Crider v. Spectrulite Consortium, Inc.

• Decision Date: 25 November 1997
• Docket Number: No. 97-1941,97-1941
• Parties: 156 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2993, 134 Lab.Cas. P 10,090 Donald L. CRIDER, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. SPECTRULITE CONSORTIUM, INCORPORATED, a corporation, and United Steelworkers of America, Local Union Number 4804, Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

Page 1238

130 F.3d 1238

156 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2993, 134 Lab.Cas. P 10,090

Donald L. CRIDER, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. SPECTRULITE CONSORTIUM, INCORPORATED, a corporation, and United Steelworkers of America, Local Union Number 4804, Defendants-Appellees.

No. 97-1941.

United States Court of Appeals Seventh Circuit.

Argued Sept. 10, 1997.

Decided Nov. 25, 1997.

Joseph R. Brown (argued), Edwardsville, IL, for Plaintiff-Appellant.

Andrew J. Martone, Bobroff, Hesse et al., St. Louis, MO, for Spectrulite Consortium, Inc. David L. Gore, Chicago, IL, Andrew J. Krafts (argued), United Steelworkers of America, Assistant General Counsel, Pittsburgh, PA, for United Steelworkers of America, Local Union Number 4804.

Before POSNER, Chief Judge, and MANION and EVANS, Circuit Judges.

MANION, Circuit Judge.

After returning from sick leave Donald Crider refused to submit to a routine drug test. The refusal escalated into a confrontation with his supervisors which cost him his job. His union filed a grievance for him, but when the employer held firm, the union chose not to take the grievance to arbitration. So Crider sued his former employer claiming that it breached the collective bargaining agreement, and sued his union claiming that it breached its duty of fair representation. The district court granted the defendants summary judgment. We affirm.

I.

From March 1986 to November 1994, Crider worked in various positions for Spectrulite Consortium, Inc. ("Spectrulite"), at its Madison, Illinois, magnesium and aluminum extrusion plant. Crider's exclusive bargaining agent was the United Steel Workers and its Local 4804. Except where the distinction between the International and the Local is significant, we will refer to the two interchangeably as the "Union." A collective bargaining agreement (CBA), which the Union and Spectrulite had negotiated, governed Crider's employment.

In August 1994, Crider took a six-week leave of absence after having a hernia operation. On November 1, which was about two weeks after Crider had been back to work on full duty, Spectrulite told Crider that he would have to undergo a return-to-work physical, including a drug test. Spectrulite was relying on a "Comprehensive Alcohol/Drug Program," which the Union and Spectrulite had negotiated and which was made an attachment to the CBA. Section II.4 of the Program provided that Spectrulite could order an employee to undergo a drug test "for just cause." Section II.7 provides:

Non-Users: The policy protects their freedom. We apologize for testing non-users, yet it is in order to protect their safety and health. If anyone is falsely tested, the Company will pay the employee $250.00 and issue a written apology.

a) Employees who are absent from the plant for thirty (30) days or more ... may be tested as part of the return to work physical. The $250.00 for a negative test result will not be required in their situation.

The Program also provides that "[a]ny employee refusing to allow the urine sample and/or blood test will be terminated."

Spectrulite first scheduled the physical and drug test for a time when Crider was not scheduled to work. Because the physical was supposed to be conducted during working hours, Crider--through his Union representatives--complained, and Spectrulite twice rescheduled the physical to accommodate Crider's work schedule. It was finally scheduled for November 9. On that day, Crider complained that he did not have transportation to the physical. Susan Damsgaard-Brand, Spectrulite's Human Resources Manager, agreed to provide transportation for Crider. Crider then asked Donald Devany, president of the Local, if Spectrulite would pay him $250 if he passed the drug test. Devany told him that it would not because the test was part of a return-to-work physical. Crider said that he would not take the drug test, then. Crider claimed that because he had already been back to work for 30 days, he was not obligated to take the physical. Devany answered that if he refused to take the drug test, Spectrulite would probably fire him. Crider responded, "Well, then, if that's the way it's going to be, that's the way it will be. If they can't go by the contract, then there it is."

Later that day, Devany and Ed Gray, another union official, urged Crider to take the drug test. They told him that if he took the test and passed, the Union would file a grievance if Spectrulite did not pay him $250. Crider rejected this advice. His foreman then told him to leave the plant if he wasn't going to take the physical. On his way out, Crider was met by Damsgaard-Brand and Randy Riebeling, a manager. Damsgaard- Brand told Crider that he would be fired if he refused to take the drug test. Crider asked if he would be paid the $250 if he passed, and Damsgaard-Brand told him "no." Crider responded, "That's all I need to know," and left. Spectrulite suspended Crider that day.

