Amax Coal Co. v. United Mine Workers of America, Intern. Union

• Decision Date: 13 August 1996
• Docket Number: No. 95-3288,95-3288
• Citation: 92 F.3d 571
• Parties: 153 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2011, 132 Lab.Cas. P 11,641 AMAX COAL COMPANY, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. UNITED MINE WORKERS OF AMERICA, INTERNATIONAL UNION; District 12, United Mine Workers of America; and Local 7031, United Mine Workers of America, Defendants-Appellants.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

Page 571

92 F.3d 571

153 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2011, 132 Lab.Cas. P 11,641

AMAX COAL COMPANY, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. UNITED MINE WORKERS OF AMERICA, INTERNATIONAL UNION District 12, United Mine Workers of America; and Local 7031, United Mine Workers of America, Defendants-Appellants.

No. 95-3288.

United States Court of Appeals Seventh Circuit.

Argued April 11, 1996.

Decided Aug. 13, 1996.

Byron L. Myers, Kelly A. Evans, Ice, Miller, Donadio & Ryan, Indianapolis, IN, for Plaintiff-Appellee.

Gail E. Mrozowski, Barbara J. Hillman, Cornfield & Feldman, Chicago, IL, for Defendants-Appellants.

Before FLAUM, EASTERBROOK, and DIANE P. WOOD, Circuit Judges.

FLAUM, Circuit Judge.

Amax Coal Company ("Amax") filed this action under Section 301 of the Labor Management Relations Act, 29 U.S.C. § 185, seeking to vacate an arbitrator's decision that Amax had violated a collective bargaining agreement by the manner in which it realigned a certain unionized employee. The local, district, and international divisions of the United Mine Workers of America ("the Union"), which represents the workers in the Amax mine, filed a counterclaim in district court seeking to enforce the arbitrator's award, and both sides filed motions for summary judgment. The district court granted summary judgment for Amax, denied the Union's motion for summary judgment, and vacated the arbitrator's award. We affirm.

I.

The following facts are not in dispute and are consistent with those found in the arbitrator's decision. Amax is in the coal mining and processing business and has mines in Illinois and Indiana, one of which is the Delta Surface Mine in Illinois. The Union represents the approximately 138 hourly workers at Amax's Delta Mine. Amax and the Union are signatories to a national collective bargaining agreement, the National Bituminous Coal Wage Agreement of 1988 and of 1993 ("the Agreement"), which governs the employees at the Delta Mine. ¹

The current dispute involves the staffing of the 3270 dragline at the Delta Mine. A dragline is a large stripping machine that removes surface materials, such as rock and dirt, which cover the coal, in order to access and remove the coal from the mine pit. The 3270 dragline at the Delta Mine is operated 7 days a week, 24 hours a day and has a bucket capacity of 172 cubic yards. Staffing of this dragline is governed by Article XXI, Section (b)(1)(iv) of the Agreement, which provides as follows: "Draglines and shovels 65 yards and larger in size shall be manned by an operator, an oiler and a groundman, and at least one additional Employee who shall be an operator, oiler, groundman, or a mechanic, electrician or welder." ² Amax began operating the 3270 dragline at the Delta Mine in 1979, staffing the dragline with an operator, a groundman, and two oilers.

This arrangement was maintained until January of 1992, when a new manager from another mine was assigned to the Delta Mine. This manager brought knowledge of production efficiencies gained from his prior experience. One of the manager's ideas to increase efficiency involved replacing one of the oilers on the dragline crew with a welder. The change was intended to reduce the downtime resulting from dragline breakdowns. Prior to the 1992 change, whenever a welder was needed on the dragline, usually for repairs, Amax would have to call in a welder from the maintenance shop. It took approximately 30 minutes for a shop welder to arrive at the site of the dragline, at a cost to Amax of approximately $140 per minute in lost operating time (i.e., $4200 per breakdown). In addition, if a breakdown occurred during a time in which maintenance shop welders were not scheduled to work, a welder would have to be called in from home, resulting in even more substantial and costly delay. The change from oiler to welder at the fourth crew member position eliminated the need to wait for the shop welder to arrive, allowing necessary welding to commence immediately. The Union does not dispute the increased efficiency possible with this arrangement, nor Amax's good faith in making the adjustment for this reason.

