Deaton Truck Line, Inc. v. LOCAL UNION 612, ETC.
Citation | 314 F.2d 418 |
Decision Date | 14 March 1963 |
Docket Number | No. 19688.,19688. |
Parties | DEATON TRUCK LINE, INC., Appellant, v. LOCAL UNION 612, AFFILIATED WITH the INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF TEAMSTERS, CHAUFFEURS, WAREHOUSEMEN AND HELPERS OF AMERICA, Appellee. |
Court | United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (5th Circuit) |
C. V. Stelzenmuller, M. L. Taliaferro, Birmingham, Ala. (Moore, Thomas, Taliaferro, Forman & Burr, Birmingham, Ala., of counsel), for appellant.
Douglas Corretti, Birmingham, Ala., L. N. D. Wells, Jr., Dallas, Tex., David Previant, Milwaukee, Wis., Donald L. Newsom, Birmingham, Ala. (Mullinax, Wells, Morris & Mauzy, Dallas, Tex., Corretti & Newsom, Birmingham, Ala., of counsel), for appellee.
Before RIVES, JONES and BELL, Circuit Judges.
Appellee, Local Union 612, sued appellant, Deaton Truck Line, Inc., for specific performance of an agreement to arbitrate two labor disputes or grievances. Jurisdiction was claimed under Section 301(a) of the Taft-Hartley Act, 29 U.S.C.A. § 185(a).1
Deaton is an irregular route common carrier by motor vehicle operating under a certificate of convenience and necessity granted by the Interstate Commerce Commission. It operates approximately 250 tractor power units, but owns only two such units in over-the-road operation. The remaining tractor power units are leased by Deaton under leases which provide that the owners of the tractors shall purchase and pay for the State license tags. The "vast majority" of the men who own tractors drive their own units. Others own trucks and tractors but do not drive. Several drivers own more than one unit of equipment. Some wives of drivers own units and engage men to drive them. Deaton has 4 or 5 yardmen (including Harry Williams, a city truck driver) and two over-the-road drivers who are, without dispute, its employees.
The Union disclaimed representation of "owners" who do not drive, but claimed to represent owner-drivers, as well as the few drivers who were admittedly employees. Owner-drivers pay for fuel, maintenance, and other operating expenses of their units. They are compensated on a basis of percentage of gross revenue — 20% as to ordinary freight, and 25% as to freight that is over length, over width, or carries a premium rate. The two over-the-road drivers who drive units owned by Deaton are paid on the basis of 20% of revenue.
An agreement in the form of a collective bargaining contract was entered into between the Union and Deaton effective from August 1, 1959 through July 31, 1962.2 The contract contains some twenty-six articles. By its terms, Deaton agrees "* * * that all Mechanics, Helpers, Drivers, Driver Owners, etc. covered by this Agreement, employed by the Company must become members of Local Union No. 612 if their employment continues beyond thirty (30) days from the date of their hiring." There are provisions for a check-off of Union dues and initiation fees, for a Union grievance committee, for time off to attend to Union business, for wages, hours, and vacations, seniority, etc. In part, the contract provides:
The complaint filed by the Union sought arbitration with respect to the claimed violation by Deaton of two provisions of the contract:
The provisions for arbitration are included in Article 6, as follows:
The parties are in accord that by an Act of the Legislature of Alabama, effective October 1, 1961, the mileage tax was repealed and the cost of license tags was increased by from $50.00 to $450.00. Code of Alabama Recompiled 1958, Pocket Supplement, Title 51, Sec. 697(1) (b). The district court found:
As to the wage rates of Harry Williams, Deaton's city truck driver, the district court found:
The district court ordered and adjudged:
The main issue urged by Deaton on this appeal is that the district court had no jurisdiction under Section 301 of the Taft-Hartley Act, 29 U.S.C.A. § 185 (n. 1, supra) over the mileage tax-license tag dispute because it was not a labor grievance but a commercial dispute between independent contractor-lessors and their lessee. Deaton's contention is predicated upon too narrow a meaning of "contracts" as used in Section 301(a) (n. 1, supra). It is now settled that "contracts", as there used, includes more than "collective bargaining agreements," and is broad enough to include any agreement "between employers and labor organizations significant to the maintenance of labor peace between them." Retail Clerks International Ass'n, Local Unions Nos. 128 and 633 v. Lion Dry Goods, Inc., 1962, 369 U.S. 17, 27, 28, 82 S.Ct. 541, 548, 7 L.Ed.2d 503. The Supreme Court has heretofore taken the position that it is not necessary to determine whether owner-operators are "employees" protected by the Act, since the establishment of minimum rental to them was integral to the establishment of a stable wage structure for clearly covered employee-drivers. Local 24 of International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers of America, AFL-CIO v. Oliver, 1959, 358 U.S. 283, 294-295, 79 S.Ct. 297, 3 L. Ed.2d 312; United States v. Drum, 1962, 368 U.S. 370, 382, n. 26, 82 S.Ct. 408, 7 L.Ed.2d 360. It is true that in Oliver, approved in Drum, the bargaining unit included an overwhelming majority of concededly employed drivers, while in the present case there are very few admitted employees, and an overwhelming majority of lessor-drivers. However, the Union points out, soundly we think, that it has a legitimate interest in protecting its area wage standards. See In re Local Union No. 741, etc. (Keith Riggs Plumbing, etc.), 1962, 137 NLRB No. 121, 50 L.R.R.M. 1313 at 1314. Moreover, Deaton acknowledges that it has some "employees." It cannot, then, be denied that the contract was "between an employer and a labor organization representing employees etc.." within the meaning of Section 301(a) ...
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