Anderson v. Ford Motor Company, Civ. A. No. 32945

• Decision Date: 26 October 1970
• Docket Number: 32946.,Civ. A. No. 32945
• Parties: James ANDERSON, Plaintiff, v. FORD MOTOR COMPANY, a Delaware corporation, International Union, UAW, Local Union 600, UAW, jointly and severally, Defendants. Leroy SIMMONS, Joe Williams, Peter Betanzos, John Hudson, James Behary, Plaintiffs, v. FORD MOTOR COMPANY, a Delaware corporation, International Union, UAW, Local Union 600, UAW, jointly and severally, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Western District of Michigan

319 F. Supp. 134

James ANDERSON, Plaintiff, v. FORD MOTOR COMPANY, a Delaware corporation, International Union, UAW, Local Union 600, UAW, jointly and severally, Defendants.

Leroy SIMMONS, Joe Williams, Peter Betanzos, John Hudson, James Behary, Plaintiffs, v. FORD MOTOR COMPANY, a Delaware corporation, International Union, UAW, Local Union 600, UAW, jointly and severally, Defendants.

Civ. A. Nos. 32945, 32946.

United States District Court, E. D. Michigan, S. D.

October 26, 1970.

J. Robert Gragg, Detroit, Mich., for plaintiff Anderson.

Harry M. Philo, Philo, Maki, Ravitz, Glotta, Adelman, Cockrel & Robb, Detroit, Mich., for plaintiffs Leroy Simmons, Joe Williams, Peter Betanzos, John Hudson and James Behary; Michael Adelman, Glotta & Adelman, Detroit, Mich., of counsel.

Wright Tisdale, Joseph A. O'Reilly, James R. Jackson, Dearborn, Mich., for Ford Motor Co.

John A. Fillion, Detroit, Mich., for International Union, UAW, and its Local 600.

OPINION

FREEMAN, Chief Judge.

Civil Actions 32945 and 32946 were commenced under Section 301 of the Labor-Management Relations Act of 1947, 29 U.S.C. § 185, which provides:

"(a) Suits for violation of contracts between an employer and a labor organization representing employees in an industry affecting commerce as defined in this chapter, or between any such labor organizations, may be brought in any district court of the United States having jurisdiction of the parties, without respect to the amount in controversy or without regard to the citizenship of the parties.

"(b) Any labor organization which represents employees in an industry affecting commerce as defined in this chapter and any employer whose activities affect commerce as defined in this chapter shall be bound by the acts of its agents. Any such labor organization may sue or be sued as an entity and in behalf of the employees whom it represents in the courts of the United States. Any money judgment against a labor organization in a district court of the United States shall be enforceable only against the organization as an entity and against its assets, and shall not be enforceable against any individual member or his assets."

The plaintiff in Civil Action No. 32945 is James Anderson, an employee of the defendant Ford Motor Company and a member of defendant International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America (UAW), and defendant Local Union 600, UAW. Leroy Simmons, Joe Williams, Peter Betanzos, John Hudson, and James Behary, plaintiffs in Civil Action No. 32946, are also employees of defendant Ford Motor Company and members of defendants UAW and Local 600. Since the complaints filed in both suits are identical except for the named plaintiffs, consolidation of the actions was ordered.

The events giving rise to the complaints are undisputed by the parties and occurred at defendant Ford's Rouge Plant Steel Division in Dearborn, Michigan. That Division, prior to 1962, consisted of three units: the Open Hearth, the Rolling Mill, and the Miscellaneous. The Miscellaneous Unit, in turn, was broken down into two subunits: the Blast Furnace and the Coke Ovens.

In 1962, defendant Ford Motor Company decided to phase-out its Open Hearth steel-making process at Dearborn and supplant it with the Basic Oxygen Process. The Basic Oxygen Process (BOP), however, would not require as many employees as the Open Hearth. Therefore, on August 22, 1962, Ford Motor Company and Local 600 entered into an agreement, approved by the International UAW, concerning the placement of those Open Hearth employees who would be deprived of jobs by the introduction of the BOP.

Under this agreement, all employees coming into any of the Steel Division Units after August 15, 1962, would be considered temporary employees. Those temporary employees would then be displaced by Open Hearth employees who had been in the Open Hearth prior to August 15, 1962, and who were not being transferred to the BOP.

