Law Commons^™

Section 301 And The Primary Jurisdiction Of The Nlrb, Michael I. Sovern

Faculty Scholarship

Several labor cases recently decided by the Supreme Court have brought into issue a conflict between the NLRB's primary jurisdiction over matters subject to sections 7 and 8 of the NLRA and the doctrine that courts have jurisdiction to enforce collective agreements. Professor Sovern discusses these cases and argues that the Court properly decided that the principle of exclusive NLRB jurisdiction should yield in suits on collective agreements, but he criticizes the Court for not having articulated a satisfactory rationale in support of this result. After an analysis of the doctrine of preemption, he considers five types of labor-contract suits …