Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. American Tel. & Tel. Co.
| Decision Date | 22 April 1977 |
| Docket Number | No. 76-2281,76-2281 and 76-2285,AFL-CIO,No. 76-2285,No. 76-2217,IBEW,Nos. 76-2217,TCC-1,76-2217,76-2281,76-2285,s. 76-2217 |
| Parties | 14 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. 1210, 14 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 7506 EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY COMMISSION et al. v. AMERICAN TELEPHONE AND TELEGRAPH COMPANY et al., Communications Workers of America(CWA) (Intervening Defendants), Telephone Coordinating Council,(national Bell Council) et al., intervening defendants. Appeal of COMMUNICATIONS WORKERS OF AMERICA, inAppeal of the TELEPHONE COORDINATING COUNCIL,, inAppeal of ALLIANCE OF INDEPENDENT TELEPHONE UNIONS, in |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Third Circuit |
William J. Kilberg, Sol. of Labor, Carin Ann Clauss, Associate Sol. of Labor, Dept. of Labor, J. Stanley Pottinger, Asst. Atty. Gen., David L. Rose, James S. Angus, Attys., Dept. of Justice, Washington, D. C., Abner W. Sibal, Gen. Counsel, Joseph T. Eddins, Associate Gen. Counsel, Beatrice Rosenberg, Asst. Gen. Counsel, James P. Scanlan, Atty., E. E. O. C., Washington, D. C., for appellees.
Thompson Powers, Jane McGrew, Morgan D. Hodgson, Steptoe & Johnson, Washington, D. C., for American Telephone & Telegraph Company, et al.; James A. DeBois, American Tel. & Tel. Co., New York City, Bernard G. Segal, Barry Simon, Schnader, Harrison, Segal & Louis, Philadelphia, Pa., of counsel.
Richard H. Markowitz, Miriam L. Gafni, Markowitz & Kirschner, Philadelphia, Pa., for Communications Workers of America; Charles V. Koons, Matthew A. Kane, Kane & Koons, Washington, D. C., of counsel.
Elihu I. Leifer, Sherman, Dunn, Cohen & Leifer, Washington, D. C., Louis H. Wilderman, Meranze, Katz, Spear & Wilderman, Philadelphia, Pa., for IBEW Council.
Abraham Weiner, Paul M. Levinson, Mayer, Weiner & Levinson, New York City, for Alliance of Independent Telephone Unions.
Before SEITZ, Chief Judge, and ALDISERT and GIBBONS, Circuit Judges.
This is an appeal by three labor unions: the Communications Workers of America (CWA), the Telephone Coordinating Council TCC-1, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), and the Alliance of Independent Telephone Unions (Alliance) (hereinafter referred to collectively as the intervening defendants). The order below denied their motions to modify a consent decree, dismissed the motion of CWA for a preliminary injunction against continued implementation of an affirmative action override provided for by the decree, and granted the motion of the plaintiffs and the original defendants for the entry of a supplemental injunctive order. The plaintiffs are the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the Secretary of Labor, and the United States. Their complaint, filed on January 18, 1973, charged violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act, of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and of Executive Order 11246. The defendant is the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T), appearing for itself and on behalf of its associated telephone companies in the Bell System. On the same day that the complaint was filed AT&T answered, denying the violations alleged. However, it simultaneously approved and consented to a decree which embodied and was designed to enforce a negotiated agreement under which AT&T undertook to implement a model affirmative action program. That program was designed to overcome the effects of past employment discrimination in the Bell System with respect to women, blacks, and other minorities. The intervening defendants contend that the consent decree, as originally agreed to and as supplemented, conflicts with provisions of collective bargaining agreements between them and AT&T, and otherwise unlawfully invades rights of their members respecting competitive seniority in transfer and promotion. 1 We affirm.
