United Auto., Aero. & Agr. Implement Workers v. Lyng

• Decision Date: 14 November 1986
• Docket Number: Civ. A. No. 84-3303.
• Parties: INTERNATIONAL UNION, UNITED AUTOMOBILE, AEROSPACE AND AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENT WORKERS OF AMERICA, UAW, et al., Plaintiffs, v. Richard E. LYNG, Secretary, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Columbia

648 F. Supp. 1234

INTERNATIONAL UNION, UNITED AUTOMOBILE, AEROSPACE AND AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENT WORKERS OF AMERICA, UAW, et al., Plaintiffs, v. Richard E. LYNG, Secretary, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Defendant.

Civ. A. No. 84-3303.

United States District Court, District of Columbia.

November 14, 1986.

Jordan Rossen, Gen. Counsel, Richard W. McHugh, Asst. Gen. Counsel, UAW Legal Dept., Detroit, Mich., Michael Holland, Gen. Counsel, UMWA, Judith A. Scott, UMWA, Legal Dept., Wendy L. Kahn, Dwerdling, Schlossberg, Leibig & Kahn, Washington, D.C., for plaintiffs; Harold A. Katz and Ann C. Hodges, Katz, Friedman, Schur & Eagle, Chicago, Ill., of counsel.

Richard K. Willard, Acting Asst. Atty. Gen., Joseph E. diGenova, U.S. Atty., Lewis K. Wise and Thomas Miller, Attys., Civil Div., Dept. of Justice, Washington, D.C., for defendant; Roger Wiener, Office of Gen. Counsel, Dept. of Agriculture, Washington, D.C., of counsel.

MEMORANDUM

OBERDORFER, District Judge.

I.

As described more fully in a Memorandum filed September 30, 1985,¹ this matter involves a challenge to the constitutionality of a 1981 amendment² to the Food Stamp Act of 1977.³ That amendment precludes a household from becoming eligible for food stamps if a member of that household is on strike because of a labor dispute.⁴ According to a Senate Committee report, the amendment is designed to promote government neutrality in labor disputes and to promote the food stamp program's "underlying policy of tying receipt of food stamps to the ability and willingness to work." S.Rep. No. 139, 97th Cong., 1st Sess. 62 (1981), U.S.Code Cong. & Admin.News 1981, pp. 396, 452.

Food stamps are issued not to an individual but to a household, consisting of the persons who normally purchase food and eat together. The law presumes that a close family of husband, wife and children purchase food and eat together. See Lyng v. Castillo, ___ U.S. ___, 106 S.Ct. 2727, 91 L.Ed.2d 527 (1986). As a result, the striker amendment has the effect of denying food stamps not only to a striker, but also to anyone with whom the striker actually or presumptively purchases and shares food.

Plaintiffs are two unions and several individual union members⁵ who have been ineligible for food stamps because they are or have been on strike. They have challenged the striker amendment as unconstitutionally violative of their due process, equal protection, and First Amendment rights. Their original pleadings sought a preliminary injunction, but did not include any motion for summary judgment. Defendant moved to dismiss plaintiffs' complaint, but filed no other dispositive motion. The 1985 Memorandum denied defendant's motion to dismiss and plaintiffs' motion for a preliminary injunction, but, anticipating summary judgment motions, concluded:

Once plaintiffs establish the facts proffered about the effects of the anti-striker statute, they may well prevail on the merits of their claim that the anti-striker amendment violates rights guaranteed to plaintiffs by the First Amendment to associate with their families, their unions and fellow union members.

1985 Memorandum at 1253. Since then, the parties have conducted extensive discovery and have filed cross-motions for summary judgment, accompanied by appropriate statements of undisputed material facts and statements of genuine issues. Plaintiffs' Motion for Summary Judgment (filed December 20, 1985); Defendant's Motion for Summary Judgment (filed February 24, 1986). Consideration of the issues thereby framed was delayed pending the Supreme Court's decision in Lyng v. Castillo, supra. After the Lyng opinion was rendered, the parties exchanged supplemental briefs addressing Lyng's implications for this case. The cross-motions are now ripe for decision.

II.

The exchange of statements of undisputed facts which accompanied the cross-motions for summary judgment enables the Court to ratify and find the facts stated in the 1985 Memorandum and the following additional undisputed material facts:

1. The plaintiff labor unions are labor organizations which exist for the purpose, inter alia, of advancing the economic and political interests of their members. Plaintiffs' Statement of Material Facts hereinafter "Plaintiffs' Statement" at ¶ 1; Defendant's Statement of Genuine Issues hereinafter "Defendant's Statement" at ¶ 1.

2. The 1981 amendment to the Food Stamp Act of 1977 disqualifies households from obtaining food stamps if the household contains a member involved in a labor dispute, other than a lockout, unless the household was eligible for food stamps prior to the strike. Plaintiffs' Statement at ¶ 2; Defendant's Statement at ¶ 2.

