McCulloch v. Sociedad Nacional de Marineros de Honduras

Empresa Hondurena de Vapores, S.A. (Empresa) was a Honduran company based in Honduras involved in the shipping of tropical produce. The officers and directors of Empresa were Hondurans living in Honduras, and all but one of their seamen were Honduran citizens. However, Empresa was owned entirely by United Fruit Company, a New Jersey corporation, which controlled the appointment of officers and directors of Empresa. The Empresa fleet, all bearing Honduran flags, operated at the direction of United Fruit between ports in Central and South America and the United States. The fleet was essentially folded into United Fruit’s overall shipping fleet. Empresa had a union contract with Sociedad Nacional de Marineros de Honduras (defendant), which was consistent with Honduran law requiring a Honduran union to serve predominantly Honduran workers. In an action filed with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) under the National Labor Relations Act, the National Maritime Union of America, AFL-CIO sought to represent the Honduran workers given their frequent presence in United States ports and the control exerted by a United States company, United Fruit. The NLRB applied a weighing-of-interest test and concluded that the contact with the United States outweighed the interests of other countries, including Honduras. The NLRB therefore applied the act and ordered an election to determine which of the two unions, or no union, would represent the Empresa seamen. The United States District Court for the District of Columbia enjoined the order. The United States Supreme Court granted certiorari.