Amstar Corporation v. AMALGAMATED MEAT CUTTERS, ETC., Civ. A. No. 72-84.

• Decision Date: 26 January 1972
• Docket Number: Civ. A. No. 72-84.
• Citation: 337 F. Supp. 810
• Parties: AMSTAR CORPORATION, Plaintiff, v. AMALGAMATED MEAT CUTTERS & BUTCHER WORKMEN OF NORTH AMERICA, AFL-CIO et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Louisiana

337 F. Supp. 810

AMSTAR CORPORATION, Plaintiff, v. AMALGAMATED MEAT CUTTERS & BUTCHER WORKMEN OF NORTH AMERICA, AFL-CIO et al., Defendants.

Civ. A. No. 72-84.

United States District Court, E. D. Louisiana, New Orleans Division.

January 26, 1972.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

David L. McComb, Chaffe, McCall, Phillips, Toler & Sarpy, New Orleans, La., Andrew M. Kramer, Anthony J. Crement, Seyfarth, Shaw, Fairweather & Geraldson, Chicago, Ill., for plaintiff.

Hilliard Fazande, II, Ernest L. Jones, Cotton, Jones & Fazande, New Orleans, La., for defendants.

OPINION

R. BLAKE WEST, District Judge.

In this matter, plaintiff, Amstar Corporation (Company), seeks to enjoin defendants, Amalgamated Meat Cutters & Butcher Workmen of North America, AFL-CIO (Union), Local No. P-1101 (Local) various representatives of Union and Local, and the members thereof, from conducting an alleged work stoppage at Company's Chalmette, Louisiana, sugar refinery, in violation of a collective bargaining Agreement¹ between Company and defendants, Union and Local, and to require that Union and Local submit the points allegedly at issue between the parties to arbitration in accordance with the terms of the Agreement.² On January 11, 1972 the Court issued a Temporary Restraining Order, and, after conducting an evidentiary hearing on January 14, 1972, ordered that an injunction issue as prayed by Company.

Central to the issues in this case is the construction to be given to the terms and conditions of the Agreement in the light of the controlling legal authorities. Included in the Agreement is a "no strike" provision, Article XIX, which provides:

"ARTICLE XIX—STRIKES, STOPPAGES AND LOCKOUTS

(1) It is intended that the procedures herein shall serve as a means for peaceful settlement of all disputes that may arise between the Company, its employees and/or the Union.

(2) Management shall not lock out any employees, and neither the International nor the Local shall authorize or encourage any strike, stoppage, slowdown or picketing.

(3) No strike, stoppage, slow-down or picketing shall be considered a breach by the International or the Local of this Agreement if it occurs without authorization or encouragement by the International or the Local and if they both promptly use all reasonable efforts to avoid and end such strike, stoppage, slow-down or picketing including the following procedure:

The International and the Local, through their respective officials, in writing as well as orally, shall notify the persons involved that the strike, stoppage, slow-down or picketing is a violation of this Agreement and is not authorized by the Local or the International and that the employees involved should return promptly to their respective jobs and cease any action which may adversely affect production.

(4) Any employee who encourages or participates in a strike, stoppage, slow-down or picketing shall be subject to discharge or other disciplinary action by Management. If requested by the Local, such disciplinary action shall be reviewed under the grievance procedure set forth in Article III hereof."

An alleged dispute between Company on the one hand and Union and Local on the other arose on January 10, 1972 when employees at Company's refinery declined to report for work by honoring a picket line established by representatives of the International Longshoremen Association (ILA) at the entrance to Company's refinery.³ The ILA pickets represented legitimately striking Amstar employees from refineries located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Brooklyn, New York, and Boston, Massachusetts. Company and Union and Local differ as to whether there was a suspension of work caused by the honoring of the ILA picket line in violation of the Agreement, and as to whether there is an issue subject to arbitration.

