Gordon v. LABORERS'INTERNATIONAL UNION OF NO. AMER.

• Decision Date: 21 November 1973
• Docket Number: No. 73-1111,73-1112.,73-1111
• Citation: 490 F.2d 133
• Parties: Willie Lee GORDON et al., Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. LABORERS' INTERNATIONAL UNION OF NORTH AMERICA et al., Defendants-Appellees, Marcelus Hodge et al., Defendants-Appellants. The ASSOCIATED GENERAL CONTRACTORS OF AMERICA, INC., OKLAHOMA CHAPTER-BUILDERS DIVISION, Plaintiff, v. LABORERS' INTERNATIONAL UNION OF NORTH AMERICA, LOCAL 612, Defendant, Laborers' International Union of North America, Intervenor-Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Tenth Circuit

490 F.2d 133 (1974)

Willie Lee GORDON et al., Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. LABORERS' INTERNATIONAL UNION OF NORTH AMERICA et al., Defendants-Appellees, Marcelus Hodge et al., Defendants-Appellants.

The ASSOCIATED GENERAL CONTRACTORS OF AMERICA, INC., OKLAHOMA CHAPTER-BUILDERS DIVISION, Plaintiff, v. LABORERS' INTERNATIONAL UNION OF NORTH AMERICA, LOCAL 612, Defendant, Laborers' International Union of North America, Intervenor-Appellee.

Nos. 73-1111, 73-1112.

United States Court of Appeals, Tenth Circuit.

Argued August 13, 1973.

Decided November 21, 1973.

Rehearing Denied February 8, 1974.

C. W. Schwoerke, Oklahoma City, Okl., for plaintiffs-appellants Willie Lee Gordon, and others.

James M. Little, Oklahoma City, Okl. (Leslie L. Conner and Leslie L. Conner, Jr., Oklahoma City, Okl., on the brief), for defendants-appellants Marcelus Hodge, and others.

Jules Bernstein, Washington, D. C., for defendant-appellee Laborers' International Union of North America.

Before BREITENSTEIN and DOYLE, Circuit Judges, and TALBOT SMITH,^* District Judge.

BREITENSTEIN, Circuit Judge.

This controversy concerns the validity of a collective bargaining contract made by a local union and the imposition of a trusteeship over the local by its parent international union. The trial court upheld the trusteeship and voided the contract. We affirm the trusteeship and remand for further proceedings to determine the validity of the contract.

The posture of these appeals requires explanation. In D.C. No. 70-520 Gordon, et al., were plaintiffs, and the defendants included Laborers' International Union of North America and Hodge, et al. D.C. No. 72-544 was an action by Associated General Contractors against Laborers' International Union of North America, Local 612. The International Union which was the parent of Local 612 intervened. The trial court consolidated No. 70-520 and No. 72-544 for trial and the two cases were disposed of by one judgment. The Gordon group, which is made up of members of Local 612, has appealed and its appeal is our No. 73-1111. The Hodge group, which is compsed of officers of Local 612, has also appealed and its appeal is our No. 73-1112. The International Union is resisting each appeal. The Associated General Contractors has made no appearance. The situation is such that we cannot say with any assurance whether anyone is appearing before us on behalf of Local 612. The Gordon group and the Hodge group will be referred to as appellants.

Laborers' International Union of North America is a labor organization of about 600,000 members. It is made up of local unions and district councils located throughout the United States and Canada, and is governed by a General Executive Board in accordance with a written constitution. The International has chartered nine locals in Oklahoma. Its constitution provides for the chartering of district councils upon the application of affiliated locals when combination of economic power and effort is advantageous. A district council is a labor organization within the purview of the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959 (LMRDA). See 29 U.S.C. § 402(i).

Local 612, Oklahoma City, was chartered by the International in 1920. In 1968, seven of the Oklahoma locals, not including Local 612, applied for a district council charter. Local 612 objected to the creation of the council and declined to affiliate with it. Acting under its constitution, the International ordered Local 612 to affiliate, and District Council was created.

In 1970, several members of Local 612 sued International, District Council, Local 612, and three of the officers of Local 612 seeking in the alternative authority for Local 612 to withdraw from District Council or an order providing that Local 612 have representation on District Council that would be fairly representative of its membership in proportion to that of the other eight local unions in the council. This case is district court No. 70-520. No significant action was taken in the case until the spring of 1972.

