COMMUNICATIONS WORKERS, ETC. v. Southwestern Bell

• Decision Date: 06 October 1981
• Docket Number: Civ. A. No. B-81-11.
• Citation: 524 F. Supp. 1031
• Parties: COMMUNICATIONS WORKERS OF AMERICA AFL-CIO v. SOUTHWESTERN BELL TELEPHONE COMPANY.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Southern District of Texas

524 F. Supp. 1031

COMMUNICATIONS WORKERS OF AMERICA AFL-CIO v. SOUTHWESTERN BELL TELEPHONE COMPANY.

Civ. A. No. B-81-11.

United States District Court, S. D. Texas, Brownsville Division.

October 6, 1981.

William N. Wheat, Houston, Tex., for plaintiff.

Eduardo R. Rodriguez, Brownsville, Tex., Joe L. Randle, Melanie S. Fannin, San Antonio, Tex., for defendant.

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

VELA, District Judge.

Upon consideration of Plaintiff's Application for Confirmation and Enforcement of Arbitration Award; after a hearing on the matter and the submission of post-trial briefs by both parties, this Court is of the opinion that said application should be DENIED. The following constitute the bases for the Court's decision in the matter.

JURISDICTION

Jurisdiction to hear this action is conferred upon the Court by Section 301 of the Labor Management Relations Act, 29 U.S.C. § 185(a).

FINDINGS OF FACT

On August 7, 1977 the Plaintiff, Communications Workers of America, AFL-CIO (hereinafter the Union) entered into a triennial collective bargaining agreement with the Defendant, Southwestern Bell Telephone Company (hereinafter the Company). Thereafter, on December 7, 1977 the Union and the Company entered into an agreement concerning practices and procedures regarding overtime, known as the Local Overtime Agreement.¹ This agreement was to be applicable in the Corpus Christi Division of Southwestern Bell, which includes the Rio Grande Valley area. The agreement went into effect on January 15, 1978.

In August, 1978 the Company suspended 28 employees in connection with a dispute concerning the assignment of overtime. The Union filed grievances protesting the suspensions and what it felt were violations of the Local Overtime Agreement by the Company in the manner of assignment of overtime.

In connection with these incidents and the course of conduct by the Company, the Union filed an unfair labor practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board on December 12, 1978, contending that the Company had, by its conduct, violated Sections 8(a)(1) and (5) of the National Labor Relations Act.² As a result, a complaint was issued against the Company on January 11, 1979 by the Regional Director of Region 23 of the National Labor Relations Board, Louis v. Baldovin, alleging that the Company had in fact violated Sections 8(a)(1) and (5) of the act. After a hearing on the matter had commenced, the Union and the Company entered into a Settlement Agreement in which they agreed that the terms of the Local Overtime Agreement

... are, and shall remain, in force and effect, and shall be enforceable by either party; and shall not be abridged, modified, or terminated unless and until the parties agree otherwise in the course of collective bargaining.

It is agreed and understood that either party may give notice of intent to terminate or modify this agreement on August 9, 1980 in the manner provided for by Section 8(d) of the National Labor Relations Act.

This Settlement Agreement was executed by the parties on May 30, 1979.

Subsequently, the grievance procedure between the Union and the Company having been completed with the denial by the Company of all the grievances filed in connection with the the August 1978 course of conduct by the Company, the contested matters between the parties were submitted to arbitration in accordance with the procedures set forth in the 1977 triennial collective bargaining agreement. Arbitrator James C. Vadakin was selected by the parties and empowered to hear and decide the dispute. Hearings were held on the matter by Arbitrator Vadakin on March 17th and 18th, and May 15th and 16th of 1980. On May 16, 1980 the Union and the Company reached an agreement in settlement of the dispute before Arbitrator Vadakin. An award embodying the terms of that settlement was issued by Arbitrator Vadakin on June 16, 1980. In the portion pertinent to the issue before this Court, the award provides:

6. The Company reaffirms the agreement set forth herein as Joint Exhibit 3; and

7. The Company and the Union agree that these provisions are to be entered by the Arbitrator on Agreed Award which shall be of the same force and effect as any other award pursuant to arbitration between the parties.

Joint Exhibit 3 contains the Settlement Agreement reached in the National Labor Relations Board case.

