Fleming v. Chrysler Corp.

• Decision Date: 21 November 1975
• Docket Number: Civ. A. 5-72290.
• Citation: 416 F. Supp. 1258
• Parties: Donald J. FLEMING, Plaintiff, v. CHRYSLER CORPORATION, a Foreign Corporation, and United Auto Workers of America, Local 412, jointly and severally, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Western District of Michigan

416 F. Supp. 1258

Donald J. FLEMING, Plaintiff, v. CHRYSLER CORPORATION, a Foreign Corporation, and United Auto Workers of America, Local 412, jointly and severally, Defendants.

Civ. A. 5-72290.

United States District Court, E. D. Michigan, S. D.

November 21, 1975.

William D. Haynes, Haynes & Donnelly, P. C., Detroit, Mich., for plaintiff.

William S. Hurst, Edwin G. Fabre, Detroit, Mich., for defendants.

OPINION AND ORDER GRANTING DEFENDANTS' MOTIONS FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT

KAESS, District Judge.

Plaintiff Donald J. Fleming has brought an action against Chrysler Corporation for breach of contract and against United Auto Workers of America, Local 412, for failure to fairly represent him. Jurisdiction is invoked under Title III, Section 301, of the Labor Management Relations Act. Both Chrysler Corporation and United Auto Workers of America, Local 412, bring motions for summary judgment.

The facts underlying the complaint are as follows. Plaintiff began employment with Defendant Chrysler Corporation (hereinafter "Chrysler") in 1949. Plaintiff claims that, beginning in 1970, he became subjected to increasing harassment from his supervisors. He filed a number of grievances with his union steward, which he claims have not been resolved. In November, 1974, all estimators of Unit 11, Local 412, including plaintiff, were laid off by Chrysler. This lay-off involved four separate groups: Body, chassis, competitive, and truck estimating. The truck estimating group was at that time under separate UAW contract. Defendant Chrysler merged these groups, and proceeded to lay off by straight seniority of the merged groups. Plaintiff alleges that this action was in violation of the Union contract, Section 56.

Although a civil suit by the Union Local was threatened on this matter, agreement was reached during August, 1975, between the UAW and Chrysler, that two truck estimators would be laid off and that four passenger car estimators would be recalled.

On February 12, 1975, plaintiff was notified by Defendant Chrysler that his lay-off status was being changed to permanent, whereupon plaintiff went to the office to clean out his desk and remove personal belongings. While clearing his desk, words were exchanged with plaintiff's supervisor, and after plaintiff left the office, certain important work papers were discovered torn in half in his wastebasket. Defendant Chrysler discharged plaintiff on the grounds of sabotage, thus terminating his recall rights and certain benefits. A grievance was filed by plaintiff, and the Union took this grievance to the Appeal Board. On July 8, 1975, a decision was rendered by the Impartial Chairman, who concluded that the plaintiff herein had been guilty of careless, but not deliberate, destruction of documents. All seniority rights were reinstated; however, reimbursement for lost time was denied.

Plaintiff alleges that the failure of Defendant UAW to process his grievance further and to notify him of its action resulted in the loss of interim benefits. Plaintiff further alleges that the action of Defendant Chrysler in discharging him on the grounds of sabotage resulted in his loss of seniority rights for a period of five and one-half months.

The Defendant Union brings its Motion for Summary Judgment on the ground that the facts do not support a cause of action, and that, as a matter of law, it is entitled to summary judgment. Rule 56, Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.

In order for a union to be held liable to an aggrieved member for breach of the duty of fair representation, it must be shown that the union's conduct toward a member of the collective bargaining unit is arbitrary, discriminatory, or in bad faith. Vaca v. Sipes, 386 U.S. 171, 190, 87 S.Ct. 903, 17 L.Ed.2d 842 (1967). This standard was recently reaffirmed in Amalgamated Association of Street, Electric Ry. & Motor Coach Employees of America v. Lockridge, 403 U.S. 274, 91 S.Ct. 1909, 29 L.Ed.2d 473 (1971), wherein the court stated, at page 299, 91 S.Ct. at page 1924,

For such a claim to be made out, Lockridge must have proved "arbitrary or bad-faith conduct on the part of the Union." There must be "substantial evidence of fraud, deceitful action or dishonest conduct." Whether these requisite elements have been proved is a matter of federal law. (Citations omitted).

