§ 2.3.7 NON-PREEMPTED MATTERS.

• Jurisdiction: Arizona

§ 2.3.7 Non-Preempted Matters. As already noted, violence and threats of violence are matters of overriding state interest and not necessarily preempted. Likewise, matters of a peripheral concern to the NLRA may also be outside the realm of preemptive status. If the conduct involves interests so deeply rooted in local feelings and responsibility that, in the absence of compelling congressional direction, the state retained power to act, the conduct has been held not to be preempted.³² Likewise, the Supreme Court has been held that the NLRA does not preempt the application of state common law to defamatory conduct occurring in the context of labor relations.³³ The Supreme Court has also held in that a state court action for trespass and libel, if meritorious and not for the purpose of retaliatory conduct for a labor dispute, will also be protected from preemption.³⁴ In that case, the Court considered the First Amendment right of access to the courts and the state's compelling interest in the well-being of its citizens as important factors weighing heavily against allowing the NLRB to enjoin state court litigation.

More recently, preemption has been raised in cases involving wrongful discharge in breach of an implied contract and in violation of a public policy. For example, in Lingle v. Norge Division of Magic Chef,³⁵ the Supreme...