Gantlin v. Westvaco Corp.
| Decision Date | 19 October 1981 |
| Docket Number | Civ.A.No. 72-713-8. |
| Citation | 526 F. Supp. 1356 |
| Court | U.S. District Court — District of South Carolina |
| Parties | Willis L. GANTLIN, et al., Plaintiffs, v. WESTVACO CORPORATION, et al., Defendants. |
COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED
COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED
Morris J. Baller, San Francisco, Cal., for plaintiffs.
Leonard Appel, Washington, D.C., Hill B. Wellford, Jr., Richmond, Va., Arthur C. McFarland, Charleston, S.C., Harris Jacobs, J. R. Goldthwaite, Jr., Atlanta, Ga., for defendants.
This action was filed in the United States District Court for the District of South Carolina on June 15, 1972, by plaintiffs, Willis L. Gantlin, Alphonse Gailliard, George Chatman, Clifford Graham, Charles Jenkins, and Christopher Jenkins alleging racial discrimination in employment in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. 2000e et seq., and Section 1981 of the Civil Rights Act of 1866, 42 U.S.C. § 1981. With the exception of Christopher Jenkins, each of the plaintiffs at the time the complaint was filed was an active employee of Westvaco's North Charleston Mill and a member of Local 508 of the United Papermakers International Union. Christopher Jenkins is a former employee of the Mill and former member of Local 508.
Plaintiffs' complaint charged Westvaco and each of the Unions having bargaining rights at the Mill with racial discrimination. The Union defendants are the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, AFL-CIO, and its Lodge No. 183 (IAM); the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, AFL-CIO, and its Local No. 1753 (IBEW); and the United Papermakers International Union and its Locals No. 435 and 508 (UPIU).1 The complaint also alleged that each of the Unions had violated their duty of fair representation required by 29 U.S.C. § 185.
On March 14, 1973, the court entered an order allowing this action to proceed as a class action under Rule 23 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, and defining the class as:
All black persons employed in bargaining unit jobs at Westvaco's North Charleston Paper Mill between July 2, 1965, and March 14, 1973.
In permitting the action to proceed as a class action as defined above, the court determined that plaintiffs were not proper representatives of black applicants for employment, or of black persons employed, in non-bargaining unit or salaried positions. This action, therefore, relates solely to conditions allegedly affecting black employees who subsequent to July 2, 1965, the effective date of Title VII, held hourly rated production and maintenance positions in the collective bargaining units at the Mill. Plaintiffs have alleged that black employees were discriminated against in job assignment and in transfer and promotional rights with respect to production and maintenance positions at the Mill until May 1968, and that union negotiated seniority practices have operated to unlawfully perpetuate such discrimination. Plaintiffs further alleged that discrimination continued after May, 1968, with respect to maintenance apprentice positions.
On June 11, 1974, the court ruled that the trial of this action would proceed in a bifurcated two-stage fashion. On plaintiffs' motion, the first-stage trial, which commenced on July 17, 1974, and was concluded on August 15, 1974, was limited to issues of class discrimination. All issues of individual liability and monetary relief were specifically deferred for second-stage proceedings, if necessary.2 Additional hearings were held on July 14 and December 19, 1978, at the request of counsel for the respective parties to determine the scope of the issues in controversy and for the purpose of supplementing the record with additional evidence relevant to the outstanding factual and legal issues. On February 9, 1979, plaintiffs filed their post-trial brief containing proposed findings of fact and conclusions of law. The defendants filed their briefs with their proposed findings at various dates between August 31 and October 10, 1979. Thereafter, plaintiffs filed a reply brief on November 27, 1979. Oral argument on all issues was heard by the court on July 17, 1980.
The court has carefully considered the briefs of the parties, the joint stipulation of facts, and the voluminous trial record, including the supplemental evidence entered on December 19, 1978. The court, at the request of the parties, has also personally viewed the various mill operations. Based on the foregoing, the court now renders its findings of fact and conclusions of law in this matter.
History and Organization of the Mill:
Westvaco's North Charleston Paper Mill commenced operations in 1937. The Mill is similar in its organizational and operational structure to other paper mills in the pulp and paper industry throughout the United States and Canada. Westvaco's Mill is engaged in the production of kraft paper and pulp and chemical by-products. The Mill is organized into the following functionally related areas of operation:
Woodyard-Operating
Reception center for wood supply in various forms. Converts roundwood into chips and mixes with purchased chips to supply pulp mill. Conveys bark and reject wood particles to supply the power boiler.
