NLRB v. Babcock & Wilcox Co

In NLRB v. Babcock & Wilcox Co., 351 U.S. 105, 112 (1956), nonemployees sought to enter an employer's property to distribute union organizational literature. The Board applied the rule of Republic Aviation Corp. v. NLRB, 324 U.S. 793, (1945) in this situation, but the Court held that there is a distinction "of substance" between "rules of law applicable to employees and those applicable to nonemployees." 351 U.S., at 113. The difference was that the nonemployees in Babcock & Wilcox sought to trespass on the employer's property, whereas the employees in Republic Aviation did not. Striking a balance between 7 of the National Labor Relations Act organizational rights and an employer's right to keep strangers from entering on its property, the Court held that the employer in Babcock & Wilcox was entitled to prevent "nonemployee distribution of union literature on its property if reasonable efforts by the union through other available channels of communication will enable it to reach the employees with its message . . . ." Id., at 112.