Inc.; by Guy Farmer and William A. Gershuny for Bituminous Coal Operators' Assn., Inc.; by Lawrence B. Kraus,
[Page 428 U.S. 397, 399] MR. JUSTICE WHITE delivered the opinion of the Court.
The issue for decision is whether a federal court may enjoin a sympathy strike pending the arbitrator's decision as to whether the strike is forbidden by the express no-strike clause contained in the collective-bargaining contract to which the striking union is a party.
I
The Buffalo Forge Co. (employer) operates three separate plant and office facilities in the Buffalo, N. Y., area. For some years production and maintenance (P&M) employees at the three locations have been represented by the United Steelworkers of America, AFL-CIO, and its Local Unions No. 1874 and No. 3732 (hereafter sometimes collectively the Union). The United Steelworkers is a party to the two separate collective-bargaining agreements between the locals and the employer. The contracts contain identical no-strike clauses,[Footnote 1] as well as grievance and arbitration provisions
[Page 428 U.S. 397, 400] for settling disputes over the interpretation and application of each contract. The latter provide:
"26. Should differences arise between the [employer] and any employee covered by this Agreement as to the meaning and application of the provisions of this Agreement, or should any trouble of any kind arise in the plant, there shall be no suspension of work on account of such differences, but an earnest effort shall be made to settle such differences immediately [under the six-step grievance and arbitration procedure provided in sections 27 through 32]."[Footnote 2]
[Page 428 U.S. 397, 401] which had led to the planned strike.[Footnote 3] The next day, at the Union's direction, the P&M employees honored the O&T picket line and stopped work at the three plants. They did not return to work until December 16, the first regular working day after the District Court denied the employer's prayer for a preliminary injunction.
The employer's complaint under 301 (a) of the Labor Management Relations Act, 1947,[Footnote 4] filed in District Court on November 26, claimed the work stoppage was in violation of the no-strike clause. Contending in the alternative that the work strike was caused by a specific incident involving P&M truck drivers' refusal to follow a supervisor's instructions to cross the O&T picket line. and that the question whether the P&M employees' work stoppage violated the no-strike clause was itself arbitrable, the employer requested damages, a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction against the strike, and an order compelling the parties to submit
[Page 428 U.S. 397, 402] any "underlying dispute" to the contractual grievance and arbitration procedures. The Union's position was that the work stoppage did not violate the no-strike clause.[Footnote 5] It offered to submit that question to arbitration "on one day's notice,"[Footnote 6] but opposed the prayer for injunctive relief.
After denying the temporary restraining order and finding that the P&M work stoppage was not the result of the specific refusal to cross the O&T picket line, the District Court concluded that the P&M employees were engaged in a sympathy action in support of the striking O&T employees. The District Court then held itself forbidden to issue an injunction by 4 of the Norris-LaGuardia Act[Footnote 7] because the P&M employees' strike
[Page 428 U.S. 397, 403] was not over an "arbitrable grievance" and hence was not within the "narrow" exception to the Norris-LaGuardia Act established in Boys Markets v. Retail Clerks Union,
398 U.S. 235 (1970). 386 F. Supp. 405 (WDNY 1974).
On the employer's appeal from the denial of a preliminary injunction,
28 U.S.C. 1292 (a) (1), the parties stipulated that the District Court's findings of fact were correct, that the Union had authorized and directed the P&M employees' work stoppage, that the O&T employees' strike and picket line were bona fide, primary, and legal, and that the P&M employees' work stoppage, though ended, might "be resumed at any time in the near future at the direction of the International Union, or otherwise."[Footnote 8]
[Page 428 U.S. 397, 404] this strike, which was not "over a grievance which the union has agreed to arbitrate," was not permitted by the Boys Markets exception to the Norris-LaGuardia Act.
517 F.2d 1207, 1210 (CA2 1975). Because the Courts of Appeals are divided on the question whether such a strike may be enjoined,[Footnote 9] we granted the employer's petition for a writ of certiorari,
423 U.S. 911 (1975), and now affirm the judgment of the Court of Appeals.
[Page 428 U.S. 397, 406] arbitration and the arbitrator's decision whether the strike was permissible under the no-strike clause. Contrary to the Court of Appeals, the employer claims that despite the Norris-LaGuardia Act's ban on federal-court injunctions in labor disputes the District Court was empowered to enjoin the strike by 301 of the Labor Management Relations Act as construed by Boys Markets v. Retail Clerks Union, supra. This would undoubtedly have been the case had the strike been precipitated by a dispute between union and management that was subject to binding arbitration under the provisions of the contracts. In Boys Markets, the union demanded that supervisory employees cease performing tasks claimed by the union to be union work. The union struck when the demand was rejected. The dispute was of the kind subject to the grievance and arbitration clauses contained in the collective-bargaining contract, and it was also clear that the strike violated the no-strike clause accompanying the arbitration provisions. The Court held that the union could be enjoined from striking over a dispute which it was bound to arbitrate at the employer's behest.