Associated General Contractors of America, Inc., Oklahoma Chapter-Builders Division (Contractors) is an Oklahoma association of building contractors. Early in 1972 District Council notified Contractors that its bargaining committee would meet with their negotiating committee to negotiate the collective bargaining agreements between the Contractors and the locals. Local 612 desired to bargain itself and set up a committee for that purpose. An agreement was reached between the Contractors and Local 612 on March 13, 1972.

On March 27, 1972, the International notified Local 612 that pursuant to Art. IX, § 7 of the International Constitution a hearing would be held on April 10 to determine whether Local 612 should be placed under trusteeship. Three officers of Local 612 appeared at the hearing. The Hearing Panel of the International made specific findings pertaining to the March 13 contract with Contractors, violations of the International's constitution and policies, and other matters. On April 25, the International imposed a trusteeship on Local 612.

On May 3, 1972, the officers of Local 612 filed an answer in the lawsuit which had been pending for nearly two years and in a cross-claim against the International alleged that the imposition of the trusteeship on Local 612 was wrongful. The plaintiffs then amended their complaint to allege the invalidity of the trusteeship and to request an injunction barring the trusteeship. After a hearing, the district court on May 16 entered the requested preliminary injunction.

It should be noted that prior to the negotiations between Local 612 and the Contractors and at a meeting attended by 59 of the over 600 members of Local 612, those present voted 40 to 11 for the appointment of a bargaining committee of its own to negotiate with Contractors. This action occurred in spite of a warning given by the officers of Local 612 that the action would violate the International Constitution. At a July 17 hearing the district court expressed a desire to learn the wishes of the Local 612 membership with regard to its representation in collective bargaining negotiations and directed its magistrate to conduct a meeting of the membership for this purpose. At an August 21 meeting, and after presentation of the conflicting viewpoints, the vote was 157 to 45 in favor of representation by District Council.

On August 8, Contractors brought suit against Local 612 for a declaration under the Labor-Management Relations Act of 1947 (LMRA), 29 U.S.C. § 185(a), that the March 13 agreement between them and Local 612 was valid and binding. This case is district court No. 72-544. The answer of Local 612 admitted the allegations of the complaint and prayed that the contract be upheld and enforced. International then moved to intervene in Contractors' suit and denied the validity of the March 13 contract. The district court permitted the intervention and consolidated action No. 70-520 with action No. 72-544. After a hearing, the court upheld the trusteeship, nullified the contract, and dissolved the preliminary injunction which it had previously granted. See Gordon v. Laborers' International Union of North America, W.D.Okl., 351 F.Supp. 824.

Appellants attack the imposition of the trusteeship. Title III of LMRDA provides for trusteeships over subordinate labor organizations. Its § 302, 29 U.S.C. § 462, says that trusteeships shall be established and administered only in accordance with the constitution and bylaws of the organization which has assumed trusteeship over the subordinate body and for the purpose, among other things, of "assuring the performance of collective bargaining agreements or other duties of a bargaining representative, restoring democratic procedures, or otherwise carrying out the legitimate objects of such labor organization."

After the International's 1966 convention, its General Executive Board ordered that, in the next round of collective bargaining negotiations, health, welfare, and pension plans were to be negotiated for the benefit of all members. District Council took the position that bargaining on these subjects was mandatory under the action of the International. As a result of District Council negotiations all of the Oklahoma locals, except Local 612, became parties to a common Oklahoma Laborers' Health and Welfare Benefit Plan and became covered by the Laborers' Central and Southern States Pension Fund. The March 13 contract between Local 612 and Contractors did not contain the health, welfare, and pension benefits obtained for other Oklahoma locals by the District Council.

Appellants say that our decision in United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America v. Brown, 10 Cir., 343 F.2d 872, is controlling and requires reversal. That case was concerned with the imposition by a national union of a trusteeship over a local union because, among other things, the local had failed to affiliate with a district council. The trial court held that the trusteeship was invalid and this court affirmed.

Brown is distinguishable from the case at bar. In Brown the authority of the national to impose the trusteeship was implied from the general authority found in its constitution and bylaws. The court held, 343 F.2d at 882, that § 302 is not satisfied by a general authority and requires that the "organization's constitution and bylaws set forth the circumstances under which a trusteeship may be established over its local unions and the manner or procedure in which it is to be imposed." In the case at bar the International's constitution specifically set forth the circumstances and procedures under which a trusteeship may be imposed. In our opinion those circumstances and procedures are in accord with the requirements of § 302.

In Brown the trusteeship was imposed because the local would not affiliate with the district council and would not raise its dues. The court pointed out that these actions "have...