Supreme Court Backs Employer in Suit Over Strike Losses

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The Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that federal labor law did not protect a union from liability for damage that arose during a strike, and that a state court should resolve questions of liability.The majority found that actions during a strike by a local Teamsters union were not even arguably protected by federal law because the union took “affirmative steps to endanger” the employer’s property “rather than reasonable precautions to mitigate that risk.”The opinion, written by Justice Amy Coney Barrett, was joined by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Brett M. Kavanaugh.Three conservative justices backed more sweeping concurring opinions. A single justice, Ketanji Brown Jackson, dissented.Some legal experts have said that a union setback in the case would discourage workers from striking by making the union potentially liable for losses that an employer incurs during a work stoppage.“It …

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