The holding in Boys Markets was said to be a "narrow one," dealing only with the situation in which the collective-bargaining contract contained mandatory grievance and arbitration procedures. Id., at 253. "[F]or the guidance of the district courts in determining whether to grant injunctive relief," the Court expressly adopted the principles enunciated in the dissent in Sinclair Refining Co. v. Atkinson,
370 U.S. 195, 228 (1962), including the proposition that
"`[w]hen a strike is sought to be enjoined because it is over a grievance which both parties are contractually bound to arbitrate, the District Court may
[Page 428 U.S. 397, 408] provided by the contracts between the employer and respondents. The strike had neither the purpose nor the effect of denying or evading an obligation to arbitrate or of depriving the employer of its bargain. Thus, had the contract not contained a no-strike clause or had the clause expressly excluded sympathy strikes, there would have been no possible basis for implying from the existence of an arbitration clause a promise not to strike that could have been violated by the sympathy strike in this case. Gateway Coal Co. v. Mine Workers, supra, at 382.[Footnote 10]
[Page 428 U.S. 397, 409] Nor was the injunction authorized solely because it was alleged that the sympathy strike called by the Union violated the express no-strike provision of the contracts. Section 301 of the Act assigns a major role to the courts in enforcing collective-bargaining agreements, but aside from the enforcement of the arbitration provisions of such contracts, within the limits permitted by Boys Markets, the Court has never indicated that the courts may enjoin actual or threatened contract violation despite the Norris-LaGuardia Act. In the course of enacting the Taft-Hartley Act, Congress rejected the proposal that the Norris-LaGuardia Act's prohibition against labor-dispute injunctions be lifted to the extent necessary to make injunctive remedies available in federal courts for the purpose of enforcing collective-bargaining agreements. See Sinclair Refining Co. v. Atkinson, supra, at 205-208, and 216-224 (dissenting opinion). The allegation of the complaint that the Union was breaching its obligation not to strike did not in itself warrant an injunction. As was stated in the Sinclair dissent embraced in Boys Markets:
"[T]here is no general federal anti-strike policy; and although a suit may be brought under 301 against strikes which, while they are breaches of private contracts, do not threaten any additional public policy, in such cases the anti-injunction policy of Norris-LaGuardia should prevail." 370 U.S., at 225.
[Page 428 U.S. 397, 410] clause, like others, was subject to enforcement in accordance with the procedures set out in the contracts. Here the Union struck, and the parties were in dispute whether the sympathy strike violated the Union's no-strike undertaking. Concededly, that issue was arbitrable. It was for the arbitrator to determine whether there was a breach, as well as the remedy for any breach, and the employer was entitled to an order requiring the Union to arbitrate if it refused to do so. But the Union does not deny its duty to arbitrate; in fact, it denies that the employer ever demanded arbitration. However that may be, it does not follow that the District Court was empowered not only to order arbitration but to enjoin the strike pending the decision of the arbitrator, despite the express prohibition of 4 (a) of the Norris-LaGuardia Act against injunctions prohibiting any person from "[c]easing or refusing to perform any work or to remain in any relation of employment." If an injunction could issue against the strike in this case, so in proper circumstances could a court enjoin any other alleged breach of contract pending the exhaustion of the applicable grievance and arbitration provisions even though the injunction would otherwise violate one of the express prohibitions of 4. The court in such cases would be permitted, if the dispute was arbitrable, to hold hearings, make findings of fact,[Footnote 11] interpret the applicable provisions of the contract and issue injunctions so as to restore the status quo, or to otherwise regulate the relationship of the parties pending exhaustion of the arbitration process. This would cut deeply into the policy of the Norris-LaGuardia Act and make the courts potential participants in a wide range of arbitrable disputes under the many the many existing and future collective-bargaining
[Page 428 U.S. 397, 411] contracts,[Footnote 12] not just for the purpose of enforcing promises to arbitrate, which was the limit of Boys Markets, but for the purpose of preliminarily dealing with the merits of the factual and legal issues that are subjects for the arbitrator and of issuing injunctions that would otherwise be forbidden by the Norris-LaGuardia Act.
