Ind. v. Bergen Ave. Bus Owners' Ass'n.

• Decision Date: 27 June 1949
• Docket Number: No. 7231.,7231.
• Citation: 67 A.2d 362
• Parties: INTERNATIONAL ASS'N OF MACHINISTS, LODGE 1292, IND. v. BERGEN AVE. BUS OWNERS' ASS'N.
• Court: New Jersey Superior Court

67 A.2d 362

INTERNATIONAL ASS'N OF MACHINISTS, LODGE 1292, IND.

v.BERGEN AVE. BUS OWNERS' ASS'N.

No. 7231.

Superior Court of New Jersey, Law Division.

June 27, 1949.

Application by the International Association of Machinists, Lodge 1292, Ind., for the confirmation of a arbitration award made pursuant to a submission agreement executed by the union and the Bergen Avenue Bus Owners' Association.

Award confirmed.

Alfred L. Goldstein, Jersey City, for applicant.

Thomas J. Armstrong, Jersey City, for respondent.

WM. J. BRENNAN, Jr., J.S.C.

Applicant labor union moves to confirm an arbitration award made pursuant to a submission agreement executed by the union and respondent employers' association to resolve a labor dispute as to wage increases.

The employers' association is the bargaining agent for the several owners of buses operating on the Bergen Avenue bus route in Jersey City, and the union represents the drivers employed on the buses.

A collective bargaining agreement effective from April 1, 1946 contained wage provisions including the following clauses of Section 2A pertinent here:

‘Section 2A. Wages:

‘The ‘Operators' and the Owners agree that on certain of the motor buses on the Bergen Avenue route there are operators who are presently employed for but five (5) days during each week, and that there are certain other operators whose work week consists of six days. It is agreed also that the usual work day for all operators shall be nine and three-quarters hours (9 3/4) hours.

‘The wage scale for steady operators shall be eighty-six (86¢) cents per hour for the first eight and one-half hours (8 1/2) hours in each day of employment and time and one-half the regular rate of pay for all work performed in excess of eight and one-half hours per day.

‘Provided, However, that a minimum weekly wage of fifty-three dollars and fifty cents ($53.50) per week shall be paid to operators who work six days, consisting of the usual nine and three-quarter (9 3/4) hours or an aggregate of fifty-eight and one-half (58 1/2) per six day work week;

‘And Provided, However, that a minimum weekly wage of Forty-four Dollars and sixty cents ($44.60) per week shall be paid to operators who work five days, consisting of the usual nine and three-quarter (9 3/4) hours or an aggregate of forty eight and three quarters hours (48 3/4) per five day work week.’

The agreement was amended as of April 1, 1947 and, as amended, carried forward the quoted clauses of Section 2A, changed, however, to increase the basic hourly wage rate from 86 cents to 90.76 cents per hour and to reflect this by increasing the minimum weekly wages from $53.50 to $56.50 for six day operators, and from $44.60 to $47.10 for five day operators.

The minimum weekly wage of the six day drivers was computed as the sum of 58-1/2 hours (6 days X 9-3/4 hours per day) at straight time plus overtime of 7-1/2 hours (6 days X 1-1/4 hours per day) at one-half straight time, or a total of 62-1/4 straight time hours. The minimum weekly wage of the five day drivers was arrived at by adding 48-3/4 hours (5 days X 9-3/4 hours per day) to overtime of 6-1/4 hours (5 days at 1-1/4 hours per day) at one-half straight time, or a total of 51-7/8 straight time hours. The parties stipulated at the argument that because of the intricacies of operating schedules drivers on occasions do not work a full trick of 9-3/4 hours but nevertheless are paid the straight and overtime compensation for a full day.

The 1947 amendment to the collective bargaining contract also amended Section 17 of the original agreement to read as follows:

‘Section 17.

