Bath Marine Draftsmen's Ass'n v. Bath Iron Works Corp.

• Citation: 266 F. Supp. 710
• Decision Date: 31 March 1967
• Docket Number: Civ. No. 8-105.
• Parties: In the Matter of BATH MARINE DRAFTSMEN'S ASSOCIATION, Plaintiff, v. BATH IRON WORKS CORPORATION, Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Maine

266 F. Supp. 710

In the Matter of BATH MARINE DRAFTSMEN'S ASSOCIATION, Plaintiff, v. BATH IRON WORKS CORPORATION, Defendant.

Civ. No. 8-105.

United States District Court D. Maine, S. D.

March 31, 1967.

Theodore H. Kurtz, Sidney W. Wernick, Portland, Me., for plaintiff.

Daniel T. Drummond, Jr., Portland, Me., John P. Carey, Bath, Me., for defendant.

OPINION AND ORDER OF THE COURT

GIGNOUX, District Judge.

This is an action under the Federal Declaratory Judgments Act, 28 U.S.C. § 2201 (1964), and Section 301 of the Labor Management Relations Act of 1947, as amended, 29 U.S.C. § 185 (1964), seeking a declaratory judgment that the collective bargaining agreement between the plaintiff, Bath Marine Draftsmen's Association, and the defendant, Bath Iron Works Corporation, dated October 31, 1963 has been since September 1, 1964, and now is, legally binding upon the defendant in relation to those former employees of the Hyde Windlass Company who as an incident of the merger of the Hyde Windlass Company into the defendant on September 1, 1964 became employees of the defendant, and who have been employed by the defendant as draftsmen, material order clerks, plan clerks, and in other capacities in the drafting and technical departments of the defendant (exclusive of stenographers, stenographic clerks, guards, engineers and supervisors).

The facts are not disputed and can be briefly stated. Bath Iron Works Corporation is a Maine corporation engaged principally in shipbuilding. Since August 1940 Bath has recognized the Bath Marine Draftsmen's Association as the exclusive bargaining representative for certain of its employees. The most recent collective bargaining agreement between Bath and the Association, effective from October 31, 1963 to April 18, 1967, covers a unit defined as "those employed by the BIW as laboratory technicians, radiographers, draftsmen and all others employed in the Drafting and Technical Departments, excluding stenographers, stenographic clerks, guards, engineers and supervisors within the meaning of the National Labor Relations Act, as amended * * *." The unit in question contains approximately 100 employees, of whom 70-75 are draftsmen.

The Hyde Windlass Company was organized as a Maine corporation prior to 1900 and has ever since been engaged in the design and fabrication of marine deck and industrial equipment. In 1961 Bath purchased all of the outstanding stock of Hyde and thereafter operated Hyde as a wholly-owned subsidiary. On January 24, 1962, pursuant to a consent election, the National Labor Relations Board certified the Association as the exclusive bargaining representative for Hyde's employees in a unit described as "those employees in the Engineering Department of the Company, including draftsmen, material order clerks and plan clerks, excluding all production and maintenance employees, all office clerical employees, professional employees, guards, supervisors as defined in the National Labor Relations Act, as amended." Hyde and the Association thereupon entered into several collective bargaining agreements with respect to these employees, the most recent of which was made effective from November 15, 1963 to March 8, 1967. About 30 to 35 employees are contained in this unit, of whom 20 to 25 are draftsmen.

On September 1, 1964 during the effective terms of both of the above contracts, Hyde merged with Bath and ceased to do business as a separate corporate entity. Since the merger, Bath has continued the Hyde operation without significant change, employing in its Hyde division substantially all of the production, office and supervisory personnel who were formerly employed by Hyde.¹

Following the merger, on September 2, 1964, Bath notified the Association that Bath was assuming the obligations of Hyde's collective bargaining agreement with the Association. On September 4, 1964 the Association advised Bath of the Association's position that the Hyde agreement had been terminated by the merger, and that since the former Hyde employees were now employed by Bath, they were automatically covered by the agreement between Bath and the Association.² No satisfactory solution having been reached, the Association brought the present action for a declaratory judgment on November 25, 1964.³

