At about the same time, Allied filed an unfair labor practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board under § 10(b) of the NLRA, 29 U. S. C. § 160(b).'

Finding that Allied had not alleged a violation of §8(b) (4)(B), the District Court dismissed Allied's complaint. 492 F. Supp. 334 (1980). The court characterized the ILA boycott as a purely political, primary boycott of Russian goods. So described, the boycott was not within the scope of § 8(b)(4).9

8

The Court of Appeals for the First Circuit reversed the dismissal of Allied's complaint and remanded for further proceedings. 640 F. 2d 1368 (1981). As an initial matter, and in agreement with the District Court, the court found that the effects of the ILA boycott were "in commerce" within the meaning of the NLRA as interpreted by a long line of deci

'On March 26, 1980, the Regional Director issued an unfair labor practice complaint against the ILA and filed a request for a preliminary injunction in Federal District Court. Finding that the ILA boycott was a political dispute outside the scope of § 8(b)(4)(B), the District Court denied the request for a preliminary injunction. Walsh v. International Longshoremen's Assn., 488 F. Supp. 524 (Mass. 1980). The Court of Appeals affirmed on a different theory. Walsh v. International Longshoremen's Assn., 630 F. 2d 864 (CA1 1980). It found that the denial of the Board's earlier request for injunctive relief against the boycott in Baldovin v. International Longshoremen's Assn., Civ. No. 80-259 (SD Tex. Feb. 15, 1980), aff'd, 626 F. 2d 445 (CA5 1980), had preclusive effect.

* Allied's suit for damages was consolidated with Walsh v. International Longshoremen's Assn., supra. In dismissing Allied's claim for damages, the District Court relied upon its characterization of the ILA boycott in Walsh as the law of the case. 492 F. Supp., at 336.

9" "The ILA had not induced a strike against Allied, Waterman, or Clark

; nor does it seek to pressure those employers not to deal with one another. No picket lines have been established and no other employees have been prevented from work. . . . This is a primary boycott of Russian goods, with incidental effects upon those employers who deal in such goods. As such, the actions of the respondents may not be prohibited by §§ 8(b)(4)(i), (ii)(b).'" Ibid., quoting Walsh v. International Longshoremen's Assn., 488 F. Supp., at 530-531.

sions of this Court." The court held further that the ILA boycott, as described in Allied's averments, was within § 8(b)(4)'s prohibition of secondary boycotts, despite its political purpose, and that resort to such behavior was not protected activity under the First Amendment."

We granted certiorari to determine the coverage of the secondary boycott provisions of the NLRA in this setting. 454 U. S. 814 (1981). We affirm.

II

Our starting point in a case of this kind must be the language of the statute. By its exact terms the secondary boycott provisions of § 8(b)(4)(B) of the NLRA would appear to be aimed precisely at the sort of activity alleged in this case. Section 8(b)(4)(B) governs activities designed to influence individuals employed by "any person engaged in commerce or in an industry affecting commerce."2 Certainly Allied, Wa

10

"In so holding, the court differed with the conclusion reached by the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in Baldovin v. International Longshoremen's Assn., supra.

"The NLRB reached the same conclusion in its decision upon the Regional Director's complaint against the ILA. See n. 7, supra. The Board held that the ILA's refusal to unload Allied's shipments was "in commerce" and amounted to a secondary boycott in violation of §§ 8(b)(4)(i) and (ii)(B). The Board issued a cease-and-desist order to Local 799 requiring it to unload Allied's shipments. International Longshoremen's Assn., AFL-CIO (Allied International, Inc.), 257 N. L. R. B. 1075 (1981). Petitions to review the Board's decision and order were filed by both the ILA and Allied and are now pending before the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

12 The terms "commerce” and “affecting commerce" are defined in §§ 2(6) and (7), 29 U. S. C. §§ 152(6) and (7), as amended by the LMRA, as follows:

"(6) The term 'commerce' means trade, traffic, commerce, transportation, or communication among the several States, or between the District of Columbia or any Territory of the United States and any State or other Territory, or between any foreign country and any State, Territory, or the District of Columbia, or within the District of Columbia or any Territory, or

terman, and Clark were engaged "in commerce," and Allied alleges that the effect of the ILA action was to obstruct commerce up and down the east and gulf coasts. 13 Just as plainly, it would appear that the ILA boycott fell within §8(b)(4)(B)'s prohibition of secondary boycotts. Allied alleges that by inducing members of the union to refuse to handle Russian cargoes, the ILA boycott was designed to force Allied, Waterman, and Clark "to cease doing business" with one another and "to cease using, selling, handling, transporting, or otherwise dealing in" Russian products.

Notwithstanding the language of the statute, petitioners argue that their conduct was not "in commerce" as our decisions have interpreted that term. They argue as well that even if the ILA activity were within the jurisdictional scope of § 8(b)(4), the boycott was not the sort of secondary boycott Congress intended to proscribe. We address these arguments in turn.

