Allied Systems Ltd. v. Teamsters Nat. Auto. Transporters Industry Negotiating Committee, Local Union 327

• Decision Date: 09 June 1999
• Docket Number: No. 98-5862,98-5862
• Citation: 179 F.3d 982
• Parties: ALLIED SYSTEMS LTD., a Georgia Limited Partnership, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. TEAMSTERS NATIONAL AUTOMOBILE TRANSPORTERS INDUSTRY NEGOTIATING COMMITTEE, LOCAL UNION 327, affiliated with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen, and Helpers of America, Dave Hodgin and Jimmy Neal, its officers, agents and employees and its members who are employed by Plaintiff Allied Systems, Ltd. at its Nashville, Tennessee facilities, Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit

179 F.3d 982

ALLIED SYSTEMS LTD., a Georgia Limited Partnership Plaintiff-Appellant, v. TEAMSTERS NATIONAL AUTOMOBILE TRANSPORTERS INDUSTRY NEGOTIATING COMMITTEE, LOCAL UNION 327, affiliated with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs Warehousemen, and Helpers of America, Dave Hodgin and Jimmy Neal, its officers, agents and employees and its members who are employed by Plaintiff Allied Systems, Ltd. at its Nashville, Tennessee facilities, Defendants-Appellees.

No. 98-5862.

United States Court of Appeals Sixth Circuit.

Argued March 10, 1999.

Decided and Filed June 9, 1999.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee at Nashville. No. 98-00499--Todd J. Campbell, District Judge.

ARGUED: R. Ian Hunter, DEAN & FULKERSON, Troy, Michigan, for Appellant. Michael J. Passino, LASSITER, TIDWELL & HILDEBRAND, Nashville, Tennessee, for Appellees. ON BRIEF: R. Ian Hunter, Roberto L. Mercado, DEAN & FULKERSON, Troy, Michigan, for Appellant. Michael J. Passino, LASSITER, TIDWELL & HILDEBRAND, Nashville, Tennessee, Michael Hamilton, PROVOST*UMPHREY, Nashville, Tennessee, for Appellees.

Before: JONES, SUHRHEINRICH, and MOORE, Circuit Judges.

OPINION

NATHANIEL R. JONES, Circuit Judge.

Plaintiff-Appellant Allied Systems, Ltd. ("Allied") appeals the district court's denial of a preliminary injunction preventing defendants-appellees Teamsters National Automobile Transporters Industry Negotiating Committee, Local 327 (the "union") ¹ from engaging in a strike at Allied's terminal facility. Because we agree that the district court's denial of the injunction was proper, we affirm.

I.

The facts underlying this appeal are not in dispute. Allied is in the business of transporting automobiles in the United States and Canada from various rail, plant, and port locations to dealerships. It operates over 100 shipping facilities throughout the country, including one at 743 Harding Street in Nashville, Tennessee ("Harding Facility"). Allied also recognizes and has a collective bargaining relationship with the union, which, in turn, represents the workers at Allied's facilities.

For each Allied shipping terminal location, including the Harding Facility, labor relations were governed by a multi-employer, multi-local union collective bargaining agreement known as the National Master Automobile Transporters Agreement ("National Agreement"). Among many other things, the National Agreement contains an "established wage rate" for each facility, which was negotiated at both the national and local levels and approved by the union. Once negotiated and approved, the established wage rate remains effective for the term of the National Agreement. In addition, the National Agreement contains several provisions to the effect that any disputes over the interpretation of the National Agreement are to be submitted to an arbitrator. For example, Article 7, Section 7(a) of the National Agreement provides:

It shall be the function of the National Joint Arbitration Committee to settle disputes and grievances which arise under the following circumstances:

(1) Involving interpretations of, or disputes over, the provisions of the [National Agreement].

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(4) Disputes and interpretations concerning alleged conflicts in provisions of the [National Agreement] on the one hand and Area Supplements and Riders thereto on the other hand.

J.A. at 144-45.

Pertinent to this appeal, the National Agreement contains a no-strike provision and a comprehensive grievance and arbitration procedure to which disputes arising under the National Agreement are to be submitted. Specifically, Article 7, Section 1 of the National Agreement provides in relevant portions as follows:

The parties agree that all grievances and questions of interpretation arising from the provisions of this Agreement shall be submitted to the grievance procedure for determination.

The Unions and Employers agree that there shall be no strike ... without first using all possible means of a settlement, as provided for in this Agreement, of any controversy which might arise.