Before this Agreed Award was issued, the Company, on May 27, 1980 through Mr. Zack F. Bettis, Assistant Vice President-Labor Relations, sent a letter to Mr. Jack C. Lovett, Vice President, District 6, Communications Workers of America, notifying the Union of the Company's intent to terminate the Local Overtime Agreement on August 9, 1980. At no time did the Company notify the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, or the Texas Department of Labor, as to the existence of a dispute in this matter. Further, the Company did not offer to meet and confer with the Union for the specific purpose of negotiating a successor contract to the Local Overtime Agreement.

In July of 1980 the Union and the Company entered into negotiations for the purpose of negotiating a successor collective bargaining agreement to the 1977 collective bargaining agreement. During the course of these negotiations the Company brought up for consideration the matter of the Local Overtime Agreement and its provisions regarding the assignment of overtime. The Union rejected all attempts by the Company to alter or modify the Local Overtime Agreement through the process of collective bargaining. In August of 1980, a new triennial collective bargaining agreement was entered into by the parties. Although the new agreement contained a provision limiting the number of hours of overtime that could be assigned, there was no provision in the agreement concerning the procedure to be used to assign overtime, which was the subject of the Local Overtime Agreement.

CONCLUSIONS OF LAW

There is no question that federal courts should refuse to review the merits of an arbitration award reached by arbitration under a collective bargaining agreement. United Steel Workers of America v. Enterprise Wheel and Car Corp., 363 U.S. 593, 596, 80 S.Ct. 1358, 1360, 4 L.Ed.2d 1424 (1960). The issue in the case before the Court, however, is not the merits of the arbitration award, but is whether or not the Local Overtime Agreement, which was reaffirmed in paragraph 6 of the arbitration award, was terminated by the Company's actions. If the Company's actions had the effect of terminating the Local Overtime Agreement, the fact that the Company had, prior to this, reaffirmed the agreement in the agreed award, fails to impart any life or extra significance to that agreement.

The question of whether or not the Local Overtime Agreement was terminated must be addressed in two parts. First, it must be determined whether the Local Overtime Agreement could be terminated by unilateral action on the part of the Company. If so, then the Court must determine whether the actions taken by the Company were sufficient to terminate the agreement.

It is well settled that a labor contract of indeterminate duration is terminable at will by either party upon reasonable notice to the other party. Boeing Airplane Co. v. NLRB, 174 F.2d 988, 991 (D.C.Cir. 1949); Trustees of the Atlanta Iron Workers Local 387 Pension Fund v. Southern Stress Wire Corp., 509 F.Supp. 1097, 1105 n.12 (N.D.Ga.1981); Eastern District Council of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America v. Blake Construction Co., Inc., 457 F.Supp. 825, 830 (E.D.Vir. 1978); Uriarte v. Perez-Molina, 434 F.Supp. 76, 79 (D.D.C.1977). Cf. Kaylor v. Crown Zellerbach, Inc., 643 F.2d 1362, 1367 (9th Cir. 1981) (concerns an employment contract as opposed to a collective bargaining agreement). Both parties agree that the Local Overtime Agreement was, at its inception, a terminable at will contract since it had no expiration date. The Union contends, however, that the provisions in the Settlement Agreement which supplied procedures by which the Local Overtime Agreement could be terminated, changed the nature of the agreement.

The Settlement Agreement provided that the Local Overtime Agreement, "... shall not be abridged, modified, or terminated unless and until the parties agree otherwise in the course of collective bargaining." This provision would seem to prevent either party from unilaterally terminating the agreement. However, there are sound reasons why that is not, and should not be the effect of the provision.

The language of the foregoing provision, read by itself would seem to say that the Local Overtime Agreement would remain in effect indefinitely unless both parties agreed to modify or to terminate it. This is the interpretation that follows from the Union's position. If such were the case, then a party desiring modification of the agreement, due to a change in conditions or any other circumstances, would be confined to an unchangeable agreement forever if the other party perceived no benefit in changing the agreement. This result would be untenable as the following passage from Local 350, United Association of Journeymen v. Slayden, 91 LRRM 2272, 2274 (N.D. Cal.1975), referred to and the reasoning therein adopted by the Court in Kaufman and Broad Home Systems, Inc. v. International Brotherhood of Firemen and Oilers, AFL-CIO, 607 F.2d 1104, 1110 (5th Cir. 1979), points out:

It is inconceivable that either party, wishing to avoid a breakdown of labor-management relations would have intended that the contract remain in force unless efforts to change the contract were successful, or unless both sides wanted to terminate the contract. The side not desiring a change could refuse to agree, within the confines of the Labor-Management Relation's Act prescription against refusals to bargain. Each side could stand entrenched knowing the contract would continue as it was. The side desiring to alter the terms or conditions of the relationship

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