This is not what the parties have bargained for. Surely it cannot be concluded here, as it was in Boys Markets, that such injunctions pending arbitration are essential to carry out promises to arbitrate and to implement the private arrangements for the administration of the contract. As is typical, the agreements in this case outline the prearbitration settlement procedures and provide that if the grievance "has not been . . . satisfactorily adjusted," arbitration may be had. Nowhere do they provide for coercive action of any kind, let alone judicial injunctions, short of the terminal decision of the arbitrator. The parties have agreed to submit to grievance procedures and arbitrate, not to litigate. They have not contracted for a judicial preview of the facts and the law.[Footnote 13] Had they anticipated additional regulation of their relationships pending arbitration, it seems very doubtful that they would have resorted to litigation rather than to private arrangements. The unmistakable policy of Congress stated in 203 (d),
29 U.S.C. 173 (d), is: "Final adjustment by a method agreed
[Page 428 U.S. 397, 420] two statutes, when both were adopted as a part of a pattern of labor legislation." Id., at 42. See Chicago & N. W. R. Co. v. Transportation Union, 402 U.S. 570, 581-584. In Textile Workers v. Lincoln Mills, , the Court relied on the same rationale to hold that 301 (a) of the Labor Management Relations Act conferred jurisdiction upon the district courts to grant the union specific enforcement of an arbitration clause in a collective-bargaining agreement. Speaking for the Court, Mr. Justice Douglas noted that the legislative history of 301 (a) "is somewhat cloudy and confusing" but that the conference report had stated that once the parties had made a collective-bargaining agreement, its enforcement "`should be left to the usual processes of the law.'" 353 U.S., at 452, quoting H. R. Conf. Rep. No. 510, 80th Cong., 1st Sess., 42 (1947). He added:
"Both the Senate and the House took pains to provide for `the usual processes of the law' by provisions which were the substantial equivalent of 301 (a) in its present form. Both the Senate Report and the House Report indicate a primary concern that unions as well as employees should be bound to collective bargaining contracts. But there was also a broader concern - a concern with a procedure for making such agreements enforceable in the courts by either party. At one point the Senate Report. [S. Rep. No. 105, 80th Cong., 1st Sess. (1947),] p. 15, states, `We feel that the aggrieved party should also have a right of action in the Federal courts. Such a policy is completely in accord with the purpose of the Wagner Act which the Supreme Court declared was "to compel employers to bargain collectively with their employees to the end that an employment contract, binding on both parties, should be made . . . ."'
[Page 428 U.S. 397, 421] "Congress was also interested in promoting collective bargaining that ended with agreements not to strike. The Senate Report, supra, p. 16 states:
"`If unions can break agreements with relative impunity, then such agreements do not tend to stabilize industrial relations. The execution of an agreement does not by itself promote industrial peace. The chief advantage which an employer can reasonably expect from a collective labor agreement is assurance of uninterrupted operation during the term of the agreement. Without some effective method of assuring freedom from economic warfare for the term of the agreement, there is little reason why an employer would desire to sign such a contract.
"`Consequently, to encourage the making of agreements and to promote industrial peace through faithful performance by the parties, collective agreements affecting interstate commerce should be enforceable in the Federal courts. Our amendment would provide for suits by unions as legal entities and against unions as legal entities in the Federal courts in disputes affecting commerce.'
"Thus collective bargaining contracts were made `equally binding and enforceable on both parties.' Id., p. 15. As stated in the House Report, [H. R. Rep. No. 245, 80th Cong., 1st Sess. (1947),] p. 6, the new provision `makes labor organizations equally responsible with employers for contract violations and provides for suit by either against the other in the United States district courts.' To repeat, the Senate Report, supra, p. 17, summed up the philosophy of 301 as follows: `Statutory recognition of the collective agreement as a valid, binding, and enforceable contract is a logical and necessary step.
[Page 428 U.S. 397, 424] not directly frustrate the arbitration process, but if the clause is not enforceable against such a strike, it does frustrate the more basic policy of motivating employers to agree to binding arbitration by giving them an effective "assurance of uninterrupted operation during the term of the agreement."[Footnote 14] This portion of Boys Markets is therefore not entirely applicable to the present case. Accordingly, it is essential to consider the importance of arbitration to the holding in Boys Markets. To that question I now turn.
