RAILWAY LABOR EXEC. ASS'N v. Boston & Maine Corp., Civ. No. 86-0273 P.

Citation664 F. Supp. 605
Decision Date08 July 1987
Docket NumberCiv. No. 86-0273 P.
CourtUnited States District Courts. 1st Circuit. United States District Court (Maine)
PartiesRAILWAY LABOR EXECUTIVES' ASSOCIATION and International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, Plaintiffs, v. BOSTON AND MAINE CORPORATION, Delaware & Hudson Railway Company, Maine Central Railroad Company, and Portland Terminal Company, Defendants.

John O'B Clarke, Jr., Kimberly A. Madigan, Highsaw & Mahoney, Washington, D.C., Craig J. Rancourt, Biddeford, Me., for plaintiffs.

Ralph J. Moore, William F. Sheehan, Shea & Gardner, Washington, D.C., Charles S. Einsiedler, Jr., Pierce, Atwood, Scribner, Allen, Smith & Lancaster, Portland, Me., for defendants.

MEMORANDUM OF DECISION AND ORDER

GENE CARTER, District Judge.

Plaintiffs, Railway Labor Executives' Association (RLEA)1 and International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE), have brought this declaratory judgment action under 28 U.S.C. § 2201 against Defendants, Boston and Maine Corporation (B & M), Delaware & Hudson Railway Company (D & H), and Maine Central Railroad Company and its subsidiary Portland Terminal Company (MEC/PT) (collectively the Railroads), to invalidate certain notices served by the Railroads on IFPTE and the unions represented by RLEA under the Railway Labor Act (RLA), 45 U.S.C. §§ 151-163 (1982), and to prevent the Railroads from further pursuing these notices. The merits of the action are before the Court on Cross Motions for Summary Judgment.2 Subject matter jurisdiction is predicated on 28 U.S.C. §§ 1331, 1337.

I. UNDISPUTED MATERIAL FACTS

Defendants are carriers by railroad engaged in interstate commerce and subject to the provisions of the RLA. They are all owned by Guilford Transportation Industries, Inc., of North Billerica, Massachusetts. While in the midst of a separate labor dispute with the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees (BMWE),3 the Railroads on May 24, 1986 simultaneously sent notices under section 6 of the RLA, 45 U.S.C. § 156, to fifty-one of the bargaining units which represent the Railroads' employees for purposes of collective bargaining under the RLA.4 These section 6 notices have proposed a new "Standard Agreement" which would replace the parties' collective bargaining contracts with respect to rates of pay, rules, and working conditions. It is undisputed that the Standard Agreement represents an overweening transformation of the present contracts.

In these section 6 notices, the Railroads requested that the unions meet with the Railroads' representatives on various dates set initially by the Railroads as between June 17 and June 23. Contrary to the prior practice between the parties, these meetings were mass meetings at which the Railroads simultaneously addressed more than one labor organization. The Railroads also tape-recorded the conferences. Apparently nothing more was accomplished at these initial conferences other than a reading of the Standard Agreement. After this initial round of conferences, the United Transportation Union terminated its participation in the conferences and invoked the services of the National Mediation Board (NMB) under section 5 of the RLA, 45 U.S.C. § 155.

In letters dated July 2, the Railroads scheduled a second round of conferences for July 9, 10, or 11 at three different locations. Representatives of only ten of the fifty-one bargaining units attended this second round of conferences. The Railroads deemed those unions that failed to attend as having terminated their participation in the conferences and advised them of the termination by letter dated July 11, 1986. On the same day, the Railroads also terminated the conferences with regard to some of the unions that had participated in the second round of conferences; again, this notification was by letter. Thereafter, only the American Train Dispatchers Association (ATDA) met further with the Railroads. At the close of those conferences, the Railroads orally advised ATDA that they were terminating the conferences and confirmed this termination in letters dated July 31, 1986.

For purposes of this action, it is undisputed that all the unions, except allegedly the American Railway and Airway Supervisors Association (ARASA), a division of the Brotherhood of Railway, Airline and Steamship Clerks, Freight and Express Handlers (BRAC), for the Mechanical Department of D & H and IFPTE for B & M have made a timely request for the services of the NMB. To date, the NMB has not assigned a mediator to any of these requests.5

ARASA never attended any of the aforementioned conferences. Instead, on June 2, it responded to D & H's May 24 notice by requesting that any meeting be postponed until the last quarter of the year because of both the financial condition of the lodge and the previous delay regarding ARASA's section 6 notices covering similar issues. D & H responded on June 30 by letter and indicated that it considered the conferences terminated and that it would exercise self-help on July 1. On that date, it imposed the Standard Agreement on all ARASA-represented employees on its property. On July 9, BRAC, on behalf of ARASA, requested the services of the NMB, a request which the NMB has acknowledged it received that same day.

