LABOR LAW - IMPACT OF LABOR-MANAGEMENT RELATIONS ACT ON STATE REGULATION OF UNION SHOP CONTRACTS

The petitioning labor union made a contract with defendant employer, who was engaged solely in interstate commerce, providing that all employees were to be furnished by the union. If members could not be supplied, non-members might be hired but were required to join the union within two weeks from the date of employment. The defendant labor commissioner of the State of New Hampshire threatened to prosecute petitioner under a state statute, known as the Willey Act, which prohibited union security contracts except when ratified by two-thirds of the employees affected. Petitioner sought a declaratory judgment that the provisions of the state act were inapplicable to its agreement with defendant employer, having been superseded by the Labor-Management Relations Act of 1947. Held, judgment for plaintiff. State regulation of union security agreements is excluded by the paramount character of Congressional entry into that field. International Brotherhood of Teamsters v. Riley, (N.H. 1948) 59 A. (2d) 476