Teamsters Local Union No. 42 v. N.L.R.B., 86-2011

• Decision Date: 01 June 1987
• Docket Number: No. 86-2011,86-2011
• Citation: 825 F.2d 608
• Parties: 126 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2046, 107 Lab.Cas. P 10,104 TEAMSTERS LOCAL UNION NO. 42, a/w International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers of America, Petitioner, Appellant, v. NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, Respondent, Appellee. . Heard
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit

Page 608

825 F.2d 608

126 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2046, 107 Lab.Cas. P 10,104

TEAMSTERS LOCAL UNION NO. 42, a/w International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers of America, Petitioner, Appellant, v. NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, Respondent, Appellee.

No. 86-2011.

United States Court of Appeals First Circuit.

Heard June 1, 1987.

Decided Aug. 12, 1987.

Gabriel O. Dumont, Jr., Boston, Mass., with whom H. David Kelly, Jr., and Grady, Dumont & Dwyer were on brief, for petitioner, appellant.

John Welsh, Boston, Mass., with whom Susan L. Williams, Supervisory Atty., Rosemary M. Collyer, Washington, D.C., General Counsel, John E. Higgins, Jr., Deputy General Counsel, Robert E. Allen, Associate General Counsel, and Elliott Moore, Deputy Associate General Counsel, were on brief, for respondent, appellee.

Before BREYER and SELYA, Circuit Judges, and RE, ^* Judge.

SELYA, Circuit Judge.

This case is before us at the behest of Teamsters Local Union No. 42 which seeks to set aside a finding of the National Labor Relations Board. The Board determined that the union committed an unfair labor practice in violation of 29 U.S.C. Secs. 158(b)(1)(A), (b)(2), see Teamsters Local 42, 281 N.L.R.B. No. 132 (Sept. 30, 1986), and has now cross-applied for enforcement of its order. In chasing down the myriad arguments of the parties, we have pursued both the fox of enlightenment and the hare of obfuscation through the bramble of labor law. Our hunt having drawn to a close, we reject Local 42's petition and enforce the order.

I

This drama unfolds in the course of the business of the J.W. Daly Company (Daly), a distributor of hospital supplies and kindred products. Daly originally operated separate facilities within Massachusetts, situated in Lynnfield and Lawrence, respectively. From 1977 on, Local 42 represented the warehousemen at Lynnfield. The Lawrence contingent, however, eschewed unionization for many years. Then, the winds of change began to blow.

Sometime during 1982, it became known that Daly had decided to consolidate operations under one roof. The plan was to expand the Lynnfield facility and to shift the Lawrence employees there. When personnel moved from one facility to another, Daly's established practice--a practice consistent with the plantwide seniority provisions of the collective bargaining agreement then in effect at Lynnfield--was to treat transferred employees as new hires for seniority purposes. Anticipating the consolidation, several denizens of Lawrence made an exploratory contact with the union in January 1983. This initial contact quickly ripened into a full-blown dialogue. That spring, after some preliminaries which we need not recount, Local 42's vice president, Philip Morin, sent the Lawrence warehousemen a letter outlining what he thought to be added advantages of union membership in light of the anticipated move from Lawrence to Lynnfield. For instance, if they joined the union immediately, Lawrence employees would be eligible for special past service credits in the union's pension plan--credits which would be totally unavailable if they waited until they were actually transferred before enlisting in the union.

Even at this early date, seniority was a central issue. The key was "dovetailing" versus "endtailing". Under a dovetailed system, seniority within a merged unit is calculated according to length of company service. Under an endtailed system, length of union membership is determinative of seniority. The distinction threatened to be a critical one. If endtailing won out, the "new" union members--comprising, initially, all of the Lawrence employees--would be ranked behind the "old" union members (i.e., the entire Lynnfield crew) at the expanded Lynnfield workplace. If dovetailing prevailed, however, seniority would be determined for each individual based upon years in Daly's employ, irrespective of past union membership. Under that scenario, many Lynnfield-based workers would be junior to veteran Lawrence-based workers.

In writing about what life at Lynnfield would be like, Local 42 proposed a strict endtailing regimen with only a minor concession: the union agreed that it "would negotiate to retain seniority for vacation purposes ... [but] would not negotiate to have [Lawrence employees] slot in ahead of anybody presently [working] in Lynnfield." In June 1983, Morin met with the Lawrence employees to review the perceived benefits of unionization. He stated that, for all purposes other than vacations, Lynnfield employees would have seniority over Lawrence employees. In other words, the latter would be endtailed after the former. The only way dovetailing would occur, according to Morin, was if the dominant Lynnfield group acceded--not a likely possibility.