The issue of what constitutes a breach of the duty of fair representation has been presented to the Sixth Circuit on several occasions. In Balowski v. UAW, 372 F.2d 829 (6th Cir. 1967), the Court of Appeals held that in order to maintain a cause of action, the plaintiff must show that the Union's conduct was motivated by bad faith, hostility, or discrimination. At page 834, the court said

An action will not lie against a union for failure to process a grievance absent a showing of fraud, misrepresentation, bad faith, dishonesty of purpose or such gross mistake or inaction as to imply bad faith. Williams v. Kroger Co., 369 F.2d 85 (C.A. 6), (1966).

There is no absolute right by a union member to have his grievance arbitrated. Vaca v. Sipes, supra. A union has a "wide range of reasonableness" over grievances.

In Balowski v. UAW, supra, the court (quoting from Humphrey v. Moore, 375 U.S. 335, 84 S.Ct. 363, 11 L.Ed.2d 370) stated, at page 834

Just as a union must be free to sift out wholly frivolous grievances which would only clog the grievance procedure, so it must be free to take a position on the not so frivolous disputes. . . . To remove or gag the union in these cases would surely weaken the collective bargaining and grievance process.

Again, in Dill v. Greyhound Corp., 435 F.2d 231 (6th Cir. 1970), the court reiterated that, in order to establish unfair representation, it would have been necessary for the plaintiff to establish by a preponderance of the evidence that the union had acted arbitrarily or in bad faith.

The most recent pronouncement from the Sixth Circuit came in Ruzicka v. General Motors Corp., 523 F.2d 306 (1975). Ruzicka involved a suit by a discharged employee against his former employer and union. There was evidence before the court that the union had made no decision as to the merits of the employee's grievance, but merely allowed it to expire out of negligent and perfunctory handling. The court stated, at page 310

We believe that the District Court misread Vaca when it held that `bad faith' must be read into the separate and independent standards of `arbitrary' or `discriminatory' treatment. Union action which is arbitrary or discriminatory need not be motivated by bad faith to amount to unfair representation.

In the present case, there is no evidence that the Union acted in either an arbitrary or discriminatory manner in processing plaintiff's grievance. Fleming filed a grievance against Chrysler relating to his discharge on the grounds of sabotage. The Union brought this matter to arbitration, seeking full reinstatement and back pay. The decision, written by the Impartial Chairman, did put Mr. Fleming back to work, but refused to award him back pay or certain other benefits he had lost as the result of his discharge. Thus, the loss of interim benefits alleged in the complaint is directly traceable to the arbitration award, rather than the arbitrary or discriminatory acts of Defendant Union.

Displeasure with an arbitration decision does not elevate itself to a breach of the Union's duty to fairly represent plaintiff herein. As the court stated in Provenzino v. Merchants Forwarding, 363 F.Supp. 168 (E.D.Mich.1973)

Complete satisfaction with the degree of representation union members receive before arbitration panels is hardly to be expected. The fair representation standard, however, deals not with the degree of satisfaction the union member received from his union representative, but with whether the union's conduct was "arbitrary, discriminatory or in bad faith." Situations amounting to nothing more than visceral reactions by parties adversely affected by arbitration panels do not violate the "fair representation" standard.

Defendant has also alleged that the Union has not resolved a number of other grievances. However, he has stated no facts in support of this allegation. Defendant Union's Exhibit 2 is the decision of the Appeal Board as to an earlier grievance filed by plaintiff. The Union was successful in having a disciplinary report written by plaintiff's supervisor withdrawn from his record. Therefore, this Court finds that the Union did not act in an arbitrary or discriminatory manner in processing plaintiff's grievance, nor did it act in bad faith.

The Union also argues that plaintiff's complaint should be dismissed because he has failed to exhaust his intra-union remedies. Specifically, the Union argues that Article 33 of the 1974 Constitution of the International Union, UAW, spells out the intra-union remedies available to an aggrieved member.

The general rule is that a prerequisite to suit under 29 U.S.C. § 185 for breach of the duty of fair representation is the exhaustion of intra-union remedies. For example, in Bsharah v. Eltra Corporation, 394 F.2d 502 (6th Cir. 1968), plaintiff sued both her union and former employer, alleging a failure by the union to properly represent her. In affirming the District Court's granting of the union's motion for summary judgment, the Circuit Court stated, at page 503

In sustaining the union's motion for summary judgment, the court held that, assuming the International Union owed a duty to protect appellant, she failed to allege or show any attempt to initiate her intra-union remedies prescribed by the constitution and by-laws of the International Union and, in this holding, we concur.

The cases also indicate that a plaintiff must show that he has exhausted or attempted to exhaust his internal remedies against the union before he can proceed against it in court. In Harrington v. Chrysler Corporation, 303 F.Supp. 495 (E.D.Mich. 1969), plaintiff failed to completely exhaust his...