DODGING THE SUPREMACY CLAUSE BULLET: DO STATE SUCCESSOR STATUTES SURVIVE FEDERAL LABOR LAW PREEMPTION?

Successor statutes, laws that require a purchaser of a company to honor that company's labor contract, are one method state legislatures have utilized to curb the perceived inequities of hostile takeovers. The issue of whether these statutes succumb to federal labor law preemption is analyzed by describing the types of successor statutes and reviewing successor statutes in relation to the 3 parts of labor law preemption doctrine. Both types of successor statutes must succumb to one strand of federal preemption - bargaining process preemption - due to the vision of industrial relations articulated in National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) versus Burns International Security Services Inc. (1972) and Howard Johnson Co. versus Detroit Locals Joint Executive Board (1974). It is determined that another preemption strand - Section 301 preemption - will preempt one of the 2 types of successor statutes. A successor statute could be designed that is compatible with federal successor and preemption doctrine.