II
The Boys Markets decision protects the arbitration process. A court is authorized to enjoin a strike over a grievance which the parties are contractually bound to arbitrate, but that authority is conditioned upon a finding that the contract does so provide, that the strike is in violation of the agreement, and further that the issuance of an injunction is warranted by ordinary principles of equity. Id., at 254.[Footnote 15] These conditions plainly stated in Boys Markets demonstrate that the interest in protecting the arbitration process is not simply an end in
[Page 428 U.S. 397, 425] itself which exists at large and apart from other fundamental aspects of our national labor policy.
On the one hand, an absolute precondition of any Boys Markets injunction is a contractual obligation. A court may not order arbitration unless the parties have agreed to that process; nor can the court require the parties to accept an arbitrator's decision unless they have agreed to be bound by it. Id., at 253-255. Accord, Gateway Coal, 414 U.S., at 374, 380-384. If the union reserves the right to resort to self-help at the conclusion of the arbitration process, that agreement must be respected.[Footnote 16] The court's power is limited by the contours of the agreement between the parties.[Footnote 17]
On the other hand, the arbitration procedure is not merely an exercise; it performs the important purpose of determining what the underlying agreement actually means as applied to a specific setting. If the parties have agreed to be bound by the arbitrator's decision, the reasons which justify an injunction against a strike that would impair his ability to reach a decision must equally justify an injunction requiring the parties to abide by a decision that a strike is in violation of the no-strike clause.[Footnote 18] The arbitration mechanism would hardly retain its respect as a method of resolving disputes if the
[Page 428 U.S. 397, 426] end product of the process had less significance than the process itself.
The net effect of the arbitration process is to remove completely any ambiguity in the agreement as it applies to an unforeseen, or undescribed, set of facts. But if the specific situation is foreseen and described in the contract itself with such precision that there is no need for interpretation by an arbitrator, it would be reasonable to give the same legal effect to such an agreement prior to the arbitrator's decision.[Footnote 19] In this case, the question whether the sympathy strike violates the no-strike clause is an arbitrable issue. If the court had the benefit of an arbitrator's resolution of the issue in favor of the employer, it could enforce that decision just as it could require the parties to submit the issue to arbitration. And if the agreement were so plainly unambiguous that there could be no bona fide issue to submit to the arbitrator, there must be the same authority to enforce the parties' bargain pending the arbitrator's final decision.[Footnote 20]
[Page 428 U.S. 397, 427] The Union advances three arguments against this conclusion: (1) that interpretation of the collective-bargaining agreement is the exclusive province of the arbitrator; (2) that an injunction erroneously entered pending arbitration will effectively deprive the union of the right to strike before the arbitrator can render his decision; and (3) that it is the core purpose of the Norris-LaGuardia Act to eliminate the risk of an injunction against a lawful strike.[Footnote 21] Although I acknowledge the force of these arguments, I think they are insufficient to take this case outside the rationale of Boys Markets.
The Steelworkers trilogy[Footnote 22] establishes that a collective-bargaining agreement submitting all questions of contract interpretation to the arbitrator deprives the courts of
[Page 428 U.S. 397, 428] almost all power to interpret the agreement to prevent submission of a dispute to arbitration or to refuse enforcement of an arbitrator's award. Boys Markets itself repeated the warning that it was not for the courts to usurp the functions of the arbitrator. 398 U.S., at 242-243. And Gateway Coal held that an injunction may issue to protect the arbitration process even if a "substantial question of contractual interpretation" must be answered to determine whether the strike is over an arbitrable grievance. 414 U.S., at 382-384. In each of these cases, however, the choice was between interpretation of the agreement by the court or interpretation by the arbitrator; a decision that the dispute was not arbitrable, or not properly arbitrated, would have precluded an interpretation of the agreement according to the contractual grievance procedure. In the present case, an interim determination of the no-strike question by the court neither usurps nor precludes a decision by the arbitrator. By definition, issuance of an injunction pending the arbitrator's decision does not supplant a decision that he otherwise would have made. Indeed, it is the ineffectiveness of the damages remedy for strikes pending arbitration that lends force to the employer's argument for an injunction.[Footnote 23] The court does not oust the arbitrator of his proper function but fulfills a role that he never served.