The decision of the United States Supreme Court in Boys Markets, Inc. v. Retail Clerk's Union, Local 770, 398 U.S. 235, 90 S.Ct. 1583, 26 L.Ed.2d 199 (1970) furnishes the principles which guided this Court in granting injunctive relief:

"A District Court entertaining an action under § 301 may not grant injunctive relief against concerted activity unless and until it decides that the case is one in which an injunction would be appropriate despite the Norris-LaGuardia Act. When a strike is sought to be enjoined because it is over a grievance which both parties are contractually bound to arbitrate, the District Court may issue no injunctive order until it first holds that the contract does have that effect; and the employer should be ordered to arbitrate, as a condition of his obtaining an injunction against the strike. Beyond this, the District Court must, of course, consider whether issuance of an injunction would be warranted under ordinary principles of equity — whether breaches are occurring and will continue, or have been threatened and will be committed; whether they have caused or will cause irreparable injury to the employer; and whether the employer will suffer more from the denial of an injunction than will the union from its issuance." (Emphasis in original). 398 U.S. at 254, 90 S.Ct. at 1594, 26 L.Ed.2d at 212.

Mandatory Arbitration

Pursuant to the holding in Boys Markets the Court first inquired whether Company, Union, and Local were bound by the Agreement to arbitrate the alleged dispute which is the subject of the work stoppage. The issue is crucial because a requirement of mandatory arbitration is essential to the granting of injunctive relief.

Article III, § (1) of the Agreement provides a system for mandatory adjustment of grievances:

"When differences or complaints arise between Management and the Local, or any employee or employees, there shall be no suspension of work on account of such disputes. Grievances must be filed within a period of thirty (30) days following the occurrence of the grievance, except where by mutual agreement, due to the importance of the grievance, the time limit is extended." (Emphasis added).

The quoted provision not only makes grievance adjustment mandatory, but specifically rejects work suspension as a device to procure settlement of disputes.

Upon a failure of grievance adjustment, Article III, § 2(d) of the Agreement sets forth the procedure by which grievances are to be submitted for arbitration:

"If the grievance is not so settled, the Union may demand arbitration by notifying the Company in writing. Such demand must take place within two (2) weeks after the conclusion of the conference referred to in (c) above. The parties have, upon execution of this agreement, agreed upon a panel of four arbitrators who shall have referred to them grievances arising under this Agreement. The parties shall jointly notify the arbitrator, who shall be rotated from the panel in alphabetical order, within three days after the Company has been advised of the Union's intent to arbitrate the matter. The parties will review the panel once each year."

It might be argued that under this provision arbitration is not mandatory because Union has an option to demand or not to demand arbitration. However, such argument is untenable when tested against the overall meaning of the Agreement. Article XIX, for example, provides that "... neither the International nor the Local shall authorize or encourage any strike, stoppage, slow-down or picketing." Certainly then, an option which is not available to Union or Local is the utilization of work suspension as a means of expressing a grievance. It is noted that nowhere in Article III, nor for that matter in any other part of the Agreement, is there any limitation on the Union or its members from raising any "differences or complaints" as a grievance.

Indeed, the rationale underlying the Agreement, as set forth in the introduction, is "to curtail misunderstanding and establish a means whereby any misunderstanding which does arise may be peacefully and satisfactorily disposed of by sincere and patient effort in the manner herein provided." The only method provided in the Agreement to so dispose of misunderstandings is the system of grievance adjustment and arbitration; there is no optional device for the settlement of disputes. It is abundantly clear that the intent of the parties was to employ arbitration as "a mechanism for the expeditious settlement of industrial disputes without resort to strikes, lockouts, or other self-help measures".⁴ Consistent with the intent of the parties to the Agreement, the Court holds that the arbitration procedures established therein are mandatory within the meaning of Boys Markets.⁵

Dispute Subject to the Agreement

Having determined that arbitration is mandatory, the next question considered by the Court was whether the grievance, the alleged matter in dispute between the parties, is treated by the terms and conditions of the Agreement, and is therefore arbitrable. The alleged dispute in the present case concerned the honoring of another union's picket line. Union and Local contended that their members, acting independently of Union interference, and as a matter of personal conscience, were entitled to honor the ILA picket line, and Company contended that Union and Local, by observing the picket line, were in violation of the no strike clause in the agreement.

The issue for this Court to determine was Company's claim that it and Union and Local agreed to submit to mandatory arbitration (1) factual determinations as to whether the Union was encouraging a strike, stoppage or slow-down, and (2) legal determinations as to whether honoring the picket line constituted a stoppage in violation of Article XIX.

In deciding whether or not the parties bound themselves to arbitrate the work stoppage question, the Court's examination was "confined to ascertaining whether the party seeking arbitration is making a claim which on its face is governed by the contract." (Emphasis supplied.) Southwestern Bell Telephone Co. v. Communication Workers of America, Local...