An initial question is presented by defendant's suggestion that this Court is without jurisdiction of the action under Section 301 because of plaintiff's failure to exhaust the arbitration procedures provided by its contract.⁴ Defendant concedes that if its contractual right to insist on arbitration can be waived, it has been.⁵ Defendant contends, however, that resort to the arbitration procedures in a collective bargaining agreement is a condition precedent to judicial relief and may not be waived by the parties. Defendant cites no direct authority to support this proposition, but relies upon the federal labor policy favoring arbitration, when agreed upon by the parties, as the preferred method for resolving disputes arising under collective bargaining agreements, as declared by the Supreme Court in the line of cases commencing with Lincoln Mills and continuing through the Steelworker cases to Drake Bakeries and Wiley. Textile Workers Union of America v. Lincoln Mills, 353 U.S. 448, 77 S.Ct. 912, 923, 1 L.Ed.2d 972 (1957); United Steelworkers of America v. American Mfg. Co., 363 U.S. 564, 80 S.Ct. 1343, 4 L.Ed.2d 1403 (1960); United Steelworkers of America v. Warrior & Gulf Nav. Co., 363 U.S. 574, 80 S.Ct. 1347, 4 L.Ed.2d 1409 (1960); United Steelworkers of America v. Enterprise Wheel & Car Corp., 363 U.S. 593, 80 S.Ct. 1358, 4 L.Ed.2d 1424 (1960); Drake Bakeries, Inc. v. Local 50, American Bakery and Confectionery Workers, 370 U.S. 254, 82 S.Ct. 1346, 8 L.Ed.2d 474 (1962); John Wiley & Sons, Inc. v. Livingston, 376 U.S. 543, 84 S.Ct. 909, 11 L.Ed.2d 898 (1964).

In the Lincoln Mills line of cases, however, unlike the present case, one of the parties was demanding arbitration under an agreement which required arbitration of the subject matter of the suit. In such circumstances, the Supreme Court held that there first must be recourse to the arbitration procedures provided by the contract before judicial relief may be sought. Lincoln Mills and its progeny do not suggest that arbitration is in all cases a condition precedent to the jurisdiction of a federal district court under Section 301. Indeed, in Atkinson v. Sinclair Ref. Co., 370 U.S. 238, 82 S.Ct. 1318, 8 L.Ed.2d 462 (1962) the Supreme Court held that the company had no duty to resort to arbitration before bringing suit for breach of a labor contract since the arbitration clause in question only allowed the union, and not the company, to request arbitration. And in Smith v. Evening News Ass'n, 371 U.S. 195, 83 S.Ct. 267, 9 L.Ed.2d 246 (1962) the Court held that a suit by an individual employee, seeking damages for breach of a collective bargaining contract between his union and his employer, could be maintained in the federal courts under Section 301 because "there was no grievance arbitration procedure in this contract which had to be exhausted before recourse could be had to the courts." Id. at 196, n. 1, 83 S.Ct. at 268. See Allied Oil Workers v. Ethyl Corp., 341 F.2d 47 (5th Cir. 1965). It is clear from these cases that a federal district court has jurisdiction of a suit for violation of a collective bargaining agreement containing no operative provision for arbitration. Since "arbitration is a matter of contract and a party cannot be required to submit to arbitration any dispute which he has not agreed so to submit", United Steelworkers of America v. Warrior & Gulf Nav. Co., supra 363 U.S. at 582, 80 S.Ct. at 1347, 1353; John Wiley & Sons, Inc. v. Livingston, supra 376 U.S. at 547, 84 S.Ct. at 909, no reason appears why the parties may not mutually agree to waive their right to arbitration. E. T. Simonds Constr. Co. v. Local 1330 of Int'l Hod Carriers Union, 315 F.2d 291 (7th Cir. 1963). The Court, therefore, concludes that the parties' failure to utilize the contract grievance procedures does not preclude plaintiff's right to maintain the present action.

This conclusion is completely consistent with the recent decision of the Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit in Woody v. Sterling Aluminum Prods. Inc., 365 F.2d 448 (8th Cir. 1966). In Woody the court held that an individual employee was precluded from maintaining an action for violation of a collective bargaining agreement because of his failure to exhaust the contract grievance procedure agreed upon by the union and the employer as the means of resolving disputes arising under the contract. Id. at 452-453. Woody is no more than an application of the well settled principle that where a collective bargaining agreement provides for extra judicial means of resolving disputes which arise under the agreement, an individual employee who seeks redress and who wishes to act independently of his union must attempt to use the contract grievance procedures agreed upon by the union and the employer before seeking relief in the courts. Republic Steel Corp. v. Maddox, 379 U.S. 650, 85 S.Ct. 614, 13 L.Ed.2d 580 (1965); Belk v. Allied Aviation Serv. Co., Inc., 315 F.2d 513 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 375 U.S. 847, 84 S.Ct. 102, 11 L.Ed.2d 74 (1963). Compare Smith v. Evening News Ass'n, supra. Woody is clearly inapplicable to an action by the union against the employer. There is no suggestion in Woody that the two parties to a collective bargaining agreement may not mutually agree to resort to the courts to resolve a dispute arising under the agreement, rather than to use the contract grievance procedures.

On the merits, the single issue presented in this case is whether, as plaintiff contends, the collective bargaining agreement of October 31, 1963, between Bath and the Association covers and is legally binding upon the defendant with respect to those draftsmen who were formerly employed by Hyde,...