General Drivers, Warehousemen and Helpers Local Union No. 509 v. Ethyl Corp.
Decision Date | 25 October 1995 |
Docket Number | AFL-CI,No. 93-2513,P,93-2513 |
Citation | 68 F.3d 80 |
Parties | 150 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2580, 69 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. (BNA) 20, 66 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 43,741, 131 Lab.Cas. P 11,436 GENERAL DRIVERS, WAREHOUSEMEN AND HELPERS LOCAL UNION NO. 509, a/w International Brotherhood of Teamsters,laintiff-Appellant, v. ETHYL CORPORATION, Defendant-Appellee. |
Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit |
ARGUED: Jonathan Gans Axelrod, Beins, Axelrod, Osborne, Mooney & Green, P.C., Washington, DC, for Appellant. Charles Franklin Thompson, Jr., Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart, Columbia, South Carolina, for Appellee. ON BRIEF: Jonathan P. Pearson, Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart, Columbia, South Carolina, for Appellee.
Before RUSSELL, WIDENER, and HALL, Circuit Judges.
Affirmed by published opinion. Judge WIDENER wrote the majority opinion, in which Judge RUSSELL concurred. Judge HALL wrote a dissenting opinion.
This litigation arises out of a collective bargaining agreement between the General Drivers, Warehousemen and Helpers, Local Union No. 509 (Local 509) and Ethyl Corporation, covering certain employees at Ethyl's Orangeburg, South Carolina Plant. In 1992 Local 509 filed a formal grievance against Ethyl, alleging that the tests Ethyl used to determine employee wage rates discriminated on the basis of race and age. Local 509 sought arbitration of the dispute after Ethyl declined to address its allegations. Ethyl claimed the dispute was not arbitrable and refused to participate in arbitration. Local 509 then filed suit in the United States District Court for the District of South Carolina seeking an order compelling arbitration. After discovery, the district court granted Ethyl's motion for summary judgment and Local 509 appeals. We are of opinion that the district court properly determined that the dispute in question was not arbitrable under the parties' collective bargaining agreement, and accordingly, we affirm.
In 1977, the National Labor Relations Board certified Local 509 as the bargaining representative for the production and maintenance employees at Ethyl's Orangeburg Plant. Local 509 and Ethyl signed collective bargaining agreements in 1977, 1980, 1983, 1986, 1990 and 1993. This dispute centers around provisions in the 1990 agreement and concerns Local 509's allegations that Ethyl's method for determining wage rates is discriminatory.
Ethyl divides its production and maintenance employees into four different classifications or departments and further breaks down each department into different job levels. 1 An employee's wage rate is determined not by the task he does but only by his job level, which may include time of service in that level in some instances. Ethyl promotes employees from one job level to the next only if they complete the training programs and pass the written tests specified in the collective bargaining agreement. The tests measure an employee's understanding of why he does what he does, not his ability to do it. Ethyl pays higher rates of pay to employees with knowledge of the production process. The actual duties employees perform within a department may be the same and are not assigned by job level. For example, in the Traffic Department, a level 1 employee may perform the same task as a level 3 employee. However, the level 3 employee will receive a significantly higher wage because of his ability to pass the tests at issue.
Ethyl has used job promotion tests at least since 1977 when Local 509 began representing Ethyl's employees. Local 509 agreed to the use of specific tests in each collective bargaining agreement it negotiated with Ethyl, including the 1990 agreement. On January 17, 1992, Local 509's business agent filed a formal complaint, alleging a violation of "Article X(10), Article 12 and all other Articles pertaining to this case." The grievance further alleged:
The Company is in violation of Article X(10) by allowing employees to work in a higher class and not compensate employees appropriately for work performed at the applicable rate of pay. This is a violation of the bargaining agreement and the union is requesting all back pay for all employees who did not receive the proper rate of pay for working in a higher class. 2
On February 17, 1992 Ethyl informed Local 509 by letter that because the tests used were those specifically required by the 1990 collective bargaining agreement it considered the matter resolved.
Local 509's business agent responded to Ethyl's letter on March 30, 1992, informing Ethyl that if the grievance was not resolved at a scheduled April 7, 1992 meeting, Local 509 would seek redress through arbitration, an NLRB proceeding, or an EEOC proceeding. Apparently, any further efforts to resolve the complaint were unsuccessful, and Local 509 timely filed a request for arbitration. Ethyl failed to pick an arbitrator from a panel that the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service supplied and refused to submit the dispute to arbitration. On March 4, 1993 Local 509 filed a complaint in the district court under Sec. 301 of the Labor Management Relations Act, 29 U.S.C. Sec. 185. Local 509 sought an order to enforce the 1990 collective bargaining agreement by compelling Ethyl to arbitrate the dispute surrounding the testing procedure. Following discovery, the district court granted Ethyl's motion for summary judgment, refusing to compel arbitration. Local 509 appeals.