A 1981 House Report of the House Agriculture Committee commented:

In the 1977 Act, this Committee refused to eliminate strikers and the members of their households from consideration for participation in the food stamp program simply because they were on strike, since such an automatic exclusion seemed unfair and inequitable and would have involved the government in the non-neutral act of pressuring the worker to abandon the strike.

H.Rep. 97-106(I) at 142 (1981), cited in Plaintiffs' Brief in Support of Motion for Summary Judgment at 7 n. 3. Congress passed the striker amendment and the President signed it, despite the House Committee's reservations.

3. A striker's household is disqualified for an indeterminate period, i.e., during the period of the strike. The disqualification has been administered in some cases to deny eligibility to strikers and their households even after the strikers have been permanently replaced. Plaintiffs' Statement at ¶ 11; Defendant's Statement at ¶ 11.

4. In order to regain food stamp eligibility, strikers have the choice of leaving their households, abandoning a strike by returning to work, quitting their jobs, or attempting to persuade their unions to call off the strike. See 1985 Memorandum at 1246; Plaintiffs' Statement at ¶¶ 2, 3; Defendant's Statement at ¶¶ 2, 3.

5. The individual plaintiff Mary Berry was denied food stamps solely due to her status as a striker on August 27, 1984. The International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America (UAW) and UAW Local 985 of which Mary Berry is a member, have conducted a strike at Plymouth Stamping Company from September 9, 1980 until the present in opposition to the employer's demands for concessions and in opposition to the unfair labor practices of the employer.⁶ Plaintiffs' Statement at ¶ 4; Defendant's Statement at ¶ 4.

6. Individual plaintiff Mark Dyer and his household were denied food stamps in August, 1984, because of his status as a striker. Plaintiffs' Statement at ¶ 6; Defendant's Statement at ¶ 6.

7. Individual plaintiff Barm Combs and his household were denied food stamps in September, 1984, because of his status as a striker. Plaintiffs' Statement at ¶ 6; Defendant's Statement at ¶ 6.

Dyer and Combs were engaged in a United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) selective strike beginning August 1, 1984, which lasted until April 2, 1985, in an attempt to gain recognition for UMWA and in opposition to the alleged unfair labor practices of the Brush Creek Coal Company, Inc., and its alter egos. Compare Plaintiffs' Statement at ¶ 7 with Defendant's Statement at ¶ 7.

8. Individual plaintiff Johnie Blake remained disqualified for food stamps even though her employer had replaced her and thereby foreclosed her opportunity to return to her job. See Affidavit of Johnie Blake at ¶ 10 (filed February 19, 1985).

9. Some individuals have been told by state agencies or have learned that they can avoid household disqualification by having the striker leave the household. Compare Plaintiffs' Statement at ¶ 9 with Defendant's Statement at ¶ 9.

10. Some strikers who have been denied food stamps have voted to ratify or accept collective bargaining agreements which were less favorable than they personally believed appropriate. These votes were motivated by lack of wages as a result of being on strike and out of work and, to a lesser degree, lack of food stamps. Compare Plaintiffs' Statement at ¶ 10 with Defendant's Statement at ¶ 10.

11. Barm Combs quit his strike at Brush Creek Coal Company and abandoned his union membership and thereafter received food stamps. Combs testified that:

I believe that if I had gotten food stamps to help my family during the strike against Brush Creek Coal Company, I could have stayed on the picket line throughout the strike and would not have abandoned my union membership.

Affidavit of Barm Combs at 4. Moreover, he had to pay an initiation fee to the union when he eventually went back to work after the strike was over. Plaintiffs' Statement at ¶ 13; Defendant's Statement at ¶ 13. It is specifically found that the denial of food stamps to Combs' household was a proximate cause of his abandoning his association with his fellow strikers and his disassociation from his union.

12. Even though Donald Gibson, a member of the AFL-CIO, was permanently replaced by his employer, he was disqualified from receiving food stamps solely because he was still a member of the union and still receiving strike pay from the union. Compare Plaintiffs' Statement at ¶ 12 with Defendant's Statement at ¶ 12.

13. Anthony Tracy, a member of AFL-CIO, left a picket line to seek other work and lost his union membership and strike benefits.⁷ Plaintiffs' Statement at ¶ 13.

14. Under the constitutions of UAW and UMWA, a member who abandons a strike by crossing a picket line and returning to work can be subjected to charges, trial, and penalty, including expulsion from the union. Plaintiffs' Statement at ¶ 14; Defendant's Statement at ¶ 14.

15. In addition, as more fully stated in Appendix A attached to the 1985 Memorandum, there are substantial differences between the treatment accorded to strikers by operation of the 1981 amendment to the Food Stamp Act and the treatment accorded to employees who...