ASS'N OF WESTINGHOUSE SAL. EMP. v. WESTINGHOUSE EL. CORP., Civ. A. No. 17736.

• Decision Date: 30 December 1959
• Docket Number: Civ. A. No. 17736.
• Citation: 188 F. Supp. 225
• Parties: ASSOCIATION OF WESTINGHOUSE SALARIED EMPLOYEES (EAST SPRINGFIELD PLANT), Buffalo Salaried Employees Association, Inc., Sharon Westinghouse Employees Association, Westinghouse Salaried Employees Association at South Philadelphia, Sturtevant Salaried Employees Association, Association of Westinghouse Salaried Employees (East Pittsburgh Plant), and Federation of Westinghouse Independent Salaried Unions, Plaintiffs, v. WESTINGHOUSE ELECTRIC CORPORATION, Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Pennsylvania

188 F. Supp. 225

ASSOCIATION OF WESTINGHOUSE SALARIED EMPLOYEES (EAST SPRINGFIELD PLANT), Buffalo Salaried Employees Association, Inc., Sharon Westinghouse Employees Association, Westinghouse Salaried Employees Association at South Philadelphia, Sturtevant Salaried Employees Association, Association of Westinghouse Salaried Employees (East Pittsburgh Plant), and Federation of Westinghouse Independent Salaried Unions, Plaintiffs, v. WESTINGHOUSE ELECTRIC CORPORATION, Defendant.

Civ. A. No. 17736.

United States District Court W. D. Pennsylvania.

December 30, 1959.

Albert C. Shapira, Pittsburgh, Pa., for plaintiffs.

John Wayman, Pittsburgh, Pa., for defendant.

SORG, District Judge.

Plaintiffs, collective bargaining agents for certain employees of the defendant, Westinghouse Electric Corporation, have brought this action for a declaratory judgment. The defendant is engaged in interstate commerce and it is conceded that this Court has jurisdiction of the parties and the subject matter under the provisions of Section 301(a) of the Labor Management Relations Act of 1947, 29 U.S.C.A. § 185.

Plaintiffs filed grievances with the defendant covering disputes concerning the return of supervisory employees to their former positions in appropriate bargaining units under the terms of a contract in effect between the plaintiffs and the defendant, which reads in pertinent part as follows:

Section XV 2.B.

"B. The term grievance is defined to mean (a) any dispute as to the interpretation, application, or claimed violation by the Company of this National Agreement, its supplements or any local supplement covering the bargaining unit involved, (b) any subject that this National Agreement provides shall become a grievance, or (c) questions involving discipline, release or discharge of employes in the bargaining unit."

These disputes remained unsettled after the grievance procedures were completed in accordance with the terms of the contract. The plaintiffs thereupon sought to invoke Section XV-A of said contract which reads as follows:

"A. Except as otherwise provided in this Agreement, any grievance involving action taken or a failure to act subsequent to October 28, 1955, which remains unsettled after the grievance procedure has been exhausted pursuant to Section XV and which involves either

1. the interpretation, application or claimed violation of a provision of this Agreement or of a local supplement in effect in the bargaining unit in which the grievance arose, or

2. a disciplinary penalty, release or discharge which is alleged to have been imposed without just cause, shall be submitted to arbitration upon the written request of either the Federation or the Company * * *.

* * * * * *

"B. Within fifteen (15) days after receipt of a request for arbitration by the Company or the Federation, representatives of the parties shall meet in an effort to reach mutual agreement on the arbitrator and on a statement of the question or questions to be submitted for arbitration. If the parties fail to reach such mutual agreement on the arbitrator, either party may, within ten (10) days following such meeting, request the American Arbitration Association to submit a list of names from the Association's Panels from which an arbitrator may be chosen.

* * * * * *

"(D) The American Arbitration Association shall have no authority to process a request for arbitration or appoint an arbitrator if either party shall advise the Association that the grievance desired to be arbitrated does not, in its opinion, raise an

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