Local 100 of United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices v. Borden/Dissent Douglas

Mr. Justice DOUGLAS, with whom Mr. Justice CLARK concurs, dissenting.

While I dissented in International Association v. Gonzales, 356 U.S. 617, 78 S.Ct. 923, 2 L.Ed.2d 1018, I fail to see how that case can fairly be distinguished from this one. Both Gonzales and San Diego Building Trades Council v. Garmon, 359 U.S. 236, 79 S.Ct. 773, 3 L.Ed.2d 775, were written by the same author, who had no difficulty in reconciling them. And they were decided before Congress reentered the labor relations field with the Landrum-Griffin Act of 1959. 73 Stat. 519. Yet, the Court points to no indication that Congress thought Gonzales had incorrectly interpreted the balance it had struck between state and federal jurisdiction over these matters.

The distinction the Court draws between this case and Gonzales-that in Gonzales the lawsuit focused on purely internal union matters-is not one that a court can intelligently apply in the myriad of cases in the field. This lawsuit started with a quarrel between respondent and his union, concerning the scope of membership rights in the union, as did Gonzales; and it is with those rights that this litigation is concerned, as was Gonzales. And, as here, it was conceded in Gonzales that the conduct complained of might well amount to an unfair labor practice within the Labor Board's jurisdiction. Because of these similarities, and because the Court is clearly right in saying '(i)t is not the label affixed to the cause of action under state law that controls the determination of the relationship between state and federal jurisdiction,' I am able to find no support for the Court's distinction of Gonzales in the fact that it was primarily an 'equitable' case where damages were allowed only to 'fill out' the union member's remedy. Cf. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, Rules 1, 2, and 54(c).

San Diego Building Trades Council v. Garmon, supra, involved a controversy between union and employer in the classical case for National Labor Board jurisdiction. Suits for damages by individual employees against the union or the employer fall in the category of Moore v. Illinois Central R. Co., 312 U.S. 630, 61 S.Ct. 754, 85 L.Ed. 1089. As a matter of policy, there is much to be said for allowing the individual employee recourse to conventional litigation in his home-town tribunal for redress of grievances. Washington, D.C., and its administrative agencies-and even regional offices-are often distant and remote and expensive to reach. Under today's holding the member who has a real dispute with his union may go without a remedy.

See, e.g., San Diego Building Trades Council v. Garmon, supra; Guss v. Utah Labor Board, 353 U.S. 1, 77 S.Ct. 598, 1 L.Ed.2d 601. When the basic dispute is between a union and an employer, any hiatus that might exist in the jurisdictional balance that has been struck can be filled by resort to economic power. But when the union member has a dispute with his union, he has no power on which to rely. If Gonzales-written in the spirit of Moore-is to survive, this judgment should be affirmed.