Gardner v. Woodcock, Civ. A. No. 4-71585.

• Decision Date: 25 October 1974
• Docket Number: Civ. A. No. 4-71585.
• Citation: 384 F. Supp. 239
• Parties: Al GARDNER, Vice-President Tool and Die Unit Local 600 UAW, et al., Plaintiffs, v. Leonard WOODCOCK, President, the International Executive Board and International Union United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America (UAW), a voluntary, unincorporated association, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Western District of Michigan

384 F. Supp. 239

Al GARDNER, Vice-President Tool and Die Unit Local 600 UAW, et al., Plaintiffs, v. Leonard WOODCOCK, President, the International Executive Board and International Union United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America (UAW), a voluntary, unincorporated association, Defendants.

Civ. A. No. 4-71585.

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

October 25, 1974.

Ronald J. Reosti, for plaintiffs; Harry M. Philo, Detroit, Mich., co-counsel for plaintiffs.

John A. Fillion, Jordan Rossen, Detroit, Mich., for defendants.

OPINION

RALPH M. FREEMAN, District Judge.

This suit was brought by members of the United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America (UAW) to enforce a section of the UAW Constitution and to enjoin the defendants from implementing a national contract negotiated with Ford Motor Company. The defendants have filed a motion for summary judgment, alleging that the interpretation of the section sought to be enforced has been resolved adversely to plaintiffs through intra-union procedures to which the plaintiffs are bound, and that they are thus foreclosed from maintaining the present suit. This case is presently before the court on that motion for summary judgment.

Plaintiffs are members of the UAW belonging to Locals 600 and 228. They bring the present suit on their own behalf and on behalf of UAW members who have allegedly authorized them to bring suit. They further claim to represent the class of UAW members comprised of skilled tradesmen employed by Ford Motor Company who are desirous of exercising their alleged right to ratify any contract negotiated by defendants and Ford as a condition precedent to the signing of the contract. Defendants are the UAW, the International Executive Board (IEB) thereof, and Leonard Woodcock, President of the UAW.

In early November, 1973, a proposed contract agreement between the UAW and Ford was submitted to the membership of the UAW's Ford locals for ratification. It is undisputed that the production and non-skilled trades workers approved the agreement by a vote of 112,154 to 38,684 while the skilled trades workers voted to reject the contract by a vote of 20,089 to 5,943. As the total vote for all members voting was 118,097 to 58,773 in favor of approving the contract, on November 14, 1973, the IEB declared the new National Agreement ratified. The Board so advised Ford and notified Ford that the agreement would go into effect on November 19, 1973.

The plaintiffs contend that the agreement has not been properly ratified because of the vote of the skilled workers to reject the contract, notwithstanding the fact that the majority of the total members voting voted to accept the contract. They contend that under Article 19, Section 3 of the UAW Constitution, the agreement would not be ratified unless approved by a majority of the skilled trades workers. Plaintiffs rely on the following provision of Article 19, Section 3:

. . . Upon application to and approval of the International Executive Board, a ratification procedure may be adopted wherein apprenticeable skilled trades and related workers, production workers, office workers, engineers, and technicians would vote separately on contractual matters common to all and, in the same vote, on those matters which relate exclusively to their group.

Apparently the skilled workers obtained the approval of the IEB to vote separately on the contract in issue in this lawsuit. Plaintiffs interpret the above quoted provision as giving a veto power to any group which, voting separately, votes to reject the contract.

The present suit was filed on May 3, 1974. On November 26, 1973, plaintiffs filed a case in Wayne County Circuit Court against the same defendants, which case was removed by the defendants to this court on December 17, 1973. (Gardner et al v. Woodcock et al, Civil Number 4-70832). That case alleged the same cause of action as is contained in the present suit, but was ultimately dismissed without prejudice, by stipulation, on February 20, 1974.

