Chao v. Bremerton Metal Trades Council, Afl-Cio

• Decision Date: 25 June 2002
• Docket Number: No. 00-35729.,00-35729.
• Citation: 294 F.3d 1114
• Parties: Elaine CHAO, Secretary of Labor, United States Department of Labor, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. BREMERTON METAL TRADES COUNCIL, AFL-CIO, Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit

294 F.3d 1114

Elaine CHAO, Secretary of Labor, United States Department of Labor, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. BREMERTON METAL TRADES COUNCIL, AFL-CIO, Defendant-Appellee.

No. 00-35729.

United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit.

Argued and Submitted January 8, 2002.

Filed June 25, 2002.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Stephanie R. Marcus, Anne Murphy, David W. Ogden, Katrina C. Pflaumer, and Michael Jay Singer, United States Department of Justice, Washington, DC, for the plaintiff-appellant.

Richard H. Robblee, Rinehart, Robblee & Hannah, Seattle, WA, for the defendant-appellee.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington; Franklin D. Burgess, District Judge, Presiding. D.C. No. CV-99-05283-FDB.

Before: THOMAS, GRABER, and GOULD, Circuit Judges.

GOULD, Circuit Judge:

In this case we must consider whether a joint council, the Bremerton Metal Trades Council ("Bremerton Council"), is a labor organization within the meaning of the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act ("LMRDA"), whether the LMRDA's requirements for fair election procedures are superseded by the Civil Service Reform Act ("CSRA"), and whether a challenged eligibility requirement for elected officers is reasonable under the LMRDA.

I

The Secretary of Labor ("Secretary") brought this action alleging violation of the LMRDA, 29 U.S.C. § 481(e), on behalf of Richard Taylor, a federal employee. Taylor is a member of American Federation of Government Employees, Local No. 48 ("Local 48") and, in 1998, was a delegate to the biennial Bremerton Council election. After Taylor was nominated for the position of Bremerton Council vice-president, the Bremerton Council president ruled that Taylor was ineligible to run for vice-president because his national union, American Federation of Government Employees ("AFGE"), was not affiliated with the Metal Trades Department of the AFL-CIO. The Bremerton Council by-laws require Bremerton Council affiliates to comply with the Metal Trades Department constitution. The Metal Trades Department constitution precludes any Bremerton Council delegate from holding office if the delegate's national union is not affiliated with, and does not pay dues to, the Metal Trades Department.

The Bremerton Council was chartered by and is subordinate to Metal Trades Department. As a joint council of labor organizations, the Bremerton Council is comprised of local unions. The local unions that belong to the Bremerton Council represent both public- and private-sector employees. Taylor's local union, Local 48, has 135 members. The Bremerton Council is the exclusive bargaining representative of some members of Local 48. Based on its membership size, Local 48 makes up eight percent of Bremerton Council. Local 48's national organization, the AFGE, could join Metal Trades Department, but it has not done so.

In the district court, the Secretary sought to set aside the Bremerton Council election under the LMRDA because of Taylor's allegedly unlawful exclusion. 29 U.S.C. § 482(c). Bremerton Council moved for summary judgment, arguing 1) that it was not subject to the LMRDA because it represents only public-sector employees; 2) that the CSRA, 5 U.S.C. §§ 7101-7135, preempts the LMRDA when the latter is invoked by a federal employee; and 3) that the candidacy requirement of the national union's affiliation with Metal Trades Department is reasonable. The district court rejected the first two arguments but granted summary judgment based on the third argument. The Secretary appeals.

II

The Bremerton Council contends that it is not a labor organization within the meaning of the LMRDA because it bargains only with the federal government. On this ground, the Bremerton Council argues that neither the district court nor this court has jurisdiction and that the district court should have granted summary judgment in its favor on the issue of the LMRDA's applicability to the Bremerton Council.

The Bremerton Council is a locality-based council of local labor unions. It was chartered by, and continues to be affiliated with, the Metal Trades Department. The purpose of the Bremerton Council is to "protect and promote the interests of its affiliated local unions." Bremerton Council By-Laws, Art. III. The Bremerton Council "engage[s] in ... negotiation and administration of Labor Agreements with those Employers with whom the Council is the recognized collective bargaining representative...." Id. Although some local unions that belong to the Bremerton Council represent both public and private employees, the Bremerton Council itself does not bargain with any non-federal employers.

