Jackson, J., dissenting
claims for conduct that is protected by the NLRA. See Brown v. Hotel Employees, 468 U. S. 491, 503 (1984). But “if the Board decides that the conduct is not protected,” the state court may proceed to “entertain the litigation.” Davis, 476 U. S., at 397.[1]
With these general principles in mind, I now turn to the particulars of this case.
II
This suit arises out of a union-organized strike. Petitioner Glacier Northwest is a concrete-delivery company, and respondent International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local Union No. 174 (Union) represents Glacier’s concrete-delivery truckdrivers. After the drivers went on strike, Glacier sent disciplinary letters to some of the drivers. The Union filed an unfair labor practice charge with the Board, alleging that the disciplinary letters were unlawful retaliation against the drivers for engaging in strike conduct that is protected by the NLRA.
Glacier then filed a complaint in Washington state court, alleging that the Union engaged in tortious conduct when it instructed the drivers to strike at a time when there was wet concrete in some of the company’s delivery trucks. In response, the Union filed another Board charge, maintaining that Glacier’s lawsuit constituted additional unlawful retaliation.
- ↑ Justice Thomas seeks to undercut our Garmon precedent by describing it as “od[d]” and “strang[e]” relative to “ ‘the usual preemption rule.’ ” Ante, at 1, 3 (opinion concurring in judgment). But, as discussed, the Garmon rule is not a standard preemption doctrine; it is different because it is doing different work. Garmon protects Congress’s judgment that the Board, not state or federal courts, should be generally responsible for the development of our Nation’s labor law. The required pause when Garmon’s “arguably protected” test is satisfied allows for efficient resolution of the dispute prior to the expenditure of state judicial resources, and the temporary nature of the pause makes it narrower, not broader, in effect than ordinary preemption.
