Ohio State Building & Construction Trades Council v. Cuyahoga County Board of Commissioners

Summary

The Supreme Court of Ohio held that Sections 8(e) and 8(f) of the National Labor Relations Act preempted R.C. Chapter 4116. The Ohio statute broadly prohibited public authorities from requiring project labor agreements on public construction projects, including agreements containing terms authorized by the federal labor law. The court affirmed that enforcement of R.C. Chapter 4116 was barred under the Supremacy Clause.

Holdings

1. A real controversy existed because the county and the trades council were attempting to negotiate the very type of project labor agreement containing terms expressly prohibited by R.C. Chapter 4116.
2. Sections 8(e) and 8(f) of the National Labor Relations Act preempt R.C. Chapter 4116's blanket prohibition against entering into or enforcing project labor agreements on public construction projects.
3. R.C. Chapter 4116 is regulatory and tantamount to policymaking, not proprietary conduct by the State as a market participant.

Questions Presented

1. Whether R.C. Chapter 4116's prohibition on specified terms in public-construction project labor agreements is preempted by Sections 8(e) and 8(f) of the National Labor Relations Act.
2. Whether R.C. Chapter 4116 constitutes state regulation or permissible proprietary conduct by the State as a market participant.
3. Whether the controversy was sufficiently concrete to support declaratory relief.

Disposition

reversed