Swint v. Pullman-Standard

• Decision Date: 18 August 1980
• Docket Number: PULLMAN-STANDAR,D,AFL-CI,AFL-CIO and I,B,No. 78-2449,78-2449
• Citation: 624 F.2d 525
• Parties: 23 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. 748, 23 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 31,186 Louis SWINT and Willie James Johnson, on behalf of themselves and others similarly situated, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v.essemer, Alabama, United Steelworkers of America, Local 1466, United Steelworkers of America,nternational Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers,efendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

Page 525

624 F.2d 525

23 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. 748,

23 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 31,186

Louis SWINT and Willie James Johnson, on behalf of themselves and others similarly situated Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. PULLMAN-STANDARD, Bessemer, Alabama, United Steelworkers of America, Local 1466, United Steelworkers of America, AFL-CIO and International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, AFL-CIO, Defendants-Appellees.

No. 78-2449.

United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit.

Aug. 18, 1980.

Oscar W. Adams, Jr., Birmingham, Ala., Elaine R. Jones, Washington, D. C., for plaintiffs-appellants.

C. V. Stelzenmuller, D. Frank Davis of Thomas, Taliaferro, Forman, Burr & Murray, Birmingham, Ala., Franklin B. Snyder, Chicago, Ill., for Pullman-Standard.

Cooper, Mitch & Crawford, John C. Falkenberry, Birmingham, Ala., Bernard Kleiman, Chicago, Ill., Carl B. Frankel, Pittsburgh, Pa., for United Steelworkers of America, Local 1466, United Steelworkers of America, AFL-CIO.

Appeal from the District Court for the Northern District of Alabama.

Before WISDOM, RONEY and HATCHETT, Circuit Judges.

HATCHETT, Circuit Judge:

In this class action employment discrimination suit, before us for the second time, we review judgments of the district court rejecting claims of racial discrimination in employment. The claims are primarily aimed at the establishment and continuation of a departmental seniority system and the selection of supervisory personnel. Because we find certain conclusions of the district court to be inconsistent with the applicable case law and unsupported by the record, we reverse the judgments and remand for proceedings necessary to render appropriate relief.

The original complaint in this action was filed on October 19, 1971, pursuant to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq. and 42 U.S.C. § 1981. The claims of racial discrimination were made against Pullman-Standard, a division of Pullman, Inc., a manufacturer of railway freight cars and parts, United Steelworkers of America (U.S.W.) and its Local 1466, the bargaining representative of most of the production and maintenance workers at Pullman-Standard. Leave of court was granted to amend the complaint to add as a defendant, for purposes of relief other than money damages, the International Association of Machinists (I.A.M.), the bargaining representative of other departmental units at Pullman-Standard. The class was certified pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 23(b)(2) on behalf of all black persons who worked at any time "within one year prior to the filing of any charges under Title VII."

In July and August of 1974, a sixteen-day trial was held in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama. Appellants challenged discrimination in the departmental seniority system negotiated by the appellees, its procedure for assignment of work within the same job

classification, promotions to supervisory positions, lack of job posting, and the discharge of plaintiffs' and plaintiff-intervenor Clyde Humphrey. At the close of appellants case, the U.S.W. and Local 1466 filed motions for involuntary dismissal of the claims asserted by plaintiff-intervenor Clyde Humphrey that the union failed to represent them because of their race. The motion was granted and those claims were dismissed. On September 13, 1974, the district court denied the appellants' several claims of racial discrimination. On appeal to this court, we affirmed the judgment in part and remanded in part for further proceedings with respect to the issues of the seniority system and the selection of supervisors. Swint v. Pullman-Standard, 539 F.2d 77 (5th Cir. 1976).

FACTS

We need not restate the extensive factual background contained in our decision on the first appeal, Swint v. Pullman-Standard. The following facts are helpful, however, in discussing the issues relevant to this second appeal.