Our review of a motion for summary judgment is de novo. Cumberland Typographical Union 244 v. The Times & Alleganian Co., 943 F.2d 401, 407 (4th Cir.1991). The principles of arbitrability which govern this dispute are well settled. AT & T Technologies, Inc. v. Communications Workers of America, 475 U.S. 643, 648, 106 S.Ct. 1415, 1418, 89 L.Ed.2d 648 (1986). Arbitration of a claim is available only when the parties involved agree to arbitration by contract. United Steelworkers of America v. Warrior & Gulf Navigation Co., 363 U.S. 574, 582, 80 S.Ct. 1347, 1352-53, 4 L.Ed.2d 1409 (1960). Whether parties must arbitrate a particular dispute is for the courts to decide on the basis of the contract. Warrior & Gulf, 363 U.S. at 582, 80 S.Ct. at 1352-53; John Wiley & Sons, Inc. v. Livingston, 376 U.S. 543, 546-47, 84 S.Ct. 909, 912-13, 11 L.Ed.2d 898 (1964). However, when deciding whether a dispute is arbitrable, courts may not judge the merits of the claim put forward. United Steelworkers of America v. American Mfg. Co., 363 U.S. 564, 568, 80 S.Ct. 1343, 1346-47, 4 L.Ed.2d 1403 (1960). Even claims that courts might deem without merit are entitled to arbitration if the parties agreed in their contract that such issues were arbitrable. American Mfg. Co., 363 U.S. at 567-68, 80 S.Ct. at 1346. Because arbitration is the preferred method for settling labor disputes, any doubts should be decided in favor of arbitration. Warrior & Gulf, 363 U.S. at 582-83, 80 S.Ct. at 1352-53. However, if the agreement specifically excludes a subject from arbitration, courts are not free to ignore the plain wording of the agreement and must decline to compel arbitration. District 50, United Mine Workers of America v. Chris-Craft Corp., 385 F.2d 946, 949-50 (6th Cir.1967).
The 1990 collective bargaining agreement between Ethyl and Local 509 provides for arbitration of disputes "arising out of a claim that a specific written provision of this Agreement has been violated." 3 The parties in this case agree that as a general matter, claims of discrimination qualify for arbitration under this agreement because the discrimination clause is a "specific written provision" in the agreement. 4 However, the parties dispute whether two express exclusions from arbitration contained in the agreement apply to this particular claim of discrimination. We first address the "wages and rates of pay" exclusion, and because Local 509's claim fits under this exclusion, we find it unnecessary to address the "management rights" exclusion. 5
Article VI(C) states in part that:
[T]he provisions of this [arbitration clause] shall not apply to matters affecting wages and rates of pay as set forth in Exhibit B attached hereto.
Thus, if the job promotion tests are matters affecting wages and rates of pay, any presumption in favor of arbitrability is overcome by an express exclusion.
The tests required by the agreement are a sine qua non of an employee's pay. 6 If an employee completes training and can pass the tests, that employee's wages will go up. If the employee cannot pass the test, the employee will get no raise, regardless of that employee's ability to perform the work or complete the training. The position of Local 509 as to the whole case was clearly stated by it in oral argument in the district court:
Our problem is that the people [the affected employees] are in different pay classifications and they are in different pay classifications only because they can't pass a discriminatory test.
If the test were ruled to be fair, we wouldn't have a back pay claim. It's only the discriminatory test which puts people in the wrong pay scales.
We agree with Ethyl, that nothing in the agreement relates more closely to wages and rates of pay than do these tests. Local 509 agreed to the tests, 7 and agreed to the wage rates set out in Exhibit B of the Agreement. It even agreed to the specific tests at issue here and a complete 1993 collective bargaining agreement after it filed this case in the district court. It cannot now seek to renegotiate express exclusions of the collective bargaining agreement through arbitration. Such an interpretation would allow Local 509 to render exclusions from arbitration meaningless and reopen negotiation of any contract term by simply claiming discrimination.
We are of opinion that the dispute between Ethyl and Local 509 as to whether or not the required and agreed upon tests are discriminatory on account of race or age is a...
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