In an 8-1 ruling that will deal a major blow to the Democrat Party’s campaign coffers, the US Supreme Court has ruled that a company can sue a labor union for damages incurred during a strike. The case was brought by Glacier Northwest, a ready-mix concrete company that went through a union strike in 2017.
Amazingly, multiple lower courts had ruled that it is legal for the labor union to damage company property in order to put bargaining pressure on the owners. The Supreme Court has put a stop to that nonsense once and for all in a landmark ruling.
Labor unions are a communist invention that is antithetical to the idea of private property ownership. Yet labor activists have long argued that it is not only “fair game” but also legal for striking workers to destroy expensive company property during labor disputes. There is no law authorizing the destruction of property in Mafia-like tactics such as this, but the courts have never really ruled on it previously. It’s just one of those things that happens in labor disputes.
Glacier Northwest decided to push back against this idiocy after the Teamsters Union tried to destroy millions of dollars worth of barrels, hoppers and ready-mix trucks in a 2017 strike. The union waited until the company was ready to deliver a large batch of concrete for a construction project. The mixer trucks were all loaded with wet concrete. A labor union official walked onto Glacier Northwest’s property, made a “throat-slashing gesture,” and all the drivers walked off the job.
Glacier then had to rush to deliver the concrete before it hardened in the barrels. It could have destroyed the mixing barrels and caused an environmental catastrophe. Concrete mixing trucks, for those who don’t know, cost between $100,000 and $300,000. This was an act of eco-terrorism on the part of the Teamsters, but it is par for the course for labor unions.
The company sued the Teamsters on the grounds that unions shouldn’t be allowed to destroy company property to enforce their labor demands. The state-level trial court sided with the union, claiming that the Supreme Court’s San Diego Building Trades Council v. Garmon case from 1959 preempts state law.
The state court ruled that the Garmon precedent allows unions like the Teamsters to intentionally destroy property without consequence. That’s insane if you think about it for five seconds.
The Washington State Court of Appeals reversed that decision. Then, the Washington Supreme Court reversed it again, amazingly finding that labor unions are allowed to destroy private property that does not belong to them when the union gets even greedier and demands a bigger pay increase.
The US Supreme Court then smacked it down in an 8-1 decision, with Ketanji Brown Jackson the only dissenting voice. Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote the majority opinion, with Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito writing concurring opinions. The nice thing about the ruling is that Glacier Northwest can now proceed with its lawsuit against the Teamsters for willful destruction of property. Plus, any other company in the US that is harmed by a labor union engaging in Mafia tactics can also sue for damages.
Hopefully, many companies will begin taking advantage of the new precedent. Labor unions are allowed to force workers into the unions, force them to pay dues to the unions, and then donate huge gobs of cash to Democrat politicians. The Democrat politicians then work to pass laws that benefit the unions and not the private employers providing all those jobs. It’s a big money laundering operation for the Democrats, and it’s about time that the courts took a bite out of it.
