Vaca v. Sipes Preemption Issue Courts (state and federal) are preempted from deciding cases that should fall under NLRB Garmon case on Federal Supremacy consistency in interpreting statute NLRB expertise Exceptions Internal union matters Doctrines in which courts have long been involved Duty of Fair Representation Section 301 Federal courts State courts (applying federal law) Exhaustion of internal grievance procedure

Duty of Fair Representation Union must fairly represent all ees in bargaining unit. Union conduct must not be arbitrary discriminatory in bad faith Ee has no right to have grievance go to arbitration Union controls the grievance procedure Procedurally, the case is a combined Section 301-DFR claim Focus of case must be on union conduct, not merits of grievance.

Duty of Fair Representation (cont.) Remedy fairly represent the employee usually to arbitrate the grievance Liability, if grievance sustained, apportioned between union and er Bowen case Dissent (Black) Court’s focus on union’s conduct removes from Owens a remedy for his meritorious grievance Is Owens’ grievance meritorious?