Adkins v. International Union of Elec., Radio & Mach. Workers, AFL-CIO-CLC
| Decision Date | 20 August 1985 |
| Docket Number | D,AFL-CIO-,Nos. 83-3392,83-3793 and 83-3820,83-3754,83-3416,AFL-CIO-CLC,AFL-CIO-CL,s. 83-3392 |
| Parties | 119 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 3594, 103 Lab.Cas. P 11,620 John J. ADKINS, et al., (83-3392, 83-3416), Plaintiffs-Appellants, Cross- Appellees, v. INTERNATIONAL UNION OF ELECTRICAL, RADIO & MACHINE WORKERS,; Local 801, International Union of Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers,, Defendants-Appellees, General Motors Corporation, Defendant-Appellee, Cross-Appellant. ASSOCIATION OF FRIGIDAIRE MODEL MAKERS, et al., (83-3754, 83-3793), Plaintiffs- Appellants, Cross-Appellees, v. INTERNATIONAL UNION OF ELECTRICAL, RADIO & MACHINE WORKERS,; Local 801, International Union of Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers,, Defendants-Appellees, General Motors Corporation, Defendant-Appellee, Cross-Appellant. FORMER FRIGIDAIRE EMPLOYEES ASSOCIATION, et al., (83-3820), Plaintiffs- Appellants, v. LOCAL 801, INTERNATIONAL UNION OF ELECTRICAL, RADIO & MACHINE WORKERS,CLC; et al., Defendants-Appellees. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit |
Irving I. Saul, Irving I. Saul Co., L.P.A., Dwight D. Brannon, Dayton, Ohio, for Adkins, et al.
J.R. Wheatly, General Motors Corp., Detroit, Mich., Richard F. Rice, Kettering, Ohio, Joseph P. Buchanan, Dayton, Ohio, Carole W. Wilson, Washington, D.C., for GMC.
David L. Hall, Slicer, Hall & Slicer, Dayton, Ohio, for Association of Frigidaire Model Makers and Former Frigidaire Employees Ass'n, et al.
Before ENGEL and MARTIN, Circuit Judges, and PHILLIPS, Senior Circuit Judge.
These cases are all hybrid section 301/unfair representation claims stemming from the layoffs of various groups of employees by General Motors Corporation. Because all the cases evolve out of the same set of facts and present related issues concerning the application of the six-month statute of limitations adopted in DelCostello v. International Brotherhood of Teamsters, 462 U.S. 151, 103 S.Ct. 2281, 76 L.Ed.2d 476 (1983), they were consolidated for decision. We affirm in the Adkins and Frigidaire Employees cases and remand in the Model Makers case.
The General Motors facilities involved in this litigation were originally operated by its then Frigidaire Division in the cities of Moraine and Dayton, Ohio. At the time, Frigidaire manufactured household appliances and automobile air conditioners. In these plants all hourly rated employees were represented by Local 801 of the International Union of Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers, AFL-CIO-CLC, and all were paid wages keyed to the automobile industry, rather than the lower wages of the appliance industry.
In 1971, General Motors was able to negotiate a lower wage scale for its appliance workers in the Frigidaire Division. In exchange, these workers were allowed to "flow," or transfer, to the higher-paying automotive jobs as openings occurred, and to flow back to the appliance jobs to avoid layoffs when business declined, bumping less senior appliance workers if necessary. In 1974, the automobile air conditioner facilities were split off from Frigidaire into the Delco Air Conditioning Division, now Harrison Radiator Division, but the flow arrangement with the Frigidaire appliance workers was retained. In 1976, the parties memorialized the flow arrangement in a Bridge Agreement, which was due to expire in September 1979. This agreement provided that Frigidaire workers would retain their flow rights until all employees were given an opportunity to transfer to Delco and 900 new Delco workers were hired. Through 1979, some 2000 Frigidaire employees had transferred to Delco and some 3500 Frigidaire employees had retained but not exercised their flow privileges under the Bridge Agreement. During this period 2500 new Frigidaire employees had been hired after January 1, 1977, and held no rights under the agreement.
In 1979, General Motors decided for economic reasons to sell the Frigidaire Division to White Consolidated Industries, retaining just the physical plants. The current employees also were not part of the sale. The plants were to be converted to the production of diesel engines and the assembly of light trucks under the company's Chevrolet Division. The conversion process was expected to take at least two years, during which time all their Frigidaire employees in these plants would be laid off, except for a few skilled craftsmen involved in the conversion.