The Union's second point, however, is that the arbitrator will rarely render his decision quickly enough to prevent an erroneously issued injunction from effectively depriving the union of its right to strike. The Union relies particularly upon decisions of this Court that recognize that even a temporary injunction can quickly end a strike.[Footnote 24] But this argument demonstrates only that
[Page 428 U.S. 397, 429] arbitration, to be effective, must be prompt, not that the federal courts must be deprived entirely of jurisdiction to grant equitable relief. Denial of an injunction when a strike violates the agreement may have effects just as devastating to an employer as the issuance of an injunction may have to the union when the strike does not violate the agreement. Furthermore, a sympathy strike does not directly further the economic interests of the members of the striking local or contribute to the resolution of any dispute between that local, or its members, and the employer.[Footnote 25] On the contrary, it is the source of a new dispute which, if the strike goes forward, will impose costs on the strikers, the employer, and the public without prospect of any direct benefit to any of these parties. A rule that authorizes postponement of a sympathy strike pending an arbitrator's clarification of the no-strike clause will not critically impair the vital interests of the striking local even if the right to strike is upheld, and will avoid the costs of interrupted production if the arbitrator concludes that the no-strike clause applies.
[Page 428 U.S. 397, 430] Finally, the Norris-LaGuardia Act cannot be interpreted to immunize the union from all risk of an erroneously issued injunction. Boys Markets itself subjected the union to the risk of an injunction entered upon a judge's erroneous conclusion that the dispute was arbitrable and that the strike was in violation of the no-strike clause, 398 U.S., at 254. Gateway Coal subjected the union to a still greater risk, for the court there entered an injunction to enforce an implied no-strike clause despite the fact that the arbitrability of the dispute, and hence the legality of the strike over the dispute, presented a "substantial question of contractual interpretation." 414 U.S., at 384; see id., at 380 n. 10. The strict reading that the Union would give the Norris-LaGuardia Act would not have permitted this result.[Footnote 26]
[Page 428 U.S. 397, 431] These considerations, however, do not support the conclusion that a sympathy strike should be temporarily enjoined whenever a collective-bargaining agreement contains a no-strike clause and an arbitration clause. The accommodation between the Norris-LaGuardia Act and 301 (a) of the Labor Management Relations Act allows the judge to apply "the usual processes of the law" but not to take the place of the arbitrator. Because of the risk that a federal judge, less expert in labor matters than an arbitrator, may misconstrue general contract language, I would agree that no injunction or temporary restraining order should issue without first giving the union an adequate opportunity to present evidence and argument, particularly upon the proper interpretation of the collective-bargaining agreement; the judge should not issue an injunction without convincing evidence that the strike is clearly within the no-strike clause.[Footnote 27] Furthermore, to protect the efficacy of arbitration, any such injunction should require the parties to submit the issue immediately to the contractual grievance procedure, and if the union so requests, at the last stage and upon an expedited schedule that assures a decision by the arbitrator as soon as practicable. Such stringent conditions would insure that only strikes in violation of the agreement would be enjoined and that the union's access to the arbitration process would not be foreclosed by the combined effect of a temporary injunction and protracted grievance procedures. Finally, as in Boys
[Page 428 U.S. 397, 432] Markets, the normal conditions of equitable relief would have to be met.[Footnote 28]
Like the decision in Boys Markets, this opinion reflects, on the one hand, my confidence that experience during the decades since the Norris-LaGuardia Act was passed has dissipated any legitimate concern about the impartiality of federal judges in disputes between labor and management, and on the other, my continued recognition of the fact that judges have less familiarity and expertise than arbitrators and administrators who regularly work in this specialized area. The decision in Boys Markets requires an accommodation between the Norris-LaGuardia Act and the Labor Management Relations Act. I would hold only that the terms of that accommodation do not entirely deprive the federal courts of all power to grant any relief to an employer, threatened with irreparable injury from a sympathy strike clearly in violation of a collective-bargaining agreement, regardless of the equities of his claim for injunctive relief pending arbitration.
Since in my view the Court of Appeals erroneously held that the District Court had no jurisdiction to enjoin the Union's sympathy strike, I would reverse and remand for consideration of the question whether the employer is entitled to an injunction.
[Footnote 1] The Court read Boys Markets v. Retail Clerks Union,
398 U.S. 235, to conclude that " 301 (a) empowers a federal court to enjoin violations of a contractual duty not to strike." 414 U.S., at 381. There was no dissent from that proposition.
