Holly Farms Corp. v. National Labor Relations Board (517 U.S. 392, 1996)

Justice Ginsburg

delivered the opinion of the Court.

This controversy stems from a dispute concerning union representation at the Wilkesboro, North Carolina, headquarters facility of Holly Farms, a corporation engaged in the production, processing, and marketing of poultry products. The parties divide, as have federal courts, over the classification of certain workers, described as “live-haul” crews— teams of chicken catchers, forklift operators, and truckdriv-ers, who collect for slaughter chickens raised as broilers by independent contract growers, and transport the birds to Holly Farms’ processing plant. Holly Farms maintains that members- of “live-haul” crews are “agricultural laborers],” a category of workers exempt from National Labor Relations Act coverage. The National Labor Relations Board disagreed and approved a Wilkesboro plant bargaining unit including those employees. Satisfied that the Board reasonably aligned the “live-haul” crews with the corporation’s processing operations, typing them covered “employee[s],” not exempt “agricultural laborers], ” we affirm the Court of Appeals’ judgment, which properly deferred to the Board’s determination.

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