I.B.E.W., Local Union No. 545 v. Hope Electrical

• Decision Date: 07 June 2002
• Docket Number: No. 00-4006.,No. 01-2779.,00-4006.,01-2779.
• Citation: 293 F.3d 409
• Parties: INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF ELECTRICAL WORKERS, Local Union No. 545, Appellee, v. HOPE ELECTRICAL CORPORATION, Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

293 F.3d 409

INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF ELECTRICAL WORKERS, Local Union No. 545, Appellee, v. HOPE ELECTRICAL CORPORATION, Appellant.

No. 00-4006.

No. 01-2779.

United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit.

Submitted: April 17, 2002.

Filed: June 7, 2002.

Rehearing and Rehearing En Banc Denied: July 12, 2002.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Martin M. Bauman, argued, St. Joseph, Missouri, for appellant.

Charles R. Schwartz, argued, Kansas City, Kansas, for appellee.

Before BOWMAN, RILEY, and MELLOY, Circuit Judges.

MELLOY, Circuit Judge.

This matter concerns a labor contract dispute between the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local Union 545 (Local 545) and Hope Electrical Corporation (Hope). Hope has filed two appeals from the district court's¹ denial of three separate motions for relief under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 60(b) and from the district court's order holding Hope in contempt. The appealed orders all relate to an underlying, May 30, 2000, order to enforce two separate labor arbitration awards against Hope (May 30th Order). Hope refused to participate in one of the two underlying arbitration proceedings, failed to appeal the underlying May 30th Order, refused to comply with the May 30th Order, and refuted the validity of the district court's actions in pleadings before the National Labor Relations Board (Board). Because the district court did not abuse its discretion when it denied Hope's Rule 60(b) motions and entered the contempt order, the district court is affirmed.

I

In 1996, members of Local 545 applied for employment with Hope. After Hope denied positions to these members, Local 545 filed an unfair labor practices claim before the Board. This claim led to a settlement in the summer of 1997 in which Hope authorized the St. Joseph Division-Kansas City Chapter of the National Electric Contractor's Association (NECA)² to serve as Hope's representative regarding current and future inside labor agreements with Local 545. The settlement also required Hope to comply with the first inside agreement, which NECA had already negotiated and which was effective through May 31, 1999.

The first inside agreement required Hope to pay wages according to a negotiated scale, hire new workers exclusively through Local 545's hiring hall, and categorize workers and their respective duties according to an apprenticeship and work distribution regime. The first inside agreement contained an interest arbitration clause. "An interest arbitration clause is one in which the parties agree to arbitrate disputes over the terms of a new collective bargaining agreement in the event of a deadlock." Sheet Metal Workers' Int'l Ass'n, Local 14 v. Aldrich Air Conditioning, 717 F.2d 456 (8th Cir.1983). Hope became bound under the first inside agreement without its workers first having had an opportunity to elect or reject Local 545 as their bargaining unit representative. As such, the first inside agreement was a "pre-hire, construction industry agreement" sanctioned by section 8(f) of the Labor Management Relations Act (LMRA). 29 U.S.C. § 158(f). Section 8(f) agreements and the interest arbitration clauses contained therein generally are enforceable against employers notwithstanding the failure of the signatory union to obtain majority approval among eligible workers. Local Union 257, I.B.E.W., AFL-CIO v. Sebastian Elec., 121 F.3d 1180, 1185 (8th Cir.1997).³

After Hope became bound by the first inside agreement, Hope's workers sought an election regarding Local 545 representation. Local 545 and Hope both instituted unfair labor actions before the Board, a practice that may invoke that body's blocking charge policy. Under the Board's blocking charge policy, Board-monitored elections may be suspended pending resolution of outstanding unfair labor claims. See Briggs Plumbingware, Inc. v. N.L.R.B., 877 F.2d 1282, 1289-90 (6th Cir.1989); Bishop v. N.L.R.B., 502 F.2d 1024, 1029 (5th Cir.1974). Hope now argues that Local 545 has abused the blocking charge policy as a "union tactic" to delay decertification. Local 545 argues that the blocking charge policy has worked as intended to prevent a decertification vote from occurring when Hope had "stacked the deck" against a successful union vote through refusal to hire exclusively from Local 545.

On February 8, 1999, a Joint Labor-Management Committee (Committee) comprising three representatives for Hope and three representatives for Local 545 met to consider various grievances that Local 545 had filed against Hope. On April 15, 1999, the Committee ordered Hope to terminate a certain worker or conform his employment status to that of "journeyman wireman" (as that classification was defined in the first inside agreement), to permit Local 545 to audit Hope's payroll records to assess compliance with the wage scale, and to terminate two specific employees whom Hope had hired in violation of the exclusive Local 545 hiring hall provisions.

