opinion: Mr. Justice Brennan
  delivered the opinion of the Court.
  Taft-Hartley amendments of the National Labor Relations Act excluded supervisors from the protections of the Act and thus freed employers to discharge supervisors without violating the Act's restraints against discharges on account of labor union membership. The question in this case is whether those amendments also freed the employer from liability in damages to the discharged supervisors'uncjer §§ 95-81 and 95-83 of North Carolina’s right-to-work law that provides such an action for employees discharged for union membership.
  Respondent Food Fair of North Carolina, Inc. (Food Fair), a grocery chain, operates stores throughout North Carolina. Petitioners were managers of ineat departments in Food Fair Stores in the Winston-Salem area. When Local 525 of the Amalgamated Meat Cutters And Butcher Workmen of North America, AFL-CIO, organized the stores’ meatcutters, petitioners also joined the union. Food Fair discharged them, allegedly on account of their union membership, immediately after Local 525 won a representation election conducted by the National Labor Relations Board. The Local claimed that the discharges constituted an unfair labor practice and filed charges with the Regional Director of the NLRB. The Regional Director refused to issue a complaint on the ground that petitioners were “supervisors” excluded from the Act’s protection. On appeal, the NLR.B General Counsel refused to issue a complaint, on the same ground. Petitioners thereupon brought this suit in state court against Food Fair under § 95-83. ’ Food Fair contended successfully that the second clause of § 14 (a) of the National Labor Relations Act, 29 U. S. C. § 164 (a) — “but no employer . . . shall be compelled to deem individuals defined herein as supervisors as employees for the purpose of any law, either national or local, relating to collective bargaining” — prohibited enforcement of the gtate law in favor of supervisors, and was granted summary judgment. The North Carolina Court of Appeals reversed in reliance upon Hanna Mining v. Marine Engineers, 382 U. S. 181 (1965). 15 N. C. App. 323, 190 S. E. 2d 333 (1972). The North Carolina Supreme Court in turn reversed the Court of Appeals and reinstated the summary judgment. 282 N. C. 530, 193 S. E. 2d 911 (1973). We granted certiorari, 414 U. S. 907 (1973). We affirm.
  Petitioners concede that the Taft-Hartley amendments exclude supervisors from the protection of the Act. And it is undisputed that petitioners’ status as “supervisors” has been settled by the determinations of the Regional Director and General Counsel of the NLRB. See n. 3, supra; Hanna Mining v. Marine Engineers, supra, at 190; Brief for Respondents 7. The Act therefore did. not protect petitioners against discharge by Food Fair solely because of their membership in Local 525. Oil City Brass Works V. NLRB, 357 F. 2d 466 (CA5 1966); NLRB v. Fullerton Publishing Co., 283 F. 2d 545 (CA9 1960). See NLRB v. Inter-City Advertising Co., 190 F. 2d 420 (CA4 1951); NLRB v. Griggs Equipment, Inc., 307 F. 2d 275 (CA5 1962); NLRB v. Big Three Welding Equipment Co., 359 F. 2d 77 (CA5 1966); Brief for Petitioners 8-9.
  Our inquiry is thus narrowed to the determination of whether Congress, in addition to denying the protections of the federal law to supervisors discharged for union membership, should be- taken as having also precluded North Carolina from affording petitioners its state'damages remedy for such discharges. Section 14 (a) does not wholly foreclose state regulations respecting the. status of supervisors, but its two clauses require individualized consideration in view of the Court of Appeals’ reliance on Hanna 'Mining. Hanna, construing the first cjause— “Nothing herein shall prohibit any individual employed as a supervisor from becoming or remaining a member of a labor organization” — held that “certainly Congress made no considered decision generally to exclude' state limitations on supervisory organizing,” 382 U. S., at 190. The Court accordingly held that the Wisconsin anti-picketing statutes — that furthered, not hindered, the Act’s limitations — could be applied to activity by a union of supervisors.
