"New York watched the federal government give up on labor relations law and tried to do something about it. Last week, Amazon successfully secured a preliminary injunction blocking New York from enforcing its newly amended State Employment Relations Act. SERA historically covered agricultural and non-employee contractors left unprotected by the NLRA. In September, New York expanded SERA to cover workers traditionally under federal jurisdiction - explicitly citing the Trump administration's decision to leave the NLRB without a quorum."
"But that's not how the Supremacy Clause works. When the federal government announces its intention to occupy a regulatory field - here, labor law under the NLRA - the states get kicked out of the sandbox. Garmon and Machinists underscore this arrangement, confirming that if conduct is even "arguably" protected or prohibited by Sections 7 or 8, the federal scheme wins."
New York expanded its State Employment Relations Act to cover workers normally under federal NLRA jurisdiction after the NLRB lacked a quorum. Amazon obtained a preliminary injunction blocking enforcement of the amended SERA. The Supremacy Clause and Supreme Court precedents such as Garmon and Machinists require states to defer when conduct is arguably protected or prohibited under Sections 7 or 8 of the NLRA. A federal judge applied those precedents to enjoin the state law despite the reduced functionality of the federal labor-regulatory apparatus, leaving regulation to the NLRB framework.
Read at Above the Law
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