On February 11, 1999, after the Committee met, but before it ruled, Hope provided Local 545 with timely notice of an intent to terminate the first inside agreement upon its expiration.⁴ Local 545 subsequently and unilaterally instituted inside arbitration before the Council on Industrial Relations (CIR), as authorized by the first inside agreement. Hope refused to participate in the inside arbitration. On May 18, 1999, while the first inside agreement was still in effect, the CIR issued its ruling directing Local 545 and Hope to sign and implement a successor agreement, the second inside agreement. A copy of this agreement, imposed upon Hope by the CIR, was attached to the CIR's arbitration ruling. In accordance with this Court's prior decision in Aldrich Air Conditioning, 717 F.2d at 458-59, the second inside agreement did not include an interest arbitration provision. Id. As such, Hope will not be forced to enter a third generation inside agreement and the current dispute involves only the first and second inside agreements.

Throughout the balance of 1999 and into the year 2000, Hope failed to comply with either arbitration ruling. Hope did not seek to vacate either ruling. Eventually, Local 545 brought suit under section 301 of the LMRA, 29 U.S.C. § 185, to enforce both arbitration rulings. In the May 30th Order, the district court ordered Hope to comply with both arbitration rulings in all respects. Hope failed to appeal the May 30th Order. Local 545 sought and obtained rulings from the district court on July 7 and 14, 2000, ordering enforcement of the May 30th Order. On August 29, 2000, Hope finally signed the second inside agreement, but subsequently failed to comply in all respects with the second inside agreement or with the May 30th Order.

Due to Hope's continued non-compliance, Local 545 filed a series of requests to have the district court hold Hope in contempt. In the third such motion, Local 545 attached a copy of charges filed by Hope before the Board on November 14, 2000. In these November 14, 2000 charges — filed nearly 6 months after entry of the May 30th Order and nearly 18 months after the arbitration rulings — Hope refuted the validity of the arbitrators' and district court's actions.⁵ On November 22, 2000, in response to Local 545's third request to hold Hope in contempt, the district court entered an order holding Hope in contempt and assessing a fine at $1000/day until such time that Hope complied with the requirements of the contempt order. The district court's contempt order was directed towards Hope and also towards Lloyd W. Hope as an individual. Lloyd W. Hope did not appeal the contempt order in his individual capacity.

Hope filed a second⁶ motion for relief under Rule 60(b) on November 16, 2000, in which Hope argued that the May 30th Order was flawed due to the lack of majority approval for Local 545 representation and due to the ongoing blocking of monitored elections. In an order dated November 27, 2000, the district court denied Hope's second motion for relief. The appeals in Case No. 00-4006 are from the district court's November 22 and 27, 2000 orders.

On March 14 and May 17, 2001, respectively, Hope filed its third and fourth Rule 60(b) motions for relief from the May 30th Order. The third Rule 60(b) motion alleged that "new evidence" warranted relief from the May 30th Order. The alleged new evidence was the discovery by Hope that, on January 8, 2001, the International President of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers had only partially approved the second inside agreement that Hope had signed on August 29, 2000. By letter dated March 20, 2001, the International President rescinded his earlier objections and approved the second inside agreement in whole. Hope's fourth Rule 60(b) motion alleged errors at law underlying the May 30th Order based on the district court's failure to apply the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA), 9 U.S.C. § 1, et seq. (FAA), in the underlying enforcement action under section 301 of the LMRA. Hope asserted that the Supreme Court's decision in Circuit City Stores, Inc. v. Adams, 532 U.S. 105, 121 S.Ct. 1302, 149 L.Ed.2d 234 (2001), required retroactive application of the FAA to the present labor contract dispute. Hope did not allege that it had ever attempted to vacate the arbitration ruling or that either party had requested the district court to apply the FAA in the context of the proceedings under section 301 of the LMRA. Hope merely alleged in its motion for relief that the district court had borrowed a 90 day statute of limitations from Missouri law for vacating an arbitration award, and that the FAA would have provided up to one year for a vacation action. Hope did not assert any additional arguments to the district court to explain how application of the FAA might have altered the outcome of the proceedings.

On June 22, 2001, the district court denied Hope's third and fourth Rule 60(b) motions. The June 22nd order is the basis for the appeals in Case...