  That construction, of course, is consistent with the objectives of the section. But the second clause is a broad command that no employer shall be compelled to treat supervisors as employees for the purpose of “any law, either national or local, relating to collective bargaining,” .Consistently with this broader command, and Hanna’s further statement that “Congress’ propelling intention was to relieve employers from any compulsion under the Act and under state law to countenance or bargain with any union of supervisory employees,” 382 U. S., at 189, the North Carolina Supreme Court concluded that §§ 95-81 and 95-83 of the State’s right-to-work law contravened the congressional objective. That court held: “To permit a state law to deprive an employer of his right to discharge his supervisor for membérship in a union would completely frustrate the congressional determination to leave- this weapon of self-help to the employer.” 282 N. C., at 541, 193 S. E. 2d, at 918.
  Petitioners argue, however, that Congress must have meant that the reách of the limitation of the second clause that “no employer . . . shall be compelled to deem . . . supervisors as employees for the purpose of any law, either national or local, relating to collective bargaining” (emphasis supplied) did not bar state damages remedies for the discharge of supervisors for union membership but was a limited prohibition against state regulations that compel the employer to bargain collectively with unions that include supervisors as members. The legislative history of §14 (a), read with its companion amendments, §§ 2 (3) and 2 (11), satisfies us that Congress embraced' laws like North Carolina’s §§ 95-81 and 95-83 within the prohibition against “any [local] law . . . relating to collective bargaining.”
  Section 2 (3) of the National Labor Relations Net before the 1947 Taft-Hartley amendments provided that “[t]he term ‘employee’ shall include any employee . .. .” 49 Stat. 450. The NLRB, after much vacillation, interpreted this term as including supervisors. Packard Motor Car Co. v. NLRB, 330 U. S. 485 (1917), sustained the Board. Congress reacted by amending §§ 2 (3) and 2 (11), and enacting § 14 (a) for the express purpose of relieving employers of\ obligations under the Act when supervisors, if employees under the Act, would be the focus of concern. Hanna Mining v. Marine Engineers, supra, at 188. Those amendments were the product of compromise of H. R. 3020 and S. 1126, 80th Cong., 1st Sess. (1947). There were differences in the specific provisions addressed to supervisory employees; but no difference in objective. Employers were not to be obliged to recognize and bargain with unions including or composed of supervisors, .because supervisors were manage•ment obliged to be-loyal to their employer's interests, and their identity with the interests of rank-and-file employees might- impair that loyalty and threaten realization of the basic ends of federal labor legislation. Thus the House Report stated: ■
  “Management, like labor, 'must have faithful agents. — If we are to' produce goods competitively and in such large quantities that many can buy them at low cost, then, just as there are people on labor’s side to say what workers want and have a right to expect, there must be in management and loyal to it persons not subject to influence or control of unions, not only to assign people to their work, to see .that they keep at their work and do it well, to correct them when they are at fault, and to settle their complaints and grievances, but to determine how much work employees should do, what pay they should receive for it, and to carry on the whole of labor relations.” H. R. Rep. No. 245, 80th Cong., 1st Sess., 16 (1947).
  Further:
  “The bill does not forbid anyone to organize. It does not forbid any employer to recognize a union of foremen. . Employers who, in the past, have bargained collectively with supervisors may continue to do so. What the bill does is .to say what the law always has said until the Labor Board, in the exercise of what it modestly calls its ‘expertness, ’ changed the law: That no one, whether employer or employee, need have as his agent one-.who is obligated to those on the other side, or one whom, for any reason, he does not trust.” Id., at 17 (emphasis in original).
  The same theme — that unionizing supervisors threatened realization of the basic objectives of the Act to increase the output of goods in commerce by promoting labor peace — is repeated in the Senate Report. The Report refers to the NLRB rulings that included supervisors as protected employees as
  “[a] recent development which probably moré than any other single factor has upset any real balance of power in the collective-bargaining process.....
  tfThe folly of permitting a continuation of this policy is dramatically illustrated by what has happened in the captive mines of the Jones & Laughliiv Steel .Corp. since supervisory employees were organized by the United Mine Workers under the protection1 of the act. Disciplinary slips issued by the underground supervisors in these-mines have fallen off by two-thirds and the accident rate in each mine has doubled.” S. Rep. No. 105, 80th Cong., 1st Sess. 3, 4 (1947).