During the course of case # 4-70832, the plaintiffs asked this court to issue a preliminary injunction prohibiting the defendants from conducting any vote on any section of the national agreement with Ford, other than a ratification vote on the entire contract. That request, which was denied by this court, arose from the following facts:¹ At its meeting on November 14, 1973, the IEB concluded that the substantial rejection of the contract by the skilled trades workers had been caused by dissatisfaction with provisions on voluntary overtime as outlined in a letter of understanding dated October 26, 1973. On November 27, 1973, the UAW's Ford Skilled Trades Sub-Council held a meeting. This body consists of elected delegates from all the skilled trades units of the Ford locals. At this meeting it was concluded that skilled trades dissatisfaction should be taken care of by working out, with Ford, a series of optional ways for handling certain aspects of voluntary overtime affecting the skilled trades, with each unit of skilled trades workers selecting which option it wanted. Shortly thereafter the UAW and Ford worked out such a set of options and on November 29, 1973 the skilled units began voting to determine which option each wanted. It was these referenda which the plaintiffs sought to enjoin. The court does not know the result of these votes. But the pertinent fact with regard to the motion for summary judgment is that the defendants construed Article 19, Section 3 as giving them the flexibility of determining how to resolve a situation such as the one involved here. Rather than deciding that the contract had been rejected, which apparently is an option in the eyes of the defendants, it was decided to try to satisfy the skilled trade workers while still ratifying the contract as a whole.

While case # 4-70832 was pending, the issue of the propriety of the defendants' actions in ratifying the contract was presented to the Public Review Board (PRB). Both parties had agreed to the submission of the issue to the PRB. (See transcript of the January 14, 1974 hearing in case # 4-70832, p. 8). The plaintiffs had sought to enjoin the local votes in the belief that they would interfere with the jurisdiction of the PRB and seriously impair the plaintiffs' internal union remedy. The court did not agree with this contention and denied the motion for a preliminary injunction.

The parties stipulated to the dismissal of # 4-70832 without prejudice pending the outcome of the PRB decision. (See ¶ 1 of the Complaint.) On April 10, 1974, the PRB rendered its decision after receiving briefs and oral argument. (A copy of the opinion is attached to the defendants' motion as Exhibit 2.) The majority of the PRB construed the disputed section of the Constitution adversely to plaintiffs' position and held that the National Agreement was properly ratified. Two members dissented from the majority interpretation of the Constitution and thought that the contract should have been resubmitted to the membership for approval. However, these members concurred in the decision not to upset the ratification of the contract because they felt that the IEB error in declaring the contract ratified was harmless error:

. . . Article 19, Section 3, which empowers the IEB to grant rights of separate ratification, does not provide that once separate ratification procedure is authorized, authorization may never be withdrawn. Apparently, it may be. And apparently, the IEB could have withdrawn the right in this instance and required a vote on the entire contract by all employees. Had it done so we would be prepared to take judicial notice of the fact that the contract would have been ratified. That this is so is plain from the totals recorded on the first vote . . . The failure of the IEB to have withdrawn separate ratification rights before declaring the contract ratified was error, but in light of the results, it was harmless error.

Another reason for not upsetting the contract mentioned by the dissenters was that the contract had already been implemented and to require the Union to hold a second vote would be to require a meaningless act.

As noted earlier in this opinion, the plaintiffs filed this suit on May 3, 1974. The 24th Constitutional Convention of the UAW was held in Los Angeles between June 2 and June 7, 1974. The delegates to that convention adopted a statement which interprets Article 19, Section 3. (The Statement is attached to the defendants' motion for summary judgment as Exhibit 3.) That interpretation rejected the theory of a skilled trades veto and accepted the theory of flexibility advanced by defendants in the case at bar. The Statement made specific reference to the situation involved in this lawsuit.

The defendants contend that the plaintiffs are asking this court to reinterpret Article 19, Section 3, but that the plaintiffs cannot make this request as the UAW Constitutional Convention has decided this issue adversely to the plaintiffs and that that body has the highest possible competence to interpret the UAW Constitution. Article 7 of the UAW Constitution is entitled "Powers of Administration," and Section 1 of that article provides in pertinent part as follows:

Section 1. The International Union shall be governed by its membership in the following manner:

(a) The highest tribunal shall be the International Convention composed of delegates democratically elected by the membership of Local Unions.

(b) Between conventions the highest authority shall be the International Executive Board.

It is clear from the Statement adopted by the 24th Constitutional Convention that the interpretation advanced by the plaintiffs in this lawsuit has been rejected by that body.

Defendants further argue that in addition to the interpretation adopted by the Constitutional Convention, the PRB has decided the issue adversely to the...