Bridgestone/Firestone, Inc. v. Local Union No. 998, United Rubber, Cork, Linoleum, and Plastic Workers of America AFL-CIO, AFL-CIO

• Decision Date: 10 September 1993
• Docket Number: AFL-CI,Nos. 90-6319 and 90-6330,CLC,AFL-CIO,s. 90-6319 and 90-6330
• Citation: 4 F.3d 918
• Parties: 144 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2220, 126 Lab.Cas. P 10,859, 26 Fed.R.Serv.3d 1061 BRIDGESTONE/FIRESTONE, INC., doing business as Firestone Tire and Rubber Company, Plaintiff-Appellee/Cross-Appellant, v. LOCAL UNION NO. 998, United Rubber, Cork, Linoleum, and Plastic Workers of America; United Rubber, Cork, Linoleum, and Plastic Workers of America, CLC International Union, Defendants-Appellants/Cross-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Tenth Circuit

Page 918

4 F.3d 918

144 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2220, 126 Lab.Cas. P 10,859,

26 Fed.R.Serv.3d 1061

BRIDGESTONE/FIRESTONE, INC., doing business as Firestone Tire and Rubber Company, Plaintiff-Appellee/Cross-Appellant, v. LOCAL UNION NO. 998, United Rubber, Cork, Linoleum, and Plastic Workers of America AFL-CIO; United Rubber, Cork Linoleum, and Plastic Workers of America AFL-CIO, CLC International Union, Defendants-Appellants/Cross-Appellees.

Nos. 90-6319 and 90-6330.

United States Court of Appeals Tenth Circuit.

Sept. 10, 1993.

Kayla Bower of Lampkin, McCaffrey & Tawwater, Oklahoma City, OK, for defendants-appellants/cross-appellees.

Keith L. Pryatel of Millisor & Nobil, Cleveland, OH (Harley M. Kastner of Millisor & Nobil, with him on the brief), for plaintiff-appellee/cross-appellant.

Before BALDOCK, SETH, and HOLLOWAY, Circuit Judges.

HOLLOWAY, Circuit Judge.

The plaintiff-appellee Bridgestone/Firestone, Inc. (Firestone) filed this action seeking, inter alia, a declaratory judgment that a dispute involving an employee incentive program, the Employee Suggestion System, was nonarbitrable. ¹ The district court granted summary judgment for Firestone and the Union defendant appeals (No. 90-6319). We affirm that judgment. Also before us is an appeal by Firestone challenging the district court's refusal, in a separate order, to award sanctions against the Union under Rule 11 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (No. 90-6330). We deny a Union motion to dismiss that appeal, but affirm the denial of sanctions.

I Factual and Procedural History

Firestone originated its Employee Suggestion System ("the Suggestion System") in the 1920s in order to provide incentives for employees to come up with ways to improve safety and efficiency at Firestone's plants. Under the Suggestion System, Firestone could pay an employee who made a suggestion a percentage, up to $25,000, of the amounts saved or the amount of increased earnings due to the employee's suggestion.

In June 1986, Jones, a Union member employed at Firestone's Oklahoma City plant, made a suggestion through the system which Firestone ultimately adopted. Jones was paid $2,250, but claimed that he was owed more. He filed a grievance with Local Union No. 998, United Rubber, Cork, Linoleum, and Plastic Workers of America ("Local 998") pursuant to its collective bargaining agreement. The Union requested arbitration on the grievance which Firestone refused.

When an arbitration hearing was scheduled, Firestone brought the instant action in the district court against Local 998 and the United Rubber, Cork, Linoleum, and Plastic Workers of America AFL-CIO, CLC, International Union ("the International Union"), seeking injunctive relief to prohibit the further processing of the grievance and also a declaration that the grievance was not arbitrable. By agreement, the Union withdrew the grievance from arbitration and Firestone withdrew its request for injunctive relief, both agreeing to await the district court's decision regarding arbitrability.

After both parties moved for summary judgment, the district court granted summary judgment in favor of Firestone and against Local 998 and the International Union. The Unions moved for reconsideration of the district court's order. The court denied the motion and Firestone then moved for sanctions against the Unions pursuant to Rule 11 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. The district court denied that motion. A notice of appeal from the denial of the motion for reconsideration of the summary judgment order was filed. Firestone then filed a notice of appeal from the denial of its motion for sanctions.

II

We turn first to an issue raised concerning compliance with Rule 3(c) of the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure on the contents of the Unions' notice of appeal in No. 90-6319. Firestone argues that the failure to name the International Union as an appealing party in the notice of appeal divests us of jurisdiction over appellate claims of error by the International Union, leaving only Local 998 as an appellant in No. 90-6319.