  This history compels the conclusion that' Congress’ dominant purpose in amending §§ 2 (3) and 2 (11), and enacting § 14 (a) was to redress a perceived imbalance in labor-management relationships that was found to arise from putting supervisors in the position of serving two masters with opposed interests. See generally NLRB v. Bell Aerospace Co., ante, p. 267. We conclude, therefore, that the second clause of § 14 (a) relieving the employer of obligations under “any law either national or local, relating to collective bargaining” applies to any law that requires an employer “to accord to the front line of management the anomalous status of employees.” S. Rep. No. 105, supra, at 5. Enforcement against respondents in this case'of §§ 95-81 and 95-83 would plainly put pressure on respondents “to accord to the front line of management the anomalous status .of employees,” and would therefore flout the national policy against compulsion upon employers from either federal or state agencies to treat supervisors as employees. Cf. Teamsters Union v. Morton, 377 U. S. 252, 258-260 (1964).
  Affirmed.
  Labor Management Relations Act, 1947, c. 120, 61 Stat. 136. The three amendments relevant to this case provide:
  §2(3). “The term 'employee’ shall include any employee, and shall not be limited to the employees of a particular employer, unless the Act explicitly states otherwise, and shall include any individual whose work has ceased as a consequence of, or in connection with, any current labor dispute or because of any unfair labor practice, and who has not obtained any other regular and substantially equivalent employment, but shall not include any individual employed as an agricultural laborer, or in the domestic service of any family or person at his home, or any individual employed by his parent or spouse, or any individual having the status of an independent contractor, or any individual employed as a supervisor, or any individual employed by an employer subject to the Railway Labor Act, as amended from time to time, or by any other person who is not an employer as herein defined.” 61 Stat. 137, 29 U. S. C. §152(3).
  §2(11). “The term,'supervisor’ means any individual having,, authority, in the interest of the employer, to hire, transfer, suspend, lay off, recall, promote, discharge, assign, reward, or discipline other employées, or responsibly to direct them, or to adjust their grievances, or effectively to recommend such action, if in connection with the foregoing the exercise of such authority is not of a merely routine or clerical nature, but requires the use of independent judgment.” 61 Stat. 138, 29 U. S. C. § 152 (11).
  § 14 (a) “Nothing herein shall prohibit any individual employed as a supervisor from becoming or remaining a member of a labor organization, but no employer subject to this Act shall be compelled to deem individuals defined herein as supervisors as employees for the purpose of any law, either national or local, relating to collective bargaining.”. 61 Stat. 151, 29 U. S. C. § 164 (a).
  Those sections provide:
  “§95-81. Nonmembership as condition of employment prohibited. — No person shall be required by-an employer to abstain or refrain from membership in any labor union or labor, organization as a condition of employment or continuation of employment.” N. C. Gen. Stat. § 95-81 (1965).
  “§ 95-83. Recovery of damages by persons denied employment. — Any person who may be denied employment or be deprived of continuation of his employment in violation of §§ 95-80, 95-81 and 95-82 or of one or more of such sections, shill be entitled to recover from such employer and from any other person, firm, corporation, or association acting in concert with him by .appropriate action in the courts of this State such damages as he may have sustained by reason of such denial or deprivation of employment.” N. C. Gen. Stat. §95-83 (1965).
  The position of the General Counsel was unequivocally set forth in the letter of denial, quoted by the North Carolina Court of Appeals: “Your appeal in the above matter has been duly considered. The appeal • is denied. The four alleged discriminatees involved herein were' supervisors within the meaning of Section 2 (11) of the Act and hence were not entitled, in the circumstances herein, to the protection of the Act.” 15 N. C. App. 323, 325, 190 S. E. 2d 333, 334 (1972).