In November 1970, AT&T filed with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) a proposed tariff which would increase interstate telephone rates. Before that filing was acted on, EEOC filed with the FCC a petition requesting that the increase be denied because AT&T's operating companies were engaged in systemwide discrimination against women and minorities. The FCC initiated a special proceeding to consider the charges, holding 60 days of hearings in 1971 and 1972. A number of organizations intervened in support of the EEOC. While the hearings progressed, settlement negotiations took place between AT&T and the government parties, which eventually led to the termination of the FCC special proceeding and the entry of the Consent Decree. Although the Alliance of Independent Telephone Unions did not participate in negotiating the Consent Decree, the IBEW did participate, and CWA was invited to do so but remained deliberately aloof. 365 F.Supp. at 1108, 1109.
The Bell System is one of the largest employers in the United States. Traditionally, its operating companies have been organized along departmental lines. The plant department has been responsible for installation and maintenance of physical facilities such as central office equipment, transmission lines, and subscriber telephones. The traffic department has been responsible for putting calls through, operator assistance, information, and related services. The commercial department has handled subscriber sales and billing. The accounting department has performed the bookkeeping and accounting functions. Until at least the late 1960's, Bell System hiring practices generally followed departmental lines. The plant department, in which craft jobs predominated, was traditionally a male preserve, while female employees were generally employed as operators, bookkeepers, or in other clerical occupations in the traffic and commercial departments. Pay scales at both entry and higher levels in the plant department were, and remain, higher than for employees with comparable length of service in the other departments. Transfers from the traffic or commercial departments were possible, but there was a general policy of slotting a transferred employee in at the next higher pay rate than that last enjoyed in the previous position. Since traffic and commercial employees had lower starting rates and lower rates at each step of the wage progression schedule, that policy resulted in a transferee to the plant department receiving a lower rate of pay than would an employee performing the same job who had been hired on the same date, but who had started in the plant department. These hiring practices resulted in a concentration of males and females in certain classifications. Moreover, there was an imbalance between the racial and ethnic composition of the work forces of many operating companies and the racial and ethnic makeup of their available labor markets. The intervening defendants do not dispute that past patterns and practices were discriminatory, nor do they dispute that the present work force in many Bell System departments still reflects those past patterns and practices.
The Consent Decree directs the Bell System Companies to establish goals and intermediate targets to promote the full utilization of all race, sex, and ethnic groups in each of fifteen job classifications. The intermediate targets, set annually, reflect the representation of such groups in the external labor market in relevant pools for each operating company's work force. The intermediate targets are the major prospective remedies in the Consent Decree. When any Bell Company is unable to achieve or maintain its intermediate target, applying normal selection standards, it is required by the decree to depart from those standards in selecting candidates for promotional opportunities. It must then pass over candidates with greater seniority or better qualifications in favor of members of the under-represented group who are at least "basically qualified." Without this affirmative action override, the greater time in title of incumbent members of the overrepresented race, sex, or ethnic group would inevitably reduce the opportunity for advancement of the under-represented groups and would perpetuate the effects of the former discrimination. The affirmative action override applies, however, only to minority promotional opportunity. A promotion under the override does not result in any increase in competitive seniority for purposes of layoff or rehire, as to which the collective bargaining agreements control. 2 The life of the decree is six years, ending on January 17, 1979. It provides that AT&T may bargain collectively with collective bargaining representatives for alternative provisions which would also comply with federal law. No such alternative provisions have been presented to the district court.
In an interim report on compliance with the Consent Decree it appeared that in a number of specific categories the Bell Companies fell short of attaining intermediate targets promulgated for 1973. The government plaintiffs and AT&T jointly moved for the entry of a supplemental order aimed at remedying these deficiencies and assuring future achievement of targets and goals. The supplemental order provides that unmet targets shall be carried forward in certain establishments and job classifications. For a two month period ending on October 24, 1976 some Bell Companies were required to make all placements in affected job classifications from groups as to which their targets had not been met. The supplemental order also provides for the creation of a Bell System Affirmative Action Fund and its expenditure on projects which will advance the objects of the decree. It also articulates the understanding of the parties that while the original Consent Decree was not intended to supplant the collective bargaining agreements, to the extent that any provisions of the latter would prevent the achievement of the affirmative action targets and goals, the decree controlled. The carry-forward provisions...
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