[Footnote 2] The enforceable part of the no-strike agreement is the part relating to a strike "over an arbitrable dispute." In Gateway Coal, however, my Brethren held that the District Court had properly entered an injunction that not only terminated a strike pending an arbitrator's decision of an underlying safety dispute, but also "prospectively required both parties to abide by his resolution of the controversy." Id., at 373. A strike in defiance of an arbitrator's award would not be "over an arbitrable dispute": nevertheless, the Court today recognizes the propriety of an injunction against such a strike. Ante, at 405.
[Footnote 3] The Court's expressed concern that enforcing an unambiguous no-strike clause by enjoining a sympathy strike might "embroil the district courts in massive preliminary injunction litigation," ante, at 411 n. 12, is supposedly supported by the fact that 21 million American workers were covered by over 150,000 collective-bargaining agreements in 1972. These figures give some idea of the potential number of grievances that may arise, each of which could lead to a strike which is plainly enjoinable under Boys Markets. These figures do not shed any light on the number of sympathy strikes which may violate an express no-strike commitment. In the past several years over a dozen such cases have arisen. See ante, at 404 n. 9. Future litigation of this character would, of course, be minimized by clarifying amendments to existing no-strike clauses.
[Footnote 4] One week after the decision in Sinclair, the Court decided Teamsters v. Yellow Transit,
370 U.S. 711, by per curiam order citing only Sinclair. The dissenters in Sinclair, whose position was substantially adopted in Boys Markets, concurred in Yellow Transit because "the collective bargaining agreement involved in this case does not bind either party to arbitrate any dispute."
370 U.S., at 711-712. In this case, as in those cases, it does not follow from the availability of an injunction when the agreement contains a mandatory arbitration clause that one may issue when it does not. See n. 20, infra.
[Footnote 5] Referring to the holding in Textile Workers v. Lincoln Mills, , the Court stated that it had "rejected the contention that the anti-injunction proscriptions of the Norris-LaGuardia Act prohibited this type of relief, nothing that a refusal to arbitrate was not `part and parcel of the abuses against which the Act was aimed,' id., at 458, and that the Act itself manifests a policy determination that arbitration should be encouraged. See
29 U.S.C. 108." 398 U.S., at 242 (footnote omitted).
[Footnote 6] Section 2 of the Act provides:
[Page 428 U.S. 397, 416] jurisdiction and authority are herein defined and limited, the public policy of the United States is hereby declared as follows:
"Whereas under prevailing economic conditions, developed with the aid of governmental authority for owners of property to organize in the corporate and other forms of ownership association, the individual unorganized worker is commonly helpless to exercise actual liberty of contract and to protect his freedom of labor, and thereby to obtain acceptable terms and conditions of employment, wherefore, though he should be free to decline to associate with his fellows, it is necessary that he have full freedom of association, self-organization, and designation of representatives of his own choosing, to negotiate the terms and conditions of his employment, and that he shall be free from the interference, restraint, or coercion of employers of labor, or their agents, in the designation of such representatives or in self-organization or in other concerted activities for the purpose of collective bargaining or other mutual aid or protection; therefore, the following definitions of, and limitations upon, the jurisdiction and authority of the courts of the United States are hereby enacted." 47 Stat. 70,
29 U.S.C. 102. [Footnote 7] In Boys Markets the Court quoted with approval the following statement by the neutral members of the Special Atkinson-Sinclair Committee of the American Bar Association Labor Relations Law Section:
"`Any proposal which would subject unions to injunctive relief must take account of the Norris-LaGuardia Act and the opposition expressed in that Act to the issuing of injunctions in labor disputes. Nevertheless, the reasons behind the Norris-LaGuardia Act seem scarcely applicable to the situation . . . [in which a strike in violation of a collective-bargaining agreement is enjoined]. The Act was passed primarily because of widespread dissatisfaction with the tendency of judges to enjoin concerted activities in accordance with "doctrines of tort law which made the lawfulness of a strike depend upon judicial views of social and economic policy." [Citation
[Page 428 U.S. 397, 417] omitted.] Where an injunction is used against a strike in breach of contract, the union is not subjected in this fashion to judicially created limitations on its freedom of action but is simply compelled to comply with limitations to which it has previously agreed. Moreover, where the underlying dispute is arbitrable, the union is not deprived of any practicable means of pressing its claim but is only required to submit the dispute to the impartial tribunal that it has agreed to establish for this purpose.'" 398 U.S., at 253 n. 22, quoting Report of Special Atkinson-Sinclair Committee, American Bar Association Labor Relations Law Section - Proceedings 242 (1963).
