Eldredge v. CARPENTERS 46 NORTHERN CALIFORNIA, ETC.

• Decision Date: 03 November 1977
• Docket Number: No. C-75-2062-CBR.,C-75-2062-CBR.
• Citation: 440 F. Supp. 506
• Parties: Linda ELDREDGE and Christine A. Mazur, Individually and on behalf of all others similarly situated, Plaintiffs, v. CARPENTERS 46 NORTHERN CALIFORNIA COUNTIES JOINT APPRENTICESHIP AND TRAINING COMMITTEE, Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of California

440 F. Supp. 506

Linda ELDREDGE and Christine A. Mazur, Individually and on behalf of all others similarly situated, Plaintiffs, v. CARPENTERS 46 NORTHERN CALIFORNIA COUNTIES JOINT APPRENTICESHIP AND TRAINING COMMITTEE, Defendant.

No. C-75-2062-CBR.

United States District Court, N. D. California.

November 3, 1977.

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Melvin K. Dayley, Alberta M. Blumin, Dayley & Blumin, Oakland, Cal., Joan Messing Graff, Equal Rights Advocates, Inc., San Francisco, Cal., for plaintiffs.

Stephen A. McKae, Moore, Sizoo & Cantwell, Oakland, Cal., for defendant.

AMENDED MEMORANDUM OF OPINION

RENFREW, District Judge.

Plaintiffs Linda Eldredge and Christine A. Mazur filed this sex discrimination action on September 30, 1975. The complaint alleged that the defendant Carpenters 46 Northern California Counties Joint Apprenticeship and Training Committee ("JATC") had violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2(d), by denying female applicants equal opportunity for placement on the new applicant referral lists used to supply names to union dispatchers for referral of applicants to jobs as beginning apprentices. Plaintiffs sought preliminary relief; certification of a class composed of all women who applied to the JATC for placement on those lists between August 18th and 29th, 1975;¹ orders requiring the JATC to place and refer applicants in the order in which they apply and to establish an affirmative action program for women; damages including back pay; and costs of suit.

Plaintiffs' motion for a temporary restraining order was denied on October 3, 1975. Although the Court simultaneously ordered the defendant to show cause why a preliminary injunction should not issue, a hearing on that order was withdrawn from the calendar pursuant to a stipulation and order on December 30, 1975. On July 16, 1976, defendant noticed a motion to dismiss the action or for summary judgment; on August 26, 1976, plaintiffs moved to amend their complaint, for class certification, and for summary judgment. Each of these motions was extensively briefed by both parties, and oral arguments were heard on September 16, 1976. On September 30th, plaintiffs' motion to amend the complaint was granted, and an amended complaint was filed February 10, 1977. The principal effects of the amendment were to delete the prayer for damages and preliminary relief, and to add new allegations of discrimination. In addition to the alleged discrimination in placement on referral lists, plaintiffs now allege that defendant's system for referring new applicants to the jobs necessary for admission into apprenticeship, under which the vast majority of new applicants are referred not in numerical order off lists but as they are requested by name by contractor-employers, is itself discriminatory in effect. Since the amended complaint alleges that illegal effects result from the operation of a system in which parties not before the Court are intimately involved, the Court on February 10, 1977, requested the submission of further factual information and briefing relating to defendant's suggestion that employers and labor unions in the Northern California carpentry trade are indispensable parties to the action. (Memorandum in Opposition to Plaintiffs' Motion for Summary Judgment, filed September 9, 1976, at 6-7.) Defendant filed a memorandum on this point on March 18, 1977, to which plaintiffs responded on May 9th.

The issues presently before the Court are (1) whether the action must be dismissed for failure to exhaust state and administrative remedies; (2) whether all necessary parties as defined by Rule 19, Fed.R.Civ.P., are presently before the Court; (3) whether class certification is appropriate; and (4) the cross motions for summary judgment. For the reasons set forth below, the Court concludes that plaintiffs have exhausted their remedies within the meaning of Title VII, but that the affected employers and unions must be joined prior to any further disposition of the case.