On January 6, 1964, Ford Motor Company and Local 600 entered into a supplemental agreement in order to resolve problems that were emerging in the employee displacement procedure established by the 1962 contract. The 1964 agreement provided that where a classification was carried over from the Open Hearth to the BOP, the employees in such classification could also transfer over to the BOP in the order of their class seniority. (¶ 2). In addition, where new classifications were included in the BOP, those jobs were to be filled by Open Hearth employees having the necessary qualifications as determined by management. (¶ 3). Finally, the 1964 agreement provided that Open Hearth employees not eligible for assignment in the BOP would, at the time of the Open Hearth discontinuance, be permitted to exercise their seniority under the provisions of the August 22, 1962, contract. (¶ 4).

On March 2, 1964, the BOP began partial operations. It was not until the beginning of October, however, that the BOP was completely operational and the Open Hearth closed. Subsequent to that final shut-down of the Open Hearth, plaintiffs, who had entered the Open Hearth prior to August 15, 1962, were placed by Management in the Miscellaneous Unit of the Steel Division. Plaintiffs contend that those Miscellaneous Unit assignments violated their seniority rights under the 1962 collective agreements. For these allegedly improper assignments, each plaintiff requests damages "in excess of * * * Four Thousand Dollars per year" (Complaint) from Ford Motor Company.

Plaintiffs also charge that the defendant Unions arbitrarily refused to process their grievances over these assignments beyond the first step of the four-stage grievance procedure established in the Master Collective Bargaining Agreement between Ford Motor Company and the International UAW. Plaintiffs further allege that defendant Unions conspired with Ford Motor Company to deny plaintiffs their rights under the Master Collective Bargaining Agreement and the 1962, 1964 Special Agreements. For this alleged breach by the defendants of their duty to fairly represent plaintiffs, as required under the National Labor Relations Act, each plaintiff requests compensatory damages "in excess of * * four thousand dollars per year" and $100,000 punitive damages.

The cases are presently before the court on motions for summary judgment filed by both Unions and Ford Motor Company. Summary judgment is appropriate:

"if the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any, show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law." Rule 56(c) Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.

Defendant Unions' motion for summary judgment must be granted under the test of Rule 56(c).

The UAW Constitution of 1964 sets up an internal appeal procedure for members who feel themselves aggrieved by an action of the Union and imposes a duty on members to exhaust that procedure before appealing to a civil court. (Article 32, Section 12). Where an amalgamated Local is involved, the first step of that appeal procedure is to the Local Union's delegate body (Article 32, Section 3). If that decision is unfavorable to the aggrieved member, he may then appeal to the UAW International Executive Board (Article 32, Sections 6 and 7). From an unfavorable ruling at this stage, the member may appeal to the "Constitutional Convention of the International Union," or, in certain cases, to the UAW's Public Review Board (PRB), which consists of "impartial persons of good public repute, not working under the jurisdiction of the UAW or employed by the International Union or any of its subordinate bodies." (Article 31, Section 1, Article 32, Section 9). Should the appeal be to the PRB, the appellant is still "entitled to appeal the matter to the Constitutional Convention of the International Union" if the PRB dismisses the case for lack of jurisdiction. (Article 32, Section 12).

Plaintiffs have not alleged that they pursued the above-descibed intra-union remedies, nor have they introduced sworn testimony to that effect. That defect alone would be sufficient grounds for granting defendant Unions' motion for summary judgment under Bsharah v. Eltra Corp., 394 F.2d 502, 503 (6th Cir. 1968):

"In sustaining the union's motion for summary judgment, the court district held that, assuming the International Union owed a duty to protect appellant, she failed to allege or show any attempt to initiate her intra-union remedies prescribed by the constitution and by-laws of the International Union and, in this holding, we concur." (Emphasis added.)

Moreover, defendant Unions have introduced two affidavits, one of Mr. William Brown, Recording Secretary for Local 600, and the other of Mr. William Beckham, Administrative Assistant to the International Union President, stating that the affiants are in charge of intra-union appeal records and that their examinations of those records show plaintiffs Simmons, Williams, Betanzos, Hudson and Behary never filed an appeal from the Unions' acts now being challenged. Hence, not only have the five plaintiffs in Civil Action No. 32946 failed to allege or to show that they initiated intra-union appeals, but also the uncontroverted affidavits submitted by defendants indicate that those plaintiffs did not file such an appeal.

Summary judgment, therefore, must be entered for defendant Unions in Civil Action No. 32946 under Rule 56(e) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.

Defendants, however, have also filed an affidavit of a Mr. Donald Klein, stating that plaintiff Anderson did initiate an intra-union appeal and carried it through to the UAW Public Review Board. The decision of that Board, a copy of which was attached to the affidavit, was a "dismissal * * * without prejudice to appellant's timely appeal to the Constitutional Convention pursuant to Article 32, Section 9, of the...