US SUPREME COURT DECISIONS

A collective bargaining agreement between a group of local labor unions and a group of interstate motor carriers prescribed a wage scale for truck drivers and, in order to prevent evasion thereof, provided that drivers who own and drive their own vehicles should be paid, in addition to the prescribed wage, not less than a prescribed minimum rental for the use of their vehicles. A suit was brought in a state court to enjoin certain carriers and a local union from carrying out the minimum rental provision on the ground that it violated a state antitrust law.

Held: Since that provision was part of an agreement resulting from the exercise of collective bargaining rights under the National Labor Relations Act, the state court was precluded from applying the state antitrust law to prohibit the parties from carrying out its terms. Pp. 358 U. S. 284-297.

(1) In the light of its history and its purpose to protect the negotiated wage scale against evasion through payment to owner-drivers of rentals insufficient to cover their operating costs, the minimum rental provision was within the scope of collective bargaining required of the parties under §§ 7 and 8 of the National Labor Relations Act. Pp. 358 U. S. 292-295.

(2) The state antitrust law may not be applied to prevent the contracting parties from carrying out their agreement upon a subject matter as to which federal law directs them to bargain. Pp. 358 U. S. 295-297.

167 Ohio St. 299, 147 N.E.2d 856, reversed. chanrobles.com-red

Page 358 U. S. 284