In the 1986 case International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, AFL-CIO, et al. v. Hechler, the US Supreme Court ruled that a union cannot be held liable for an injury to a worker under federal common law due to negligence or breach of duty of fair representation. The plaintiff, Elizabeth Hechler was injured while working at Potomac Electric Power Company and sued her employer and her union (International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers), alleging that they failed to maintain safe working conditions as per their collective bargaining agreement. The court found in favor of the defendants stating that such claims are preempted by federal labor laws which provide exclusive remedies for workplace injuries through workers' compensation statutes.

In the dissenting opinion for International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, AFL-CIO, et al. v. Hechler (1986), Justice White disagreed with the majority's decision to allow a worker to sue her union under federal law for injuries sustained on the job due to alleged negligence by the union in its safety inspection duties. The justice argued that such claims should be governed by state law rather than federal labor law because they involve issues of personal injury and workplace safety traditionally regulated at the state level. Furthermore, he contended that allowing these suits under federal law could undermine collective bargaining agreements between unions and employers by encouraging individual workers to bypass these agreements and seek remedies in court instead. This would disrupt labor-management relations and potentially weaken unions' ability to protect their members' interests collectively.