Since the first collective bargaining agreements were negotiated between Pullman-Standard and the U.S.W. and I.A.M. in 1941, seniority was measured by length of continuous service in a particular department. Seniority has been exercised in the event of increases and decreases of forces, in competition with all other employees in that department. Under the company-wide collective bargaining agreement negotiated in 1954, there were no lines of promotion or progression in any department. Seniority was not formally recognized for promotional purposes until 1956. There was no carryover of seniority. Employees transferring from one department to another were treated as "new" employees in the department to which transferred, and, with limited exception for those transferring at the request of the company or electing transfer in lieu of lay-off, also lost their seniority in the "old" department. Seniority rosters at the company were maintained by department. Departmental age was basically the sole criterion used to determine who was rolled-back or laid-off in the event of reductions, and who was recalled or promoted in the event of force increases or other vacancies in the department. The seniority system in effect in 1954 remained virtually unchanged through the next eighteen years of collective bargaining between Pullman-Standard, and the U.S.W. and I.A.M.

In 1972, provisions were made in an agreement with the Office of Federal Contract Compliance (O.F.C.C.), to permit black employees hired before April 30, 1965, to transfer from predominately black departments or to predominately white departments, in either case, with carryover of seniority. The restriction against carryover of seniority on departmental transfers continued in effect as to black employees when transferring from a "mixed" department to another "mixed" department, as well as to black employees hired after April 30, 1965, and to white employees.

Until the arbitration decision in March of 1965, there was an informal custom at the plant of treating certain jobs as "white only" and others as "black only." This practice caused decisions respecting assignments to departments throughout the plant to be infected during that period with racial considerations. According to the plaintiffs, the effects of this discrimination in the departmental assignments have been perpetuated by the seniority system a system which determines employment rights on the basis of departmental age, and which, even with the 1972 changes, provides barriers to departmental transfers.

Prior to June 1965 there were no black foremen at Pullman-Standard. At the time of the first trial, approximately ten percent of the salaried foremen were black. The labor market, at the time of this trial, ranged from twenty-five to thirty-five percent black, depending on the age group and area selected. Pullman's work force, depending upon the time selected, ranges from approximately forty-five to almost fifty percent black. Selection of foremen is made by groups of supervisors, without any objective standards or tests. The plant

manager and superintendent choose department heads (C foremen) who in turn select track supervisors (B foremen), production foremen (A or salaried foremen), and hourly (temporary) foremen. The first black salaried foreman was not promoted to the then 143 existing salaried foreman positions until 1966. Four years later, there were nine black salaried foremen and 151 white foremen. Up until the time of trial, blacks had never been offered either salaried or temporary foreman positions in thirteen of the twenty-eight departments at Pullman-Standard. From 1966 until the time of trial, only twelve blacks were selected to fill fifty-nine salaried foreman vacancies.

THE DISTRICT COURT'S ORDER

On July 5, 1977, the district court, pursuant to our remand for further proceedings with respect to issues regarding the validity of the seniority system and the selection of supervisors, concluded that the seniority system at Pullman-Standard does not discriminate against blacks, is "valid" under 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2(h), and the appellees did not follow any practice or policy after the effective date of the Act which discriminated against blacks in the assignment of employees to departments; further, the appellants' prima facie showing of discrimination in the selection of supervisory personnel has been rebutted by the appellees, and no such discriminatory practice existed subsequent to 1966. At the request of appellants, the district court granted a new trial for the limited purpose of receiving new evidence which would have been relevant under the Supreme Court's decision in Teamsters v. United States, 431 U.S. 324, 97 S.Ct. 1843, 52 L.Ed.2d 396 (1977). The present case was under submission when Teamsters was decided and had been tried at a time when all concerned acted under what turned out to be an erroneous view of the law. On May 8, 1978, after hearing further evidence, the district court entered an order finding the seniority system in question to be "bona fide" within the meaning of section 703(h) of Title VII.

ISSUES

The critical issues before us are: (1) whether Pullman-Standard made racially discriminatory assignments to departments after the effective date of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, (2) whether the seniority system at Pullman-Standard is "bona fide" within the meaning of § 703(h) of Title VII, and (3) whether Pullman-Standard successfully rebutted appellants' prima facie case of racial discrimination in the selection of foremen.

I

The appellants argue that the district court erred in its finding that Pullman-Standard's post-Act assignments to departments were not racially motivated. In Teamsters v. United States, the Supreme Court held that a finding of validity respecting a seniority system does not thereby preclude the implementation of remedial measures for persons who seek relief from an employer's post-Act hiring discrimination. See Franks v. Bowman Transportation Co., 424 U.S. 747, 96 S.Ct. 1251, 47 L.Ed.2d 444...