Firestone is correct with respect to this defect in the notice of appeal. See Torres v. Oakland Scavenger Co., 487 U.S. 312, 314, 108 S.Ct. 2405, 2407, 101 L.Ed.2d 285 (1988). The notice states only that "defendant, Local Union No. 998, United Rubber, Cork, Linoleum and Plastic Workers of America, AFL-CIO, et al. (URW, Local 998)" appeals from the September 4, 1990 order. See I R.Doc. 67. The International was not named and the "et al." failed to provide the notice required by Rule 3(c). See Torres, 487 U.S. at 318, 108 S.Ct. at 2409. However, we fail to see the significance of Firestone's position on this point with respect to the main controversy since the Local can still assert the same appellate claims as the International Union and no distinction has been shown with respect to their interests. Because the International Union was not named in the notice of appeal, we are dismissing the International Union as an appellate party in No. 90-6319.

III

We turn now to the merits of the question of arbitrability under the collective bargaining agreement. ²

The well-established test for arbitrability of a grievance under a collective bargaining agreement was reviewed in AT & T Technologies, Inc. v. Communications Workers of America, 475 U.S. 643, 106 S.Ct. 1415, 89 L.Ed.2d 648 (1986). First, since arbitration is a matter of contract, a party cannot be required to submit to arbitration any dispute which he has not agreed so to submit. Second, the question of arbitrability is undeniably an issue for judicial determination; unless the parties clearly and unmistakably provide otherwise, the question whether the parties agreed to arbitrate is to be decided by the court, not the arbitrator. Third, in deciding whether the parties have agreed to submit a particular grievance to arbitration, a court is not to rule on the potential merits of the underlying claims. Fourth, where the contract contains an arbitration clause, there is a presumption of arbitrability in the sense that "[a]n order to arbitrate the particular grievance should not be denied 'unless it may be said with positive assurance that the arbitration clause is not susceptible of an interpretation that covers the asserted dispute.' Doubts should be resolved in favor of coverage." 475 U.S. at 648-50, 106 S.Ct. at 1418-19 (quoting Steelworkers v. Warrior & Gulf Navigation Co., 363 U.S. 574, 582-83, 80 S.Ct. 1347, 1352-53, 4 L.Ed.2d 1409 (1960)).

As the district court found, the Suggestion System had been initiated by Firestone years before its plants were unionized and applied to union as well as nonunion employees. It had never been the subject of collective bargaining, and the only times that there had ever been contact between the Union and Firestone about the Suggestion System were in two sets of circumstances: When, on occasion, Firestone sent unilateral notification to the Union that it was changing the program, and when Firestone denied all attempts to arbitrate grievances dealing with the Suggestion System. Moreover, the Suggestion System was complete in and of itself. It had its own set of internal procedures for review of grievances having to do with employee suggestions and provided that the decisions of the board set up to review such questions were final.

Assuming, arguendo, that the question whether the first prong of the AT & T test is satisfied is a close one (and we do not think it is), this case can be disposed of entirely with reference to the fourth prong of AT & T, for we think that there is no way in which the arbitration clause of the collective bargaining agreement can be stretched to cover grievances under the Suggestion System. Article XI of the collective bargaining agreement describes the grievance procedure. See R.Doc. 1 Ex. A at 68-75. The steps described for the handling of an employee grievance covered by that section are described as:

* Presentation of the problem to "Supervision in [the employee's] department."

* Submission of the grievance to the "Shift Foreman."

* Submission of the grievance in writing to the "Department Manager."

* Submission to the "Labor Relations Department."

* Arbitration.

See id.

On the other hand, the Suggestion System had its own internal procedures for all types of questions. For example, all awards in excess of $2,000 had to be approved by the Corporate Suggestion Board and an officer of Firestone. See R. Doc. 1 Ex.C at 5. Moreover, the Suggestion System contains the following regulations:

K. FINALITY OF DECISION

DECISION BY THE SUGGESTION BOARD AND/OR THE SUGGESTION COORDINATOR ARE FINAL. IF AT ANY TIME, THE ORIGINAL SUGGESTER OR SUGGESTERS WISH TO REOPEN A SUBMITTED SUGGESTION TO PRESENT NEW OR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION, THE SUGGESTION BOARD AND/OR SUGGESTION COORDINATOR MAY, AT THEIR DISCRETION, REVIEW THEIR DECISION.

L. RESERVATION OF RIGHTS

[FIRESTONE] RESERVES THE RIGHT TO CHANGE OR DISCONTINUE THE SUGGESTION SYSTEM AT ANY OR ALL OF ITS FACILITIES AT ANY TIME AFTER DUE NOTICE.

Id. at 6.

It is clear that the grievance system in the collective bargaining agreement was set up to handle what we might call "shop floor problems," such as employee-supervisor friction and the like. But given the way in which the Suggestion System was set up and administered, we fail to see what purpose it would serve to submit a grievance under the Suggestion System to the steps of the collective bargaining agreement's grievance section (which end with arbitration, we might add). Since decisions regarding suggestions are committed solely to the discretion of the bodies created by the Suggestion System itself for resolution with finality, it is clear that questions and grievances about those matters have no place within the grievance procedure of the collective bargaining agreement. Accord Peabody Galion v. A.V. Dollar, 666 F.2d 1309, 1320 (10th Cir.1982) (holding that when a remedy was provided...