Wallace Corp. v. NLRB was a case before the United States Supreme Court.

Labor dispute

In an attempt to settle a labor dispute at a company plant, the company signed an agreement with two unions (an Independent union

Independent union

An independent union is a union that represents workers in one plant or company and is free of employer control. A national independent union is a union of a national character not affiliated with the AFL or CIO; a local independent union is one...

 and a CIO union) that had been approved by the National Labor Relations Board

National Labor Relations Board

The National Labor Relations Board is an independent agency of the United States government charged with conducting elections for labor union representation and with investigating and remedying unfair labor practices. Unfair labor practices may involve union-related situations or instances of...

. Pursuant to this agreement, at a consent election was held to determine which union would be certified by the Board as bargaining representative; the (company-dominated) Independent union won a majority of the votes cast. The company then signed a union shop contract with the union knowing that the union intended to refuse membership to employees who supported the CIO union. Independent refused to admit C. I. O. men to membership and the company discharged them.

NLRB's order

In a subsequent unfair labor practice proceeding the Board found that the company had engaged in unfair labor practices in two respects: Independent had been set up, maintained, and used by the company to frustrate the threatened unionization of its plant by the C. I. O. (i.e. it was a "company union"); and the union shop contract was made by the company with knowledge that Independent intended to use the contract as a means of bringing about the discharge of former C. I. O. employees by denying them membership in Independent.

Accordingly, the NLRB entered an order requiring petitioner to disestablish Independent; to cease and desist from giving effect to the union shop contract between it and Independent; and to reinstate forty-three employees, whom it found to have been discharged, according to the terms of the union shop contract, because of their affiliation with the C. I. O. and their failure to belong to Independent.

Certiori

The Supreme Court granted certiorari

Certiorari

Certiorari is a type of writ seeking judicial review, recognized in U.S., Roman, English, Philippine, and other law. Certiorari is the present passive infinitive of the Latin certiorare...

"because of the importance to the administration of the Act of the questions involved." 322 U.S. 721.

Opinion of the court

The Board's order was upheld by the United States Supreme Court even though it was not found that the company engaged in a conspiracy to bring about the employees' discharge. The Court emphasized the general hostility of the company to the rival union and members. The employer was not obliged to enter into the closed shop contract when it knew that discriminatory discharges of its employees were bound to occur under the contract.