Farmer v. ARA Services, Inc.
| Decision Date | 15 October 1981 |
| Docket Number | D,AFL-CI,No. 79-1295,79-1295 |
| Citation | 660 F.2d 1096 |
| Parties | 108 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2145, 26 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. 1068, 26 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 32,068, 92 Lab.Cas. P 12,992 Minnie FARMER, Hyardis Chambers, Shirley Wooton and Estate of Frances Ratliff, Deceased, Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. ARA SERVICES, INC., Defendant, Local 1064, United Catering, Bar and Hotel Workers, R.W.D.S.U.,efendant-Appellant. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit |
William Mazey, Rothe, Mazey, Mazey & Hamburger, Southfield, Mich., for defendant-appellant.
John Runyan, Marston, Sachs, Nunn, Kates, Kadushin & O'Hare, Detroit, Mich., for plaintiffs-appellees.
Before LIVELY and KEITH, Circuit Judges, and CELEBREZZE, Senior Circuit Judge.
Appellant Local 1064 United Catering Restaurant, Bar and Hotel Workers Union appeals from a judgment of the district court in which the union was found guilty of violating Sections 8(b) and 9(a) of the Labor-Management Relations Act of 1947, 29 U.S.C. §§ 158(b) and 159(a) ("LMRA") and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e, et seq. ("Title VII"). The Union alleges that the district court's findings of fact are clearly erroneous and that its conclusions of law are inconsistent with decisions of this circuit. For the reasons discussed below, we affirm the district court's factual findings on the liability issue. We also affirm the award of back pay and the award of damages for emotional and mental distress, but reverse the court's award of punitive damages.
This action was originally filed by Minnie Farmer, Hyardis Chambers, Shirley Wooton, and Sophie Troshal, on behalf of themselves and a class composed of all persons similarly situated. 1 The plaintiffs, white female employees of Automatic Retailers of America, Inc. ("ARA"), alleged that the company discriminated against them because of their sex by: (1) establishing a hiring, assignment, promotional and seniority system which limited the employment and promotional opportunities of women, and (2) negotiating collective bargaining agreements which provided grossly unequal wage rates to the sex-segregated classifications at ARA. 2 In addition to their claim against ARA, plaintiffs alleged that Local 1064 breached its duty of fair representation by: (1) negotiating labor contracts which maintained and perpetuated the sexually-discriminatory practices complained of, and (2) failing to represent the plaintiffs in grievance procedures brought pursuant to those agreements. Finally, the plaintiffs complained of harassment and retaliation by Local 1064 and sought injunctive and declaratory as well as monetary relief.
Before 1958, food services at Great Lakes Steel were provided by thirteen company-owned cafeterias. The cafeterias were located throughout the company's three downriver facilities and were staffed by a predominantly female work force. Increasing automation of food service at Great Lakes Steel Company began in 1958 when vending machines dispensing coffee and cold drinks were first installed at the plant. In 1960, the transition to automated vending service continued with the replacement on a trial basis, of one of the cafeterias by vending machine service only. In 1961, ARA, a vending and food service operation, took over the food service operation, and at that time, all of the cafeterias were replaced by vending services. In 1962, the Collective Bargaining Agreement between ARA and Local 1064 established several new job classifications which are at issue in this case. Those job classifications were: (1) "vending machine serviceman", 3 (2) "vending machine attendant", 4 and (3) "vending machine repairman". 5
The type of work allocated to the various classifications, the job descriptions, wage rates, and step increases for each have all been subject to negotiation with Local 1064. The plaintiffs argue that the union has continuously thwarted their attempts to become repairmen and servicemen. They contend that the servicemen and repairmen perform work that is not significantly different from their own. 6 Since they perform substantially the same work, the plaintiffs contend that it is a violation of title VII both for ARA to pay disproportionately lower wages to the female attendant employees and for Local 1064 to participate in the establishment of the pay scales. They point to the Collective Bargaining Agreement which allows the employer to mix the responsibilities of the attendant and the serviceman as evidence of the similarity of the job responsibilities of each job classification. 7
At trial, the defendants maintained that the required duties of servicemen and repairmen precluded the inclusion of female employees in those classifications. The evidence indicated that the duties of servicemen involved moving and assembling large machines, a task the union claimed females were incapable of performing. However, the evidence also indicated that after the transition to vending machine service was completed, servicemen performed little or no moving of machines. In fact several servicemen have never moved a machine, and at least one admitted that he was physically incapable of doing so.