Three junior oilers at the Delta Mine were affected by the change, one from each of the eight-hour shifts that operated the dragline. One of these oilers was able to qualify as a welder, however, and so did not lose his position. The other two oilers were unable to qualify as welders and were therefore replaced by welders on their crews. One of these oilers, Stephen Horton, was then "realigned" to a position as a shooter, according to the seniority provisions of the Agreement. The shooter position available to Horton had a lower rate of pay than his previous oiler position. Horton filed a grievance in January of 1992, asking that he be returned to his oiler position on the dragline crew and given the difference in pay between the oiler position and the shooter position for the time he was paid at the lower rate. When the Union and Amax were unable to resolve the dispute, it proceeded to binding arbitration in accordance with the terms of the Agreement. In the meantime, Horton remained in the shooter position until May 18, 1993, when he was able through his seniority to successfully bid for an oiler position at the higher rate of pay. ³

Before turning to the arbitrator's decision, we note the following additional and potentially relevant provisions of the Agreement between Amax and the Union, the terms of which determine the outcome of this case. The Agreement contains the following management rights provision: "The management of the mine, the direction of the working force and the right to hire and discharge are vested exclusively in the Employer." Art. IA, Sect. (d). Article XVII of the Agreement is entitled "Seniority," and provides extensive rules for the filling of jobs and the implementation of seniority rights. It begins with a "Definition of Seniority" provision: "Seniority at the mine shall be recognized in the industry on the following basis: length of service and the ability to step into and perform the work of the job at the time the job is awarded." Art. XVII, Sect. (a). Thus present ability to do a given job is part of the definition of seniority under the Agreement.

The procedure for handling a realignment, such as the one that occurred in this case, is also established within the Article XVII provisions on seniority. The relevant provisions of the realignment section state as follows:

(2) Realignment Procedure

When the number of Employees within a job title is to be reduced or Employees are to be realigned, the following procedures shall apply:

(a) The senior Employees (mine seniority) in each job title shall be retained in their respective job title, regardless of shift or portal, up to the number needed in that job title.

....

(b) Those employees displaced from their job title shall be assigned available jobs on the basis of mine seniority and ability to step in and perform the work of the job at the time, using the following procedure:

(i) The senior Employee in each instance shall be assigned to the job grade having the greatest standard daily wage rate and within which there is an available job....

(ii) Assignment of job classifications and job titles within a job grade is within the exclusive discretion of the Employer. However, where there is more than one available job within that job grade, such assignments to the Employees to be assigned within that grade will be made on the basis of retaining in that grade the maximum number of employees being so assigned who have the ability to step in and perform the available work at that time.

....

(c) Any Employee who is not retained in his job title and who does not have the ability to perform an available job under the above procedure shall, to the extent his seniority permits, displace the least senior Employee at the mine holding a job which such senior Employee has the ability to step into and perform at that time. Any Employee displaced under this paragraph (c) shall have the same rights under this paragraph (c). Employees not retained under this procedure will be laid off.

Art. XVII, Sect. (b)(2).

II.

The arbitration hearing between Amax and the Union occurred on July 19, 1994, before Arbitrator Thomas L. Hewitt ("the arbitrator"). The arbitrator issued his decision in a written opinion dated July 29, 1994. In his opinion the arbitrator specifically found that Amax was entitled to make the staffing change that it made, i.e., replacing an oiler position with a welder position on the dragline crew. He stated, "The arbitrator has no problem with the Company's right to change the job in this case. The use of a welder is obviously more efficient...." And ultimately, he concluded as follows:

The arbitrator finds that the Company may replace the oiler classification with that of welder or add welder to the duties in order to improve efficiency. However, the incumbent employee on that bid job may not be displaced and suffer a pay loss as a result of the Company's unilateral job change. This violates the protected bid seniority rights of the incumbent. Therefore, to protect the employee's seniority and right to a permanent bid job, the incumbent employee shall first be given the opportunity to be tested for the new duty of welder. Failing such, he may request and be afforded reasonable training if he so desires. If he is unable to qualify through reasonable training or does not desire same, he shall, at the Company's discretion (1) be retained on the job (during this time the employee will have an opportunity to bid to another position) or (2) be realigned to another job. If the job to which the employee is realigned is a lower pay grade, the employee shall retain his former pay grade until a status change (bid or realignment) modifies his pay grade status. The purpose is that the employee shall not suffer any loss as the result of the original displacement through maintaining the lost pay...