The Union requested a hearing concerning Crider's suspension. Prior to the hearing, Devany asked if Crider was open to settling the drug test issue. Crider stuck to his position: he would only take the drug test if Spectrulite first agreed to pay him $250 if he passed. At the hearing, Devany tried to put the best "spin" that he could on the events leading up to Crider's exchange with Damsgaard-Brand. He suggested that there had been a misunderstanding. He said that Crider was willing to take the drug test but believed that he would be entitled to the $250 if he passed. Plant Superintendent Julius Smith told Devany that Crider had been suspended both for refusing to take the test and for his insubordination toward Damsgaard-Brand, which Spectrulite saw as two separate offenses. According to Smith, Crider should have taken the drug test and then filed a grievance if he disagreed with Spectrulite's application of the Program. And in no event should he have challenged Damsgaard-Brand's authority the way he did. The parties reached no resolution at this hearing, so three days later Spectrulite fired Crider.

The CBA creates a grievance procedure to settle disputes regarding the interpretation of the CBA, including whether Spectrulite had "just cause" to fire an employee. The procedure progresses through five steps. Steps 1 through 3 involve meetings between representatives of the Local and Spectrulite. If the grievance is taken to Step 4, a meeting is held between representatives of Spectrulite and the International Union. At this point the International is solely responsible for handling the grievance, as it is at Step 5, which is binding arbitration. Like all progressive grievance procedures, the goal is to avoid arbitration, which is costly, by resolving the grievance if possible before it gets that far.

Because it involved a termination, when the Union filed a grievance after Crider was fired, the CBA required that the grievance skip Steps 1 and 2 and go immediately to Step 3, where Spectrulite promptly denied the grievance. The Local appealed, and David Kins, the International representative, pursued the grievance at Step 4. Spectrulite again denied it, and Kins decided not to appeal to arbitration. This was solely his decision. In a letter, Kins explained to Crider that the Union had accepted his termination as proper because of his insubordination. Kins relied on the rule generally applied in industrial relations that an employee must "obey now and grieve later."

Crider filed this suit on May 15, 1995. After full discovery, the defendants moved for summary judgment, which the district court granted. We review de novo the district court's decision, applying the same standards that the district court applied.

II.

A.

Crider filed his claim against the Union and Spectrulite under § 301 of the Labor Management Relations Act, 29 U.S.C. § 185. That section gives federal courts jurisdiction over suits to enforce the terms of collective bargaining agreements. Crider's claim is a so-called "hybrid 301" action because he has sued the Union for breaching its duty of fair representation and his employer for breaching the collective bargaining agreement. Ooley v. Schwitzer Div., Household Mfg., Inc., 961 F.2d 1293, 1297-98 (7th Cir.1992). In a "hybrid 301" suit, the employee's claim against the union and his claim against the employer are interlocked: neither claim is viable if the other fails. See, e.g., White v. General Motors, 1 F.3d 593, 595 (7th Cir.1993).

Courts are generally reluctant to construe as a matter of law the terms of a collective bargaining agreement where, as here, the parties to the agreement have opted for a grievance mechanism to resolve such disputes. Ooley, 961 F.2d at 1298. But in cases such as this where the employee complains that the Union breached its duty of fair representation by refusing to take the grievance to arbitration, the court must look at least to the arguable merits of the grievance, which necessarily involves looking at the contract. Id. Where the court is well able to decide that the employee's contractual claim lacks merit as a matter of law, it is appropriate for the court to decide the case on that issue. Id.

B.

We first turn to the question whether Spectrulite breached the CBA when it fired Crider. The substantive law in a section 301 suit for breach of the collective bargaining agreement is federal common law rather than state law. Textile Workers Union of America v. Lincoln Mills of Alabama, 353 U.S. 448, 456-57, 77 S.Ct. 912, 917-18, 1 L.Ed.2d 972 (1957); United Steelworkers of America v. Rawson, 495 U.S. 362, 368, 110 S.Ct. 1904, 1909, 109 L.Ed.2d 362 (1990); Brazinski v. Amoco Petroleum Additives Co., 6 F.3d 1176, 1180 (7th Cir.1993).

The CBA requires that Spectrulite have "just cause" to fire Crider. Whether the undisputed facts of a particular case establish just cause is a question of law for the court. S.J. Groves & Sons Co. v. Int'l Brotherhood of Teamsters, 581 F.2d 1241, 1244 (7th Cir.1978); Scott v. Riley Co., 645 F.2d 565, 567 (...