Sure-Tan, Inc. v. NLRB

Sure-Tan, Inc. v. National Labor Relations Board, 467 U.S. 883 (1984) is a labor law case that resulted in a split decision before the Supreme Court of the United States.[1] By a 7-2 majority court ruled that undocumented immigrant workers were “employees” covered by the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). However, by a 5-4 majority the court ruled that the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) was limited in its remedies for penalizing employers who fired undocumented workers for union organizing in violation of the NLRA. The decision was one of a series ruling on the rights of immigrant workers, and was extended by Hoffman Plastic Compounds, Inc. v. NLRB.[2][3][4]

Sure-Tan, Inc. v. NLRB
Argued December 6, 1983
Decided June 25, 1984
Full case nameSure-Tan, Inc. v. National Labor Relations Board
Citations467 U.S. 883 (more)
104 S. Ct. 2803; 81 L. Ed. 2d 732
ArgumentOral argument
Case history
PriorNLRB v. Sure-Tan, Inc., 672 F.2d 592 (7th Cir. 1982); rehearing denied, 677 F.2d 584 (7th Cir. 1982); cert. granted, 460 U.S. 1021 (1983).
Court membership
Chief Justice
Warren E. Burger
Associate Justices
William J. Brennan Jr. · Byron White
Thurgood Marshall · Harry Blackmun
Lewis F. Powell Jr. · William Rehnquist
John P. Stevens · Sandra Day O'Connor
Case opinions
MajorityO'Connor, joined by Burger, White (in full); Brennan, Marshall, Blackmun, Stevens (Parts I-III); Powell, Rehnquist (Part IV)
Concur/dissentBrennan, joined by Marshall, Blackmun, Stevens
Concur/dissentPowell, joined by Rehnquist

Sure-Tan, Inc. was a small leather processing company in Chicago, Illinois. Workers at the company, several of whom were undocumented immigrants from Mexico, voted to unionize in late 1976. Following the NLRB’s certification of the election in January 1977, the company’s owner wrote to the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) naming five union supporters who might be undocumented. The company also fired non-immigrant employees who were also union supporters. In February 1977, the INS raided the firm and deported the five workers. The NLRB found the company in violation of the workers’ right to organize, ordered the workers rehired and paid back pay for the lost work from the date of their deportation.

Justice O’Connor delivered the decision for the U.S. Supreme Court, ruling that undocumented workers were fully covered by the NLRA, but that reinstatement and back pay could not be assessed because the workers, having been deported to Mexico, were unavailable for work. Justices Brennan, Marshall, Blackmun, and Stevens concurred that undocumented workers are employees under the NLRA, but dissented from back pay portion of the decision, arguing that the NLRB had acted properly. Justices Powell and Rehnquist dissented from the opinion that undocumented workers are employees under the NLRA, but concurred with the decision to deny back pay to deported undocumented workers.

References
  1. Sure-Tan, Inc. v. NLRB, 467 U.S. 883 (1984).
  2. Hoffman Plastic Compounds, Inc. v. NLRB, 535 U.S. 137 (2002).
  3. Catherine L. Fisk & Michael J. Wishnie, "The story of Hoffman Plastic Compounds, Inc. v. NLRB: labor rights without remedies for undocumented immigrants," in Laura Cooper, et al., Labor Law Stories (New York: Foundation Press, 2005).
  4. Rebecca Smith, Ana Avendaño, and Marielena Hincapi, "Undocumented Workers: Preserving Rights and Remedies after Hoffman Plastic Compounds v. NLRB,” National Employment Law Project Bulletin
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