The Lawrence contingent decided to join Local 42. On July 1, 1983, Daly recognized the union as the bargaining representative for the Lawrence warehousemen. A collective bargaining agreement, virtually identical to that in effect at Lynnfield, was executed. Neither contract contained any provision dealing with the manner of calculating seniority in the event of a company-wide relocation.

During the remainder of 1983 and continuing into 1984, the Lawrence warehousemen objected to the endtailing concept, particularly to the prospect that they might be endtailed behind newly-hired Lynnfield staffers. To assuage these concerns at least in part, Daly and the union agreed on October 14, 1983 that "all Lawrence ... employees will have seniority after Lynnfield employees at year end, but that any new employees after 1/1/84 from either office will be junior in seniority to either group...."

Yet, while this adjustment was being worked out, a more momentous change was brewing. As time marched on, Daly abandoned its plans to consolidate operations at Lynnfield. Instead, the company purchased property to build an entirely new plant in Peabody, Massachusetts. In the fall of 1983 (presumably before the October 14 side agreement was executed), sketches of the new facility were displayed to employees in both Lawrence and Lynnfield. The following spring, the company informed the union that the proposed Peabody plant would operate on two shifts. ¹ On November 15, 1984, Local 42 disseminated a memorandum notifying certain warehousemen that they would be assigned to the second shift at Peabody.

In January 1985, the employer and the union held a summit meeting: a final negotiating session to conclude arrangements for the double shift at the new facility. During this meeting, a company official (James Daly, then the Lawrence plant manager) questioned the endtailing of the Lawrence employees and their consequent loss of seniority. The response from across the table was icy: an adamant refusal on the part of the union leadership to consider dovetailing the work force. The longer union membership of the Lynnfield employees was cited as the reason. On June 6, 1985, the Lynnfield and Lawrence plants were folded into the new Peabody facility. Multiple shifts went into effect for the first time. Certain openings on the day shift were filled by refugees from Lynnfield, who enjoyed greater seniority under the endtailed system but who were junior to some former Lawrence employees in terms of past company service. The latter were banished to the night shift.

An unfair labor practice charge was filed before the first worker drew a breath of evening air on any nocturnal shift. Following a hearing, the administrative law judge (ALJ) determined that Local 42, by its intransigent refusal to consider dovetailed seniority at the Peabody location, had committed an unfair labor practice. The union was ordered (1) to cease and desist from declining to negotiate this issue and (2) to take affirmative steps allowing the creation of a dovetailed seniority list. Local 42's exceptions to the ALJ's decision were unavailing; the Board affirmed the rulings, findings, and conclusions, and adopted the ALJ's recommended order with but a minor modification, not relevant here. ² The instant proceedings thereupon ensued.

II

We start our odyssey with a decurtate discussion of certain by-now-familiar principles which touch upon the relationship between a trade union and its constituents. The National Labor Relations Act imposes upon a union the responsibility fully and fairly to represent all of the employees in a bargaining unit. Vaca v. Sipes, 386 U.S. 171, 177, 87 S.Ct. 903, 909, 17 L.Ed.2d 842 (1967); De Arroyo v. Sindicato de Trabajadores Packinghouse, AFL-CIO, 425 F.2d 281, 283-84 (1st Cir.), cert. denied, 400 U.S. 877, 91 S.Ct. 121, 27 L.Ed.2d 115 (1970). This duty requires a union "to serve the interests of all members without hostility or discrimination toward any, to exercise its discretion with complete good faith and honesty, and to avoid arbitrary conduct." Vaca, 386 U.S. at 177, 87 S.Ct. at 910. The courts have consentiently held that dereliction of this duty constitutes an unfair labor practice in violation of Sec. 8(b)(1)(A) of the Act, 29 U.S.C. Sec. 158(b)(1)(A). See NLRB v. Local 282, Int'l Bhd. of Teamsters, 740 F.2d 141, 145 (2d Cir.1984) (collecting cases). And, a union likewise violates Sec. 8(b)(2) of the Act, 29 U.S.C. Sec. 158(b)(2), "when it causes an employer to discriminate against employees on arbitrary, hostile or bad faith grounds...." Barton Brands, Ltd. v. NLRB, 529 F.2d 793, 799 (7th Cir.1976).

Thus, a union may not, without a legitimate purpose, take action favoring some of its members at the expense of others. Laborers and Hod Carriers Local No. 341 v. NLRB, 564 F.2d 834, 840 (9th Cir.1977); Barton Brands, 529 F.2d at 800. In particular, a union may not neglect the interests of a membership minority solely to advantage the membership majority. Union members are to be accorded equal rights, not subjugated arbitrarily to the desires of a "stronger, more politically favored group...." Barton Brands, 529 F.2d at 799. Accord Branch...