A

In a line of cases beginning with Benz v. Compania Naviera Hidalgo, 353 U. S. 138 (1957)," the Court has held

between points in the same State but through any other State or any Territory or the District of Columbia or any foreign country.

"(7) The term 'affecting commerce' means in commerce, or burdening or obstructing commerce or the free flow of commerce, or having led or tending to lead to a labor dispute burdening or obstructing commerce or the free flow of commerce."

13 "At first blush, it might appear too plain for discussion that the ILA's refusal to unload Allied's goods affects both commerce and a person engaged in commerce. Allied, Waterman and Clark are American companies and the ILA is an American union. All engage regularly in business affecting the transportation of goods among the several states. Indeed, the instant dispute arose when the ILA's actions allegedly impeded Allied's ability to move its wood products from Boston to other ports along the East coast, and Allied contends that the ILA continues to frustrate its ability to transport its goods into this country." 640 F. 2d, at 1371.

"See McCulloch v. Sociedad Nacional, 372 U. S. 10 (1963); Incres S.S. Co. v. Maritime Workers, 372 U. S. 24 (1963); Longshoremen v. Ariadne

that the "maritime operations of foreign-flag ships employing alien seamen are not in 'commerce'" as this term is used in the NLRA.15 Thus, in Benz the Court held that picketing by an American union in support of striking foreign crewmembers of a foreign-flag vessel was not governed by the Act. Relying upon the legislative history of the NLRA and the longstanding principles of comity in the treatment of foreign vessels, the Court held that the labor laws were not designed "to resolve labor disputes between nationals of other countries operating ships under foreign laws." Id., at 143.16

More recently in Windward Shipping, Ltd. v. American Radio Assn., 415 U. S. 104 (1974), and American Radio Assn. v. Mobile S.S. Assn., 419 U. S. 215 (1974), the Court again identified the limits to the jurisdictional reach of the labor laws in the context of foreign vessels. In Windward, American maritime unions picketed foreign-flag vessels to call attention to the lower wages paid to foreign seamen and to the adverse effect of these lower wages on American seamen. Finding that the picketing was designed to raise the operating costs of foreign vessels and that it had "more than a negligible impact on the 'maritime operations' of these for

Co., 397 U. S. 195 (1970); Windward Shipping, Ltd. v. American Radio Assn., 415 U. S. 104 (1974); American Radio Assn. v. Mobile S.S. Assn., 419 U. S. 215 (1974).

"Incres S.S. Co. v. Maritime Workers, supra, at 27. The Court noted in a later case that the "term "in commerce,' as used in the LMRA, is obviously not self-defining." Windward Shipping, Ltd. v. American Radio Assn., supra, at 112.

"The Court adhered to a similar approach in the companion cases of McCulloch v. Sociedad Nacional, supra, and Incres S.S. Co. v. Maritime Workers, supra. In McCulloch the Court held that the National Labor Relations Board did not have jurisdiction to determine the union representation of a foreign crew aboard a foreign vessel. In Incres the Court held that organizational picketing by an American union seeking to organize foreign seamen on a foreign-flag vessel also was outside the Board's jurisdiction.

eign ships," 415 U. S., at 114, the Court held that the union's activity was not "in commerce" under the labor laws. Id., at 115.

Facing the identical activity by maritime unions in Mobile, the Court reached the same conclusion. The complainants in Mobile were not foreign shipowners, as in Windward, but parties feeling the secondary effects of the union's protestAmerican stevedoring companies and an American shipper. The Court held that this change in complaining parties did not alter the jurisdictional reach of the Act. The Benz line of cases did not permit "a bifurcated view of the effects of a single group of pickets at a single site." Mobile, supra, at 222. The refusal of American stevedores to cross the picket lines "was a crucial part of the mechanism by which the maritime operations of the foreign ships were to be affected." 419 U. S., at 224.

Applying the principles developed in these cases to the circumstances here, we find that the ILA's activity was "in commerce" and within the scope of the NLRA. Unlike the situation in every case from Benz through Mobile, the ILA's refusal to unload Allied's shipments in no way affected the maritime operations of foreign ships. The boycott here did not aim at altering the terms of employment of foreign crews on foreign-flag vessels. It did not seek to extend the bill of rights developed for American workers and American employers to foreign seamen and foreign shipowners. The longstanding tradition of restraint in applying the laws of this country to ships of a foreign country-a tradition that lies at the heart of Benz and every subsequent decision-therefore is irrelevant to this case."7 As the Court of Appeals ex

"Jurisdiction in the NLRA over the ILA boycott is consistent with two further considerations. The ILA boycott is a national boycott affecting ports throughout the United States. Were the effects of this boycott not "in commerce," complaining parties such as Allied could seek relief in state courts. The possibility of conflicting decisions by a multitude of state