Supreme Court Rejects Card Check Challenge

Yesterday, the Supreme Court denied cert in Adcock v. Freightliner, a case in which a card-check agreement was challenged as a violation of Section 302 of the LMRA.  The union and employer in the case had agreed to a neutrality and card-check agreement for five plants; pursuant to the agreement, the union was able to organize three of those plants.  Five employees, represented by the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, filed a RICO suit against the union, claiming that the agreement violated Section 302, which prohibits an employer from giving a union "any money or other thing of value."  The denial of cert upheld a Fourth Circuit holding that the agreement merely established groundrules for organizing, and didn't represent something "of value" under Section 302.

The cert petition seemed to be trying to ride the publicity of EFCA to get the Court to take up this issue, but it's not a big surprise that the Court didn't bite.  Courts have consistently rejected this type of interpretation of Section 302, so there wasn't even a circuit split to settle.

Hat Tip:  Dennis Walsh

-JH