It was not until 1969 that ARA promoted the first woman to the position of "serviceman". Until that promotion, the classification of "serviceman" was entirely male, while the classification of attendant was almost entirely female. After 1969, the "attendant" position remained virtually all female, and the "serviceman" position remained virtually all male. For example, in the "attendant" classification, females held all 23 positions in 1970, all 20 positions in 1974 and all 24 positions in 1967.
Attendants were paid considerably less than the position of serviceman. 8 Generally, attendants worked only a four-hour day with no overtime possibility while servicemen worked eight-hour days with the possibility of overtime pay. Thus, the serviceman positions were preferable in terms of both hourly wage and length of the work day.
Although class certification was denied by the district court, the individual plaintiffs, four former attendants at ARA, were successful in their claims of unfair representation against Local 1064.
Plaintiff Hyardis Chambers was employed by Great Lakes in 1949. She held top seniority in the bargaining unit when the serviceman's classification was created. Chambers claimed that the union and the company conspired to establish contract provisions in January 1970 which operated to terminate her. 9 Chambers filed several complaints through the grievance procedures established by the union which were not acted upon as required under the Collective Bargaining Agreement. 10 She was terminated in 1970, because she had been on sick leave for more than two years. 11 The district court found that Local 1064 had failed to fairly process Chambers' grievances.
Plaintiff Minnie Farmer was employed by the company in March 1968. She began training as a serviceman in January 1969. She performed satisfactorily as a serviceman for two weeks, but was then disqualified from continued participation as a serviceman trainee because of her inability to move a vending machine. At trial, Farmer argued that she was required to move machines that the company normally would require two men to move. Farmer was reinstated as a serviceman as a result of the intervention of the Michigan Civil Rights Commission, but later chose to bid into a position as a truck driver, an intermediate position between that of attendant and serviceman. Farmer had also filed several complaints with the Union Grievance Board. 12 The district court found that Farmer had indeed been required to perform tasks not required of all servicemen and that the union had not adequately processed her grievances concerning the serviceman position.
The third complainant, Shirley Wooton, came to the Company in November 1966, and bid on an announced vending service position in October 1969. Initially, Wooton was not allowed to bid for the position but later she was allowed to train as a serviceman. However, she was not permitted to move permanently into that classification, and eventually had to take a position as a janitor/truck driver. She claims that she did not get the serviceman position because of sex discrimination.
The fourth complainant, Frances Ratliff, was employed by the Company in August 1969 as a truck driver. In December 1969, she began training for a serviceman position, but did not complete the training because she believed that she was expected to perform work previously assigned to more than one person. 13 She signed a waiver of rights to further training. In May 1971, Ratliff notified the Company of her desire to rescind the waiver and to be reconsidered for the vending service work.
The employer refused to allow Ratliff to rescind the waiver and bid for a serviceman position that was vacant. Instead, the employer awarded the vending job to a male college student hired "off the street." Ratliff filed a grievance with the union on June 4, 1971, protesting the action which was denied by the employer and simultaneously withdrawn by the Union without Ratliff's consent.
Local 1064 was the exclusive representative of the non-supervisory employees of ARA. As such, the union is required by Sections 8(b) and 9(a) to represent the plaintiffs "fairly and impartially" and to "make an honest effort to serve the interests of all ... members without hostility to any." Humphrey v. Moore, 375 U.S. 335, 342, 84 S.Ct. 363, 367, 11 L.Ed.2d 370 (1964); Ford Motor Company v. Huffman, 345 U.S. 330, 337-38, 73 S.Ct. 681, 685-86, 97 L.Ed. 1048 (1953); Wallace Corp. v. NLRB, 323 U.S. 248, 255, 65 S.Ct. 238, 241, 89 L.Ed. 216 (1944). The union was not required to represent each member of the bargaining unit to his or her complete satisfaction on every grievance. See e. g., Ruzicka, 523...
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