Woodyard-Service
Mill-wide clean-up, maintenance of grounds, and general service.
Pulp Mill
Takes wood chips from woodyard and processes into chemical pulp. Washes spent chemicals from pulp for recovery, and processes pulp for use in paper mill.
Recovery
Reclaims chemicals from spent pulping liquor and makes new cooking chemicals. Produces steam from burning organic waste.
Paper Mill
Receives virgin kraft pulp and self-generated waste and converts these into finished unbleached kraft liner-board and paper grades in roll form.
Technical Services
Specification testing of paper and liner-board.
Water Treating
Produces treated water for power and recovery boiler. Tests and regulates boiler water and treated liquid effluent of the entire mill.
Finishing and Shipping
Prepares for shipment, loads and ships finished products, and maintains customer inventory.
Converting
The Baler is the only portion of the converting progression in use. Its function is the mechanical baling of fluff-dried pulp.
Power
Produces electricity and is responsible for water supply to support all production facilities.
Tall Oil
Refines crude tall oil and converts to useful products for various industries.
Polychemicals
Extracts lignin from black liquor and converts to useful products for various industries.
Receiving and Stores
Receives, stores, and disburses parts and materials.
Maintenance
Maintains, repairs, and modifies plant and equipment as required.
Each production department consists of one or more lines of progression (sequences), or series of functionally related jobs in order of wage rate for promotion, demotion due to reduction in force, and progression purposes. In addition to the production departments and progressions, there are various maintenance departments and jobs. As of July 15, 1974, there were 1049 hourly employees who held production or maintenance positions — (hereinafter referred to as "bargaining unit jobs") — at the Mill. Of these 1049 employees, 222 were black and 827 were white.
The collective bargaining history at the Mill dates back to 1937 when the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers — (IBEW and its Local B0776, later 1753) — was recognized as the bargaining representative for electricians. The other Union defendants gained representational rights in 1944. In that year, the United Papermakers and Paperworkers — (UPP) — and the International Brotherhood of Pulp Sulphite and Paper Mill Workers — (IBPS) — were jointly certified to represent employees in the paper mill and the Machinists — (IAM Lodge 183) — commenced representation for a bargaining unit of outside shop machinists.
The IBEW and IAM unions have historically bargained separately for employees within their respective areas of jurisdiction and have historically negotiated separate labor agreements. However, the UPP and the IBPS, pursuant to their joint NLRB certification, always bargained as a single entity and were parties to a common labor agreement covering a common bargaining unit of employees. At the initial stages of representation following their certification in 1944, the UPP chartered Local 435 and the IBPS chartered Local 508 to represent employees at the Mill. Later in the same year the IBPS, in response to a request from their black members, chartered Local 508A to represent black employees who at that time held only unskilled labor-type positions in the Mill. Local 508A's name was later changed to Local 620. The pattern of three separate bargaining units for the IBEW, IAM and UPP/IBPS and three separate labor agreements has continued to the present time.
The UPP/IBPS agreement was the product of collective bargaining proposals jointly drafted and bargained by a Union negotiating committee composed of representatives from Locals 435, 508 and 620. These proposals were embodied in a single collective bargaining agreement which established one seniority system covering a single bargaining unit and referred to the three locals as "the Union" throughout its various provisions. While the three locals had separate jurisdiction over various jobs within this bargaining unit, they negotiated as a single entity and the employees whom they represented were governed by the same contract terms under the same seniority system. Pursuant to this system, bargaining unit employees accumulated three types of seniority reflecting length of time in their job, in their department, and in the mill.
Commencing in 1964, Westvaco began the process of integrating the jobs and lines of progression at the Mill. Black employees who were thereafter assigned to jobs under the jurisdiction of Locals 508, or 435, or one of the other...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Gantlin v. West Virginia Pulp and Paper Co.
...on the basis of mill seniority. This provision enabled some blacks to promote around whites with greater job seniority. See 526 F.Supp. at 1380. The 1970 Memorandum, like the Merger Agreement, did not discuss "run-around" rights, and the company continued to recognize these rights after the......
-
Allen v. Prince George's County, Md., 82-1539
...opinion, we find no merit whatsoever to appellants' individual claims. AFFIRMED. 1 We note, however, that Gantlin v. Westvaco Corp., 526 F.Supp. 1356, 1364 (D.S.C.1981), aff'd., 734 F.2d 980, 986 (4th Cir.1984), was a Title VII case where an employer's seniority system was found to pass mus......