Page:Glacier Northwest v. Teamsters.pdf/5

2 hours, or other working conditions.” 49 Stat. 449, 29 U. S. C. §151. Section 7 of the NLRA protects employees’ rights “to self-organization, to form, join, or assist labor organizations, to bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing, and to engage in other concerted activities for the purpose of collective bargaining or other mutual aid or protection.” §157. Section 8, in turn, prohibits employers and unions from engaging in certain “unfair labor practice[s],” such as interfering with employees’ exercise of their §7 rights. §§§ [sic]158(a), (b).

To enforce the NLRA, Congress created the National Labor Relations Board. The Board is authorized “to prevent any person from engaging in any unfair labor practice” that “affect[s] commerce.” §160(a). Its authority kicks in when a person files a charge with the agency alleging that an unfair labor practice is afoot. 29 CFR §101.2 (2021). Agency staff investigate the charge, and if it “appears to have merit,” the agency issues a complaint against the offending party. §§101.4, 101.8. After taking evidence and conducting a hearing, the Board makes the final call. 29 U. S. C. §§§ [sic]160(b), (c); see also 29 CFR §§101.10–101.12. If it determines that a party has engaged in an unfair labor practice, the Board orders it to “cease and desist” from that practice. 29 U. S. C. §160(c). The Board may seek enforcement of its order in a federal court of appeals. §160(e). And a party aggrieved by the order may ask the court to set it aside. §160(f).

Sometimes a party to a labor dispute goes directly to a court—raising the specter that state law will say one thing about the conduct underlying the dispute while the NLRA says another. It is a bedrock rule, of course, that federal law preempts state law when the two conflict. U. S. Const., Art. VI, cl. 2. Preemption under the NLRA is unusual, though, because our precedent maintains that the NLRA