Unlike ARASA, IFPTE did attend the first and second rounds of conferences. Thereafter, in a letter dated July 11, B & M terminated the conferences; IFPTE received this notification on July 12. On July 16, IFPTE requested the services of the NMB, a request which was received by the NMB on July 22 and which was docketed on July 23. Although IFPTE notified B & M of its intention to invoke mediation, B & M avers that it did not learn that IFPTE had invoked mediation until mid-August. On July 29, B & M notified IFPTE that it was exercising self-help effective July 30. On that date, B & M imposed the Standard Agreement on all IFPTE-represented employees on its property.

II. THE ISSUES

Plaintiffs have placed essentially three different issues before the Court regarding the Railroads' May 24 section 6 notices. First, Plaintiffs seek a declaration that the implementation of the Standard Agreement against those workers represented by ARASA for the Mechanical Department of D & H and by IFPTE for B & M is a violation of the status quo provisions of sections 2, 3, 5, and 6 of the RLA and seek an injunction restoring the pre-Standard Agreement status quo as to these workers (Counts I and VII). Second, Plaintiffs seek a declaration that the proposal and the handling to date of these section 6 notices violate the Railroads' duty under section 2 First to exert every reasonable effort to make and maintain agreements (Count I). Finally, Plaintiffs seek a declaration that the following provisions of the Standard Agreement are unlawful under section 2, 3, and 5 of the RLA: those that attempt to interfere with established craft lines (Count II); those that prohibit the adjustment of minor disputes or the mediation of major disputes (Count III); those that would permit the Railroads to discipline workers for exercising their organizational rights (Count IV); those that are in conflict with the moratorium provisions of various agreements (Count V); and those that are in conflict with the protections imposed by the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) (Count VI). Plaintiffs also seek an injunction mandating the withdrawal of those portions of the Standard Agreement detailed in Counts II, III, and IV and prohibiting any further attempt to implement these latter provisions. The Railroads have also filed a Counterclaim in which they assert that Plaintiffs have failed to bargain in good faith.

III. THE IMPOSITION OF THE STANDARD AGREEMENT ON ARASA AND IFPTE MEMBERS

The Court finds that there is no genuine issue of material fact regarding the propriety of the unilateral actions by D & H and B & M in imposing the Standard Agreement on those workers represented by ARASA and IFPTE. In both instances, the issue as to which the parties disagree is the timeliness of each union's request for the services of the NMB. A timely request under section 6 of the RLA is one made within ten days after termination of conferences; such a request would preclude either Railroad from unilaterally imposing the Standard Agreement until the further procedures under the RLA are exhausted. 45 U.S.C. § 156.6 An untimely request would allow either to resort to self-help. Id. The Court concludes that each union made a timely request for mediation.

A. The Request by IFPTE

There is no dispute that IFPTE made the request for mediation and the NMB received the request within the ten-day period provided by section 6. Instead, B & M argues that IFPTE's request for mediation was untimely because the NMB did not docket the request until July 23, eleven days after IFPTE received notification that B & M had terminated conferences. B & M relies on Brotherhood of Railway, Airline & Steamship Clerks v. Philadelphia, Bethlehem & New England R.R., 633 F.Supp. 371 (E.D.Pa.1986) (hereafter BRAC v. Philadelphia); Iberia Air Lines v. National Mediation Board, 472 F.Supp. 104 (S.D.N.Y.1979), aff'd mem., 636 F.2d 1201 (2d Cir.1980), cert. denied, 450 U.S. 999, 101 S.Ct. 1704, 68 L.Ed.2d 200 (1981), and the regulations governing requests for mediation found in title 29 of the Code of Federal Regulations, 29 C.F.R. § 1203.1,7 for its position that the act of docketing the request is the act that determines timeliness.

The Court finds that none of the cited authority supports B & M's position. In BRAC v. Philadelphia, the court found that the union had made no request for mediation services until both after the ten-day statutory period had passed and after the union had been notified that the carrier was resorting to self-help. 633 F.Supp. at 372. The only similarity between that case and the one before this Court is that BRAC, like IFPTE, had notified the carrier within the ten-day period that it intended to seek mediation. That fact was...

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