Boys Markets, Inc. v. Retail Clerks Union, Local 770

Boys Markets, Inc. v. Retail Clerks Union, Local 770, 398 U.S. 235 (1970), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the court held that injunctive relief for a violation of a no-strike clause does not necessarily violate the NLRA or the NLA. The federal court must order the employer to submit the matter to arbitration as a condition of ordering the relief.

Background

Boys Markets and a local chapter of the Retail Clerks Union were parties to a collective bargaining agreement containing a provision that all controversies concerning its interpretation or application should be resolved by arbitration and that there should be no work stoppage, lockout, picketing, or boycotts during the life of the contract. A dispute arose and, when Boys Markets did not accede to union demands, a labor strike was called and the union began to picket Boys Markets' establishment. Boys Markets' effort to invoke the contract's arbitration procedures being unsuccessful, it sought injunctive relief in the state court, which issued a temporary restraining order. The union removed the case to the federal District Court, which ordered arbitration and enjoined the strike and the picketing. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed, considering itself bound by Sinclair Refining Co. v. Atkinson, which held that Section 4 of the Norris–La Guardia Act bars a federal district court from enjoining a strike in breach of a no-strike clause in a collective bargaining agreement, even though that agreement contains binding arbitration provisions enforceable under Section 301(a) of the Labor Management Relations Act.