Page:Glacier Northwest v. Teamsters.pdf/10

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Cite as: 598 U. S. ____ (2023)
7

Opinion of the Court

where employees fail to take reasonable precautions to protect the employer’s plant, equipment, or products from foreseeable imminent danger due to sudden cessation of work”); see also Brief for Petitioner 14, 30–31; Brief for Respondent 28–29; Reply Brief 6–7; Tr. of Oral Arg. 68, 86. Given this undisputed limitation on the right to strike, we proceed to consider whether the Union has demonstrated that the statute arguably protects the drivers’ conduct. Davis, 476 U. S., at 395. We conclude that it has not.[1]

The drivers engaged in a sudden cessation of work that put Glacier’s property in foreseeable and imminent danger. The Union knew that concrete is highly perishable and that it can last for only a limited time in a delivery truck’s rotating drum. It also knew that concrete left to harden in a truck’s drum causes significant damage to the truck. The Union nevertheless coordinated with truck drivers to initiate the strike when Glacier was in the midst of batching large quantities of concrete and delivering it to customers. Predictably, the company’s concrete was destroyed as a result. And though Glacier’s swift action saved its trucks in the end, the risk of harm to its equipment was both foreseeable and serious. See NLRB v. Special Touch Home Care Services, Inc., 708 F. 3d 447, 460 (CA2 2013) (“The appropriate inquiry is focused on the risk of harm, not its realization”).

The Union failed to “take reasonable precautions to protect” against this foreseeable and imminent danger. Bethany Medical Center, 328 N. L. R. B., at 1094. It could have


  1. The Union moved to dismiss Glacier’s claims for failure to state a claim and for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. Like the Washington Supreme Court, we treat both motions together and accept the allegations in the complaint as true at the motion-to-dismiss stage. 198 Wash. 2d 768, 782–783, 500 P. 3d 119, 127 (2021); see also Kinney v. Cook, 159 Wash. 2d 837, 842, 154 P. 3d 206, 209 (2007). Pursuant to Washington law, we also may consider additional factual allegations made by Glacier that support its complaint. See Bravo v. Dolsen Companies, 125 Wash. 2d 745, 750, 888 P. 2d 147, 150 (1995).