  The Board initially held that supervisors may organize in independent or affiliated unions, Union Collieries Coal Co., 41 N. L. R. B. 961 (1942); Godchaux Sugars, Inc., 44 N. L. R. B. 874 (1942). Then, following introduction of proposed corrective legislation, see H. R. Rep. No. 245, 80th Cong., 1st Sess., 13 (1947), the Board announced that it would not find any organization of supervisors an appropriate' bargaining unit, Maryland Drydock Co., 49 N. L. R. B. 733 (1943). Finally, in Packard Motor Co., 61 N. L. R. B. 4 (1945), the Board reverted to its initial position.
  Although H. R. 3020 lacked a counterpart to § 14 (a) in S, 1126, it contained a more detailed, and expansive, definition of “supervisor,” including individuals with “hire-and-fire” authority, those who worked in “labor relations, personnel, employment, police, or time-study matters ... or who [are] employed to act in other respects for the employer in dealing with other individuals employed by the employer,” and those with access to information “of a confidential nature.” § 101, amending § 2 (12) of NLRA, H. R. 3020, 80th Cong., 1st Sess. (1947).
  Aside from the use of the Senate’s proposals for §§2 (3), 2 (11;, and 14 (a) in the final amendments, the only pertinent congressional action during passage was the addition of the words “or responsibility to direct them” to § 2 (11) on the floor of the Senate. 93 Cong: Rec. 4677-4678 (1947).
  The legislative history is determinati/e of any contention that a different rule should be applied for unions composed entirely of supervisors, on the one hand, and for unions of the rank and file as well as supervisors, on the other. The House Report emphatically stated:
  “If management is to be free to manage American industry as in the ^past and to produce the goods on which depends our strength in war and our standard of living always, then Congress must exclude foremen from the operation of the Labor Act, not only when they organize into unions of the rank and file and into unions .affiliated with those of the rank and file, but also when they organize into unions that claim to be independent of the unions of the rank and, file.” H. R. Rep. No. 245, 80th Cong., 1st Sess., 15 (1947) (emphasis in original.)
  The Senate Report displays equally careful consideration and firm rejection of such a distinction: .
  “Before formulating this definition [in §2(11)], the committee considered a proposal,, occasionally advanced, which would have limited the protection of foremen to joining or organizing unions whose membership was confined to supervisory personnel and not affiliated with either of the major labor federations. After considerable discussion, the committee decided that any such compromise would be completely unrealistic. There is nothing in the record developed before this committee to justify the conclusion that there is such a thing as a really independent foremen’s organization.” S. Rep. No. 105, 80th Cong., 1st Sess., 4 (1947).
  Petitioners also argue that § 14 (b) supports their contention. That section provides that '“[n]othing in this Act shall be construed as authorizing the execution or application of agreements requiring membership in a labor organization as a condition of employment in any State or Territory in which such execution or application is prohibited by State or Territorial law.” The section obviously has no relevancy to the provisions of §§ 95-81 and 95-83. It is relevant primarily to § 95-79, which declares illegal certain agreements making union membership a condition of employment. See Retail Clerks v. Schermerhorn, 373 U. S. 746 and 375 U. S. 96 (1963); Algoma Plywood Co. v. Wisconsin Board, 336 U. S. 301 (1949).
