Determination of Supervisory Status

In another case, five docking captains employed by Pacific Coast Docking Pilots sought to unionize with a secret vote of five to zero being entered in favor of adopting the union as the bargaining agent for these docking pilots with the company. Pacific Coast Docking Pilots refused to recognize the union as the legal bargaining entity, claiming that the docking pilots were not employees but were actually supervisors as defined by the Labor-Management Relations Act. As such, the docking pilots would not be eligible to form a collective bargaining unit with the protections of the Act and the National Labor Relations Board. The union field an unfair labor practices grievance against the employer and won a summary judgment, which was then appealed by the employer with the above arguments cited as a reason. Determining whether the docking pilots are actually supervisors is not as simple as might be hoped, however, as the following clearly demonstrates.

According to the LMRA, any individual that engages in the act of hiring, promoting, or terminating employees, directs employee activities, or assigns work (or engages in several other tasks not relevant to the case at hand) is a supervisor. In their capacity as docking captains, the five individuals in question make recommendations as to the hiring and the promotion of other individuals to the position of docking captain, and they are also responsible for determining the number of tugboats needed for docking and for the placement of these tugs. The employer contends that this makes...

A careful reading of the law, specifically the part that demands individuals be using "independent judgment" in each of the identified actions in order to be counted as supervisors, suggests that the docking captains are employees and not supervisors. They exercise no independent judgment in terms of hiring, firing, or promotion, as these decision are made by others, nor do they truly direct the work actions of others independently -- tugboat captains make their own determination about specific work actions that need to be taken, and they delegate these tasks to employees independently. As such, the unionization of the docking captains is protected by the LMRA.
Conclusion

As both of these cases show, interpreting labor laws to settle disputes is much easier said than done. While it is of course fully possible to interpret and apply the law, many issues are far from black and white, and a certain degree of personal and subjective judgment is needed to arrive at a decision. This clearly illustrates the need for judicial as well as legislative processes in the managing of labor relations, with human deliberation needed to solve what are ultimately human problems.