J.A. at 139. However, there is an "exception" to the no-strike clause, which reads in relevant part as follows:

Any disputes the parties are unable to settle shall be referred to the appropriate Automobile Transporters Joint Area Arbitration Committee, except for the following direct violations, which are nondisputable:

(a) Nonpayment of the established wage rates, when due, provided for in this Agreement, Supplements or Riders;

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(e) This paragraph does not apply to disputes over the computation of wages or application of wage rates.

The Local Union shall give the Employer a seventy-two (72) hour written notice ... prior to taking any strike action authorized by the Section.

Id. (emphasis added). Interpretation of these subsections is the crux of the dispute in this appeal.

On October 1, 1997, Allied purchased Ryder Automobile Carrier Group and its subsidiary corporations including Commercial Carriers, Inc. With the purchase, Allied acquired several additional shipping facilities, including one located at 600 Veritas Street in Nashville ("Veritas Facility"). Allied reports that after the purchase, it possessed several "dual" and redundant shipping terminals in many cities, including Nashville. Allied management decided it would be economically efficient to consolidate several, if not all, of the dual terminals in most cities. This decision directly affected the operations at the Harding and Veritas Facilities in Nashville. In November 1997, Allied announced its intention to merge the two Nashville facilities sometime in early 1998.

The parties agree that because the Harding and Veritas facilities were operated by two different companies prior to October 1997, there were a number of differences in the terms and conditions of employment at the facilities. One such difference was the facilities' established pay rate for labor. Although the parties resolved many other differences concerning the consolidation of the facilities (such as seniority determinations) through dispute resolution, Allied refused to negotiate the issue of the two different established pay rates. Instead, according to Allied, prior arbitration decisions in the industry established that when two terminals were merged, the conditions that applied at the terminal into which the operations were physically merged were the conditions that continued and applied at the surviving terminal. After Allied decided to merge the Harding and Veritas operations into the physical Harding Facility, it therefore determined that the Harding established pay rate would govern all workers at the "new" merged facility.

Allied acknowledges that the wage rates at the Harding and former Veritas Facilities were "dissimilar," but contends that the net effect of the Harding wage rate was still higher than the Veritas Facility. Nevertheless, the union was displeased by Allied's decision to discontinue paying the established wage rate from the Veritas Facility. Pursuant to the National Agreement, the union issued a 72-hour strike notice on May 29, 1998. On June 4, 1998, picketers appeared at the Harding Facility with signs reading (among other things) "Failure of Allied Systems to Pay Established Wage Rates."

Later that day, Allied filed a complaint in the district court under § 301 of the Labor Management Relations Act ("LMRA"), 29 U.S.C. § 185, and a motion for a temporary restraining order enjoining the Union from striking at the Harding Facility. Following a hearing that afternoon, the district court granted the motion for a TRO and issued an order to show cause why a preliminary injunction should not be issued against the union for violating the no-strike clause of the National Agreement.

On June 11, 1998, the district court held a hearing on the motion for the preliminary injunction under § 301. In a ruling issued from the bench, the district court denied Allied's request for a preliminary injunction.

This timely appeal followed.

II.

This court will review a district court's grant or denial of a preliminary injunction for an abuse of discretion. Schenck v. City of Hudson, 114 F.3d 590, 593 (6th Cir.1997). An abuse of discretion exists when the district court "applies the incorrect legal standard, misapplies the correct legal standard, or relies upon clearly erroneous findings of fact." Id. This court will also review the district court's findings of fact for clear error, and its conclusions of law de novo. Golden v. Kelsey-Hayes Co., 73 F.3d 648, 653 (6th Cir.1996). Finally, this court will conduct a de novo review of the district court's interpretation of a collective bargaining agreement. Salary Policy Employee Panel v. Tennessee Valley Auth., 149 F.3d 485, 489 (6th Cir.1998).

III.

A.

A district court has the authority under § 301 to compel specific performance of a collective bargaining agreement requiring the arbitration of grievances in a labor dispute. See 29 U.S.C. § 185(a). However, § 4 of the Norris-LaGuardia Act, 29 U.S.C. § 104, significantly curtails a district court's ability to issue an injunction against labor strikes and work stoppages. The pertinent portion of the Act reads:

No court of the United States shall have jurisdiction to issue any restraining order or temporary or permanent injunction in any case involving or growing out of any labor dispute to prohibit any person or persons participating or interested in such dispute ... from ...

(e) Giving publicity to the existence of, or the facts involved in, any labor dispute, whether by advertising, speaking, patrolling, or by any other method not involving fraud or violence[.]

29 U.S.C. § 104. This court has recognized that the "anti-injunction provisions of the Norris-LaGuardia Act...