[Footnote 8] "As we have previously indicated, a no-strike obligation, express or implied, is the quid pro quo for an undertaking by the employer to submit grievance disputes to the process of arbitration. See Textile Workers Union v. Lincoln Mills, supra, at 455. Any incentive for employers to enter into such an arrangement is necessarily dissipated if the principal and most expeditious method by which the no-strike obligation can be enforced is eliminated. While it is of course true, as respondent contends, that other avenues of redress, such as an action for damages, would remain open to an aggrieved employer, an award of damages after a dispute has been settled is no substitute for an immediate halt to an illegal strike. Furthermore, an action for damages prosecuted during or after a labor dispute would only tend to aggravate industrial strife and delay an early resolution of the difficulties between employer and union." 398 U.S., at 247-248 (footnotes omitted). Accord, William E. Arnold Co. v. Carpenters,
417 U.S. 12, 19; Gateway Coal, 414 U.S., at 381-382, and n. 14.
The Court relied upon another statement by the neutral members of the Special Atkinson-Sinclair Committee:
"`Under existing laws, employers may maintain an action for damages resulting from a strike in breach of contract and may discipline the employees involved. In many cases, however, neither of these alternatives will be feasible. Discharge of the strikers is often inexpedient because of a lack of qualified replacements or because of the adverse effect on relationships within the plant. The damage remedy may also be unsatisfactory because the employer's losses are often hard to calculate and because the employer may hesitate to exacerbate relations with the union by bringing a damage action. Hence, injunctive relief will often be the only effective means by which to remedy the breach of the no-strike pledge and thus effectuate federal labor policy.'" 398 U.S., at 248-249, n. 17, quoting Report of Special Atkinson-Sinclair Committee, supra, n. 7, at 242
[Footnote 9] Feller, A General Theory of the Collective Bargaining Agreement, 61 Calif. L. Rev. 663, 757-760 (1973).
[Footnote 10] 44 Stat. 577, as amended, 48 Stat. 1185,
45 U.S.C. 151-188.
[Footnote 11] The Court relies upon the fact that when Congress enacted the Labor Management Relations Act, it considered and rejected a proposal that would have rendered the Norris-LaGuardia Act inapplicable in any proceeding involving the violation of a collective-bargaining agreement. Ante, at 409. The argument that congressional rejection of a broad repeal of the Norris-LaGuardia Act precluded accommodation of the two Acts was fully canvassed in Sinclair, where it was accepted by the Court and rejected by the dissenters, whose views were later substantially adopted by the Court
[Page 428 U.S. 397, 423] in Boys Markets. Sinclair Refining Co. v. Atkinson, 370 U.S., 195, 204-210; id., at 220-225 (BRENNAN, J., dissenting); Boys Markets, 398 U.S., at 249. The Court today nevertheless revives this argument, candidly citing the overruled decision in Sinclair, and arguing, as did the opinion in that case, that any further accommodation between the Labor Management Relations Act and the Norris-LaGuardia Act will result in wholesale enforcement of no-strike clauses by injunction. See Sinclair, supra, at 209-210.
[Footnote 12] William E. Arnold Co. v. Carpenters, 417 U.S., at 20; Dowd Box Co. v. Courtney, .
[Footnote 13] Avco Corp. v. Aero Lodge 735,
390 U.S. 557.
[Page 428 U.S. 397, 431] arbitrable and hence that the enjoined strike was not in violation of the agreement.
Footnote 27 Of course, it is possible that an arbitrator would disagree with the court even when the latter finds the strike to be clearly prohibited. But in that case, the arbitrator's determination would govern, provided it withstands the ordinary standard of review for arbitrators' awards. See Steelworkers v. Enterprise Corp., 363 U.S., at 597-599.
Footnote 28 "`[T]he District Court must, of course, consider whether issuance of an injunction would be warranted under ordinary principles of equity - whether breaches are occurring and will continue, or have been threatened and will be committed; whether they have caused or will cause irreparable injury to the employer; and whether the employer will suffer more from the denial of an injunction than will the union from its issuance.'" 398 U.S., at 254, quoting Sinclair, 370 U.S., at 228 (BRENNAN, J., dissenting).
[Page 428 U.S. 397, 433]