The Unions and General Motors negotiated the effects of the layoff in a series of meetings held between January 31 and February 20, 1979. General Motors obtained its major objectives--termination of the Bridge Agreement and the right to lay off by product line rather than by seniority. The International Union also won its major objectives: laid-off Frigidaire workers would be hired in the new Chevrolet plants with unbroken seniority, and the International Union and Local 801 would continue to be the bargaining representatives of these new Chevrolet Division employees. Apparently General Motors had planned on this in any case. But General Motors also agreed that all laid-off Frigidaire employees would have recall rights to Delco, which was then running at full employment, with overtime, and informally agreed to make efforts to get the laid-off employees work elsewhere. Because it was apparent that no employees in the category of model makers would be needed in the new plants, the parties informally agreed to establish a joint committee to review the model makers' records for reclassification, if qualified, to another trade classification.
This agreement was ratified on February 23, 1979, and layoffs began shortly thereafter. The model makers were among the first to be laid off. By the spring and summer of 1979, the Frigidaire facilities were completely closed and were being converted for Chevrolet. During July and August of 1979, the Delco contract, due to expire in September 1979, was renegotiated and the Bridge Agreement was eliminated. Other problems soon arose and late in 1979, due to an economic downturn, Delco laid off employees in substantial numbers, including many of the former Frigidaire workers now working at Delco under the transfer arrangement. In January 1981, Chevrolet began to recall the former Frigidaire employees to the converted plants. At this time there were no Delco employees recalled.
On June 24, 1981, the Association of Frigidaire Model Makers and 49 of Frigidaire's former model makers filed a hybrid section 301/unfair representation claim against General Motors, the International Union, and Local 801, for the alleged failure to promptly reclassify the model makers to other trades. Most or all of the model makers had regained employment with General Motors, but they sought lost wages and seniority rights resulting from the breach. On January 18, 1982, John J. Adkins and 488 other laid-off Delco employees, all former Frigidaire employees who had exercised their flow options, brought a section 301/unfair representation claim against the same defendants. They essentially alleged that the unions violated employees' right of fair representation by trading their rights under the Bridge Agreement for the unions' continued representation of the new Chevrolet facilities. The suit also included a claim that the union denied the employees' right of informed and meaningful participation in deliberation and voting under section 101(a)(1) of the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959, 29 U.S.C. Sec. 411(a)(1). The plaintiffs also included 327 of the employees' spouses, suing for loss of consortium.
In the spring of 1982, General Motors and the defendant unions began negotiating collective bargaining agreements to replace the 1979 agreements due to expire in September 1982. At this time, substantial numbers of the former Frigidaire workers were still on layoff, and their recall rights were to expire with this agreement. General Motors offered to the unions the opportunity to extend these recall rights for an additional two years. There were also substantial numbers of Delco employees still on layoff, however, and because General Motors in hiring gave preference to laid-off General Motors employees, allowing the Frigidaire employees' recall rights to expire would give greater employment opportunities to the more senior laid-off Delco employees. Trapped in this dilemma, the unions refused the offer to extend the recall rights.
On October 19, 1982, laid-off Frigidaire employee Lillie Henry filed an unfair labor practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board. The NLRB dismissed the charge on November 10, 1982. The Former Frigidaire Employees Association and 207 former Frigidaire employees, including Lillie Henry, then filed a section 301/unfair representation action on April 1, 1983, against General Motors, the International Union, Local 801, and the I.U.E./G.M. Conference Board, an organization formed by the International Union to oversee labor relations with General Motors. The plaintiffs' central claim in both the Frigidaire Employees and the Adkins cases was, of course, that the unions discriminated against them in favor of the other group of employees.
The district court dismissed the Adkins case as untimely filed on April 15, 1983. Adkins v. General Motors Corp., 573 F.Supp. 1188 (S.D.Ohio 1983). The Model Makers case was tried before a jury beginning June 14, 1982, when the district court permitted the defendants for the first time to raise the defense that the action was barred by the statute of limitations. After a jury verdict finding for the plaintiffs on liability, the district court on September 21, 1983, issued a judgment notwithstanding the verdict finding the action timebarred. Association of Frigidaire Model...
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