## Facts

- A labor union had a collective-bargaining agreement with a steamship company requiring the company, when available, to employ union members in good standing.
- The agreement did not create a hiring hall giving the union complete control over selecting radio officers.
- The company offered employment to a radio officer who was a union member and willing to take the job.
- A union officer wrongfully refused to certify the radio officer’s “good standing” because of an alleged violation of union rules.
- The refusal prevented the company from employing the radio officer.
- The NLRB found the union’s conduct restrained and coerced the radio officer in his right to refrain from observing union rules (NLRA § 8(b)(1)(A)) and caused the employer to discriminate in hiring with the normal effect of encouraging union membership (NLRA § 8(b)(2) incorporating § 8(a)(3)).
- The NLRB ordered the union to withdraw its objection to the employment, reimburse lost pay, and post notices; the court of appeals enforced the order.

## Issues

1. Whether § 8(a)(3)’s requirement that discrimination “encourage or discourage” union membership demands express proof of actual encouragement/discouragement, or whether the NLRB may infer that element from the character and tendency of the discrimination.
2. Whether a union violates §§ 8(b)(1)(A) and 8(b)(2) by refusing to certify a member’s good standing—thereby causing the employer to deny employment—based on alleged noncompliance with internal union rules, without separate proof of specific animus or demonstrated subjective effects on membership.

## Decision

- The Supreme Court affirmed enforcement of the NLRB’s order against the union.
- The Court held that the NLRB need not produce direct, express proof that discrimination actually encouraged or discouraged union membership; the Board may infer that effect from the nature of the discrimination.
- The Court upheld the findings that the union’s refusal to certify good standing, used to block employment, restrained and coerced the employee in violation of § 8(b)(1)(A).
- The Court also upheld the finding that the union caused unlawful discrimination in hiring whose normal effect was to encourage union membership, violating § 8(b)(2).

## Legal Principles

- Under NLRA § 8(a)(3), the “encourage or discourage membership” element may be established by inference from discriminatory conduct’s natural and probable consequences; direct proof of subjective impact is not required in each case.
- A union violates § 8(b)(2) by causing an employer to discriminate in a manner that would violate § 8(a)(3), unless the discrimination is permitted by the statute’s union-security limitations.
- Using employment leverage to compel compliance with internal union rules can constitute “restraint or coercion” of employees’ § 7 right to refrain from union activity, violating § 8(b)(1)(A).
- The NLRB has authority to order remedial relief (including withdrawal of objections to employment, backpay, and notice posting) to remedy union-caused discrimination and coercion.

## Conclusion

The Court sustained the NLRB’s determination that a union unlawfully coerced an employee and caused discriminatory denial of employment by withholding “good standing” certification to enforce internal union rules, and it clarified that the Board may infer the § 8(a)(3) encouragement/discouragement element from the discriminatory act’s normal effect.


Radio Officers’ Union of Com. Tel. Workers Union, AFL v. NLRB, 347 U.S. 17 (1954)