Labor Law - Collective Bargaining - Enforceability of Collective Agreements Under Section 301(a)

Plaintiff, an unincorporated labor organization, filed suit in federal district court to enforce a collective bargaining agreement with defendant. The complaint alleged that defendant was obligated by the agreement to pay employees represented by the plaintiff their full salary for the month of April 1951 regardless of the fact that they had been absent on certain working days. The suit was brought under section 301 (a) of the Labor-Management Relations Act of 1947.On appeal from a court of appeals decision directing dismissal for lack of jurisdiction, held, affirmed, two justices dissenting. An action by a labor organization to enforce terms of a collective bargaining agreement which are peculiar in the individual benefit which is their subject matter and which, when violated, give a cause of action to the individual employee is not within the jurisdiction of the federal courts as conferred by the Labor-Management Relations Act.

Association of Westinghouse Salaried Employees v. Westinghouse Electric Corp., 348 U.S. 437, 75 S. Ct. 488 (1955).