choices: attorney general of the United States, or his office specified state board or department of education city, town, township, village, or borough government or governmental unit state commission, board, committee, or authority county government or county governmental unit, except school district court or judicial district state department or agency governmental employee or job applicant female governmental employee or job applicant minority governmental employee or job applicant minority female governmental employee or job applicant not listed among agencies in the first Administrative Action variable retired or former governmental employee U.S. House of Representatives interstate compact judge state legislature, house, or committee local governmental unit other than a county, city, town, township, village, or borough governmental official, or an official of an agency established under an interstate compact state or U.S. supreme court local school district or board of education U.S. Senate U.S. senator foreign nation or instrumentality state or local governmental taxpayer, or executor of the estate of state college or university United States State person accused, indicted, or suspected of crime advertising business or agency agent, fiduciary, trustee, or executor airplane manufacturer, or manufacturer of parts of airplanes airline distributor, importer, or exporter of alcoholic beverages alien, person subject to a denaturalization proceeding, or one whose citizenship is revoked American Medical Association National Railroad Passenger Corp. amusement establishment, or recreational facility arrested person, or pretrial detainee attorney, or person acting as such;includes bar applicant or law student, or law firm or bar association author, copyright holder bank, savings and loan, credit union, investment company bankrupt person or business, or business in reorganization establishment serving liquor by the glass, or package liquor store water transportation, stevedore bookstore, newsstand, printer, bindery, purveyor or distributor of books or magazines brewery, distillery broker, stock exchange, investment or securities firm construction industry bus or motorized passenger transportation vehicle business, corporation buyer, purchaser cable TV car dealer person convicted of crime tangible property, other than real estate, including contraband chemical company child, children, including adopted or illegitimate religious organization, institution, or person private club or facility coal company or coal mine operator computer business or manufacturer, hardware or software consumer, consumer organization creditor, including institution appearing as such; e.g., a finance company person allegedly criminally insane or mentally incompetent to stand trial defendant debtor real estate developer disabled person or disability benefit claimant distributor person subject to selective service, including conscientious objector drug manufacturer druggist, pharmacist, pharmacy employee, or job applicant, including beneficiaries of employer-employee trust agreement, employee health and welfare fund, or multi-employer pension plan electric equipment manufacturer electric or hydroelectric power utility, power cooperative, or gas and electric company eleemosynary institution or person environmental organization employer. If employer's relations with employees are governed by the nature of the employer's business (e.g., railroad, boat), rather than labor law generally, the more specific designation is used in place of Employer. farmer, farm worker, or farm organization father female employee or job applicant female movie, play, pictorial representation, theatrical production, actor, or exhibitor or distributor of fisherman or fishing company food, meat packing, or processing company, stockyard foreign (non-American) nongovernmental entity franchiser franchisee lesbian, gay, bisexual, transexual person or organization person who guarantees another's obligations handicapped individual, or organization of devoted to health organization or person, nursing home, medical clinic or laboratory, chiropractor heir, or beneficiary, or person so claiming to be hospital, medical center husband, or ex-husband involuntarily committed mental patient Indian, including Indian tribe or nation insurance company, or surety inventor, patent assigner, trademark owner or holder investor injured person or legal entity, nonphysically and non-employment related juvenile government contractor holder of a license or permit, or applicant therefor magazine male medical or Medicaid claimant medical supply or manufacturing co. racial or ethnic minority employee or job applicant minority female employee or job applicant manufacturer management, executive officer, or director, of business entity military personnel, or dependent of, including reservist mining company or miner, excluding coal, oil, or pipeline company mother auto manufacturer newspaper, newsletter, journal of opinion, news service radio and television network, except cable tv nonprofit organization or business nonresident nuclear power plant or facility owner, landlord, or claimant to ownership, fee interest, or possession of land as well as chattels shareholders to whom a tender offer is made tender offer oil company, or natural gas producer elderly person, or organization dedicated to the elderly out of state noncriminal defendant political action committee parent or parents parking lot or service patient of a health professional telephone, telecommunications, or telegraph company physician, MD or DO, dentist, or medical society public interest organization physically injured person, including wrongful death, who is not an employee pipe line company package, luggage, container political candidate, activist, committee, party, party member, organization, or elected official indigent, needy, welfare recipient indigent defendant private person prisoner, inmate of penal institution professional organization, business, or person probationer, or parolee