CROSSED THE LINE

The Supreme Court Makes It Easier to Sue Striking Workers

Liberal Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was the sole dissenter in the decision.

Liberal Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was the sole dissenter in Thursday’s Supreme Court decision that made it easier for companies to sue their workers when striking. In an 8-1 decision, the court sided with Glacier Northwest Inc., a Washington state concrete business that sued its truck drivers’ union after a strike in 2017. In the lawsuit, Glacier accused the union of intentional property destruction when drivers went on a work stoppage while their mixing trucks were filled with concrete, spoiling it and causing a financial loss for the company. “Because the union took affirmative steps to endanger Glacier’s property rather than reasonable precautions to mitigate that risk, the NLRA does not arguably protect its conduct,” Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote in the decision. Jackson included a 27-page dissent with the court’s opinion, where she wrote that the decision “risks erosion of the right to strike” and “is likely to cause considerable confusion among the lower courts.”