I. FACTUAL BACKGROUND

Defendant JATC is a joint labor-management committee composed of equal numbers of employer and employee representatives. The committee serves as board of trustees responsible for the administration of the Carpenters Apprenticeship and Training Trust Fund for Northern California ("Fund"), which was created by a 1963 agreement ("trust fund agreement") among representatives of various local unions of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America (AFL-CIO) and various associations of contractors who employ carpenters in Northern California. The agreement grants the defendant, as board of trustees, "the power and duty * * * to establish, support or maintain programs * * * for the purpose of educating and training persons as journeymen or apprentices" in all classifications covered by any collective bargaining agreement requiring employer contributions to the Fund.² To meet this obligation, defendant has developed a set of apprenticeship standards and established a four-year apprenticeship program leading to journeyman status upon the completion of a specified number of hours of classroom training and on-the-job experience. The procedures for selecting among applicants to enter this program are the subject matter of this suit.

No selection procedures are specified in either the trust fund agreement or the relevant collective bargaining agreements. Authority to establish such procedures in each of 43 local regions has been delegated to separate local Joint Apprenticeship and Training Committees ("local JATC's"). However, those local bodies are required to operate within the framework of policies adopted by the defendant, and most administrative tasks are performed by defendant's ten District Offices. Until 1974, procedures varied from region to region, but in that year defendant instituted a program imposing uniform selection procedures designed to bring all 46 counties governed by the trust fund agreement into compliance with provisions of state and federal law requiring joint apprenticeship committees to adopt affirmative action plans to increase the number of minorities in the trade.³ The new procedures were embodied in "Annex C-1," an Equal Opportunity Addendum to the Carpenters 46 Northern California Counties Apprenticeship Standards, and were approved by the California Administrator of Apprenticeship. Local JATC's operated according to Annex C-1 until November 18, 1976, when the Santa Clara County Federation of Joint Apprenticeship and Training Committees obtained state approval of an "amended C-1." The majority of local JATC's have subsequently shifted to the amended C-1 upon findings by the Administrator of Apprenticeship that they have met their quotas for minorities. However, a few are still operating under the original Annex C-1.

Under both the original and the amended Annex C-1, the qualifications and requirements for admission to apprenticeship are the same: to be qualified, an applicant must be at least 17 years of age and have a high school diploma, G.E.D., or equivalent; to gain admission, he must obtain a position on a new applicant referral list maintained by a local JATC and a referral slip from a local union dispatching him to a job as a beginning apprentice. Once an applicant has satisfied both the listing and the job requirements, he may sign an apprenticeship agreement at one of defendant's district offices, join the union local, and attain the status of "registered" or "indentured" apprentice eligible for classroom training under JATC auspices. All subsequent job referrals for registered apprentices are handled exclusively by the union locals pursuant to collective bargaining agreements. JATC participation in such procedures is limited to the referral of new applicants to their first jobs.

The original Annex C-1 provides for a "closed list" system of first referrals. Only applicants listed on an existing new applicant referral list are eligible for referral, and placement on that list may only be obtained during limited open periods selected by the local JATC's. Forty-five days prior to a scheduled opening, the local JATC sends announcements to news media, schools, employment services, outreach programs, and others specifying the date and time of the opening, the duration of the open period, and the procedure for applying. At the specified time, applicants line up at the designated District Office and are given appointments to return and sign, in the order in which they appeared, the "applicant register" for the local JATC from which they desire to be referred. The names of those who are qualified are placed on the new applicant referral list in that order up to a maximum of one and one-half times the estimated number of persons to be referred during the referral period. The list is reviewed by a district coordinator for compliance with affirmative action goals, posted, and distributed to local union dispatchers. Applicants named thereon remain in the pool of those eligible for referral for two years, and may be referred in two ways. First, each applicant is given a letter of subscription or "hunting license," which he may use to seek employment on his own. When he finds a contractor willing to employ him as a registered apprentice for at least sixty days, that employer's signature on the letter will upon presentation to the union dispatcher entitle the applicant to a referral slip. Second, an applicant may await placement off the new applicant referral list simply by keeping the JATC apprised of a telephone number where he can be reached within 24 hours. When an employer calls the union dispatcher and requests a beginning apprentice without specifying any particular individual, the dispatcher obtains from the JATC District Office the name of the first ranking applicant in numerical order on the list and issues a referral slip for that person. After receiving a...