protester, demonstrator, picketer or pamphleteer (non-employment related), or non-indigent loiterer public utility publisher, publishing company radio station racial or ethnic minority person or organization protesting racial or ethnic segregation or discrimination racial or ethnic minority student or applicant for admission to an educational institution realtor journalist, columnist, member of the news media resident restaurant, food vendor retarded person, or mental incompetent retired or former employee railroad private school, college, or university seller or vendor shipper, including importer and exporter shopping center, mall spouse, or former spouse stockholder, shareholder, or bondholder retail business or outlet student, or applicant for admission to an educational institution taxpayer or executor of taxpayer's estate, federal only tenant or lessee theater, studio forest products, lumber, or logging company person traveling or wishing to travel abroad, or overseas travel agent trucking company, or motor carrier television station union member unemployed person or unemployment compensation applicant or claimant union, labor organization, or official of veteran voter, prospective voter, elector, or a nonelective official seeking reapportionment or redistricting of legislative districts (POL) wholesale trade wife, or ex-wife witness, or person under subpoena network slave slave-owner bank of the united states timber company u.s. job applicants or employees Army and Air Force Exchange Service Atomic Energy Commission Secretary or administrative unit or personnel of the U.S. Air Force Department or Secretary of Agriculture Alien Property Custodian Secretary or administrative unit or personnel of the U.S. Army Board of Immigration Appeals Bureau of Indian Affairs Bonneville Power Administration Benefits Review Board Civil Aeronautics Board Bureau of the Census Central Intelligence Agency Commodity Futures Trading Commission Department or Secretary of Commerce Comptroller of Currency Consumer Product Safety Commission Civil Rights Commission Civil Service Commission, U.S. Customs Service or Commissioner of Customs Defense Base Closure and REalignment Commission Drug Enforcement Agency Department or Secretary of Defense (and Department or Secretary of War) Department or Secretary of Energy Department or Secretary of the Interior Department of Justice or Attorney General Department or Secretary of State Department or Secretary of Transportation Department or Secretary of Education U.S. Employees' Compensation Commission, or Commissioner Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Environmental Protection Agency or Administrator Federal Aviation Agency or Administration Federal Bureau of Investigation or Director Federal Bureau of Prisons Farm Credit Administration Federal Communications Commission (including a predecessor, Federal Radio Commission) Federal Credit Union Administration Food and Drug Administration Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Federal Energy Administration Federal Election Commission Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Federal Housing Administration Federal Home Loan Bank Board Federal Labor Relations Authority Federal Maritime Board Federal Maritime Commission Farmers Home Administration Federal Parole Board Federal Power Commission Federal Railroad Administration Federal Reserve Board of Governors Federal Reserve System Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation Federal Trade Commission Federal Works Administration, or Administrator General Accounting Office Comptroller General General Services Administration Department or Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare Department or Secretary of Health and Human Services Department or Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Interstate Commerce Commission Indian Claims Commission Immigration and Naturalization Service, or Director of, or District Director of, or Immigration and Naturalization Enforcement Internal Revenue Service, Collector, Commissioner, or District Director of Information Security Oversight Office Department or Secretary of Labor Loyalty Review Board Legal Services Corporation Merit Systems Protection Board Multistate Tax Commission National Aeronautics and Space Administration Secretary or administrative unit of the U.S. Navy National Credit Union Administration National Endowment for the Arts National Enforcement Commission National Highway Traffic Safety Administration National Labor Relations Board, or regional office or officer National Mediation Board National Railroad Adjustment Board Nuclear Regulatory Commission National Security Agency Office of Economic Opportunity Office of Management and Budget Office of Price Administration, or Price Administrator Office of Personnel Management Occupational Safety and Health Administration Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission Office of Workers' Compensation Programs Patent Office, or Commissioner of, or Board of Appeals of Pay Board (established under the Economic Stabilization Act of 1970) Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation U.S. Public Health Service Postal Rate Commission Provider Reimbursement Review Board Renegotiation Board Railroad Adjustment Board Railroad Retirement Board Subversive Activities Control Board Small Business Administration Securities and Exchange Commission Social Security Administration or Commissioner Selective Service System Department or Secretary of the Treasury Tennessee Valley Authority United States Forest Service United States Parole Commission Postal Service and Post Office, or Postmaster General, or Postmaster United States Sentencing Commission Veterans' Administration War Production Board Wage Stabilization Board General Land Office of Commissioners Transportation Security Administration Surface Transportation Board U.S. Shipping Board Emergency Fleet Corp. Reconstruction Finance Corp. Department or Secretary of Homeland Security Unidentifiable International Entity