NLRB v. Enterprise Association of Steam and General Pipefitters of New York (Austin)

General contractor Austin Company (plaintiff) awarded Hudik-Ross Company (Hudik) a subcontract for a construction project’s heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning work. Hudik employed union steamfitters represented by Enterprise Association of Steam and General Pipefitters of New York (Enterprise) (defendant). Austin’s subcontract with Hudik provided that Austin would purchase climate-control units manufactured by Slant/Fin Corporation for installation at the jobsite. Per Austin’s specifications, the units’ internal-piping work was completed by Slant/Fin. However, Enterprise members had traditionally performed the internal piping of climate-control units at the jobsite, and the collective-bargaining agreement between Enterprise and Hudik provided that internal pipe-threading tasks were to be performed at the jobsite by Hudik employees. The union-represented steamfitters refused to install the pre-piped Slant/Fin units. Enterprise told Hudik that the Slant/Fin internal piping violated the collective-bargaining agreement. Austin filed a complaint against Enterprise with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), asserting that Enterprise had committed an unfair labor practice under National Labor Relations Act § 8(b)(4)(B) by encouraging Hudik’s employees to refuse to install the Slant/Fin units, with the goal of forcing Hudik to stop doing business with Austin and ultimately forcing Hudik and Austin to stop using the Slant/Fin products. The administrative-law judge (ALJ) found that because Austin’s specifications required Slant/Fin to perform the internal-piping work, there was no internal-piping work that could be performed at the jobsite unless Austin changed its specifications. The ALJ concluded that Enterprise had engaged in a secondary boycott in violation of § 8(b)(4)(B) because Enterprise was trying to influence Austin by pressuring Hudik, even though Hudik was powerless to award the union-represented steamfitters the work. The NLRB affirmed, but a federal appeals court reversed. The United States Supreme Court granted certiorari.