The LMRDA defines a "[l]abor organization":

"Labor organization" means a labor organization engaged in an industry affecting commerce and includes any organization of any kind, any agency, or employee representation committee, group, association, or plan so engaged in which employees participate and which exists for the purpose, in whole or in part, of dealing with employers concerning grievances, labor disputes, wages, rates of pay, hours, or other terms or conditions of employment, and any conference, general committee, joint or system board, or joint council so engaged which is subordinate to a national or international labor organization, other than a State or local central body.

29 U.S.C. § 402(i) (emphasis added).

To determine whether a labor union is engaged in an industry affecting commerce under the statute, the statute directs us to consider whether the union represents employees who work for employers that are engaged in such an industry. 29 U.S.C. § 402(j)(1)-(4). Because the LMRDA's definition of "employer" excludes the United States, 29 U.S.C. § 402(e), a union that exclusively represents federal government employees is not subject to the LMRDA. See, e.g., Thompson v. McCombe, 99 F.3d 352, 353 (9th Cir.1996) (per curiam).

To determine whether a joint council such as the Bremerton Council is engaged in an industry affecting commerce, the statute directs us to ask whether the joint council is "subordinate to a national or international labor organization, which includes a labor organization engaged in an industry affecting commerce within the meaning of any of the preceding paragraphs of this subsection, other than a State or local central body." 29 U.S.C. § 402(j)(5). We must decide not whether the Bremerton Council bargains directly with any private employers but, instead, whether the Metal Trades Department, the organization to which the Bremerton Council is subordinate, is engaged in an industry affecting commerce. See, e.g., Roddy v. United Transp. Union, 479 F.Supp. 57, 60-61 (N.D.Ala.1979).

The undisputed facts lead to the conclusion that the Metal Trades Department is engaged in such an industry: The Metal Trades Department is a trade department of the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations ("AFL-CIO"), a voluntary federation of national and international labor unions. According to John Meese, the President of the Metal Trades Department, the Metal Trades Department "is composed of national and international unions whose members are employed in metal and related industries." At the time of the proceedings in the district court, there were eighteen national and international unions affiliated with the Metal Trades Department. The metal trade councils chartered by the Metal Trades Department represent employees of public and private shipyards, industrial plants, and federal weapons manufacturers. The organization's purposes include "the encouragement and formation of local Metal Trade Councils, and the conferring of such power and authority on the several local organizations of this Department as may advance the interests and welfare of the metal trades industry." Metal Trades Department Const., Art. II, § 1. Additional goals include "establish[ing] more harmonious relations between employer and employee" and "secur[ing] improved wages, hours, working conditions and other economic advantages for our members through collective bargaining." Id.

The Metal Trades Department is not devoted exclusively to representing public sector employees; nor are the national and international unions that comprise it so devoted. Rather, the Metal Trades Department seeks to improve the conditions of employment for all employees in "metal and related industries"; that broad category of industry is not limited, implicitly or explicitly, to government work. Finally, the AFL-CIO, to which the Metal Trades Department is itself subordinate, is not limited to unions that represent federal employees. See, e.g., Brown v. Sombrotto, 523 F.Supp. 127, 130 (S.D.N.Y.1981) (describing the AFL-CIO, in a LMRDA case, as being comprised of "approximately 101 affiliated national and international labor organizations").

The Metal Trades Department is a labor organization engaged in an industry affecting commerce and is itself subordinate to the AFL-CIO, another labor organization engaged in industries affecting commerce. And, because the Metal Trades Department is a labor organization, the Bremerton Council is also a labor organization by virtue of its subordination to Metal Trades Department. We conclude that the LMRDA applies to Bremerton Council because it is a labor organization.

III

The Bremerton Council next argues that the applicability of the CSRA to this dispute precludes the Secretary from proceeding under the LMRDA, arguing that there is a preemption of claims that might be asserted within the framework of the CSRA. It is correct that the CSRA preempts state tort claims and that it precludes relief previously available under some federal statutes. See, e.g., United States v. Fausto, 484 U.S. 439, 453, 108 S.Ct. 668, 98 L.Ed.2d 830 (1988) (holding that judicial review of agency decisions which had been previously available under a judicial interpretation of the Back Pay Act is no longer available after enactment of...