‘This agreement shall be in full force and effect, notwithstanding the date of the execution thereof from April 1, 1947 until and including March 31, 1949 and shall be automatically renewed from year to year thereafter unless either party give notice to the other, in writing, not less than sixty days (60) prior to the anniversary date thereof and of its intention to terminate the contract, Excepting, However, that in the event that the owners of buses on the Bergen Avenue Route in Jersey City obtain permission to charge a greater rate of fare than five cents (5¢) per one way trip, prior to the expiration date of this agreement, the wage provision in this contract may be reopened upon thirty (30) days notice of intention so to do by the operators given to the owners, otherwise this contract and all of the terms and conditions herein contained and in the contract of September 10, 1946, which was heretofore made a part hereof, therein contained, shall remain in full force and effect for the said period, to wit, to and including March 31, 1949.’

The Board of Public Utility Commissioners permitted the bus owners to increase the bus fare from 5 cents to 7 cents effective July 4, 1948. The Union promptly demanded negotiations for a wage increase under the reopening provision of the amended Section 17. Negotiations ensued over a period of months but without result. The parties then agreed to arbitrate the issue and invoked the aid of the State Board of Mediation to facilitate the arbitration. On October 26, 1948 a submission agreement was executed on the standard form employed by the State Board and reads as follows:

‘We, the undersigned, hereby agree to submit the following controversy to arbitration:

‘What increase, if any, under Section 17 of the supplementary agreement between the parties shall be given to the operators for the Bergen Avenue Bus Owners' Association; if an increase is granted should it be retroactive and, if so, to what date?

‘A collective bargaining contract exists between Bergen Avenue Bus Owners' Association and Int'l Association of Machinists, Lodge 1292, Ind. a copy of which is annexed hereto.

‘We hereby agree to submit such controversy for decision to:

‘Maurice S. Trotta

‘We further agree that we will faithfully abide by and perform any award made pursuant to this agreement, and that such award shall be binding and conclusive upon us.’

A hearing was held and the arbitrator took testimony as to the pros and cons of the merits of the Union's wage demand. On February 11, 1949 he filed a written opinion and made an award as follows: ‘After taking into consideration the general pattern of wage increases in the bus transportation industry in Northern New Jersey area, the wage rates of the Bergen Avenue Line as compared with the wage rates paid by other bus companies, and the increased cost of living I award a wage increase of twenty cents per hour retroactive to August 16, 1948.’

The owners first argue that this was an arbitration under the Public Utilities Labor Disputes Act, R.S. 34:13B-1 et seq., N.J.S.A., and is unenforceable because that law was declared wholly unconstitutional. State v. Traffic Telephone Workers Federation, et al., 2 N.J. 335, 66 A.2d 616 (1949). That case held the statute to be unconstitutional because it delegated legislative power to an administrative agency (a statutory arbitration board) without providing adequate standards to guide the agency's deliberations. The Legislature on June 16, 1949 promptly amended the statute to remedy this defect. Laws 1949, chapter 308, First Special Session, Senate 4, N.J.S.A.. 34:13B-27 to 29.

The owner's point has no merit. The arbitration proceeding which resulted in the award before the court was not a statutory compulsory arbitration under the Labor Disputes Law but was a voluntary arbitration under an agreement freely executed by the parties. It may be that the owners view it as an agreement they had to make to escape seizure of their properties and compulsory arbitration under the statute, but, if so, this does not make the submission agreement an involuntary deed. In fact the whole scheme of the Public Utilities Labor Disputes Act emphasizes the desirability of the employment of voluntary techniques to settle public utility labor disputes and contemplates the use of compulsory procedures only as a last resort when necessary to protect the paramount public interest. The whole context of the statute emphasizes that industrial peace in the utilities field should be maintained through intelligent and reasoned use of the voluntary tools of negotiation, conciliation, mediation and voluntary arbitration. The sanctions of seizure and compulsory arbitration and the attendant prohibitions of stoppages and strikes are invoked only when the paramount public interest is threatened by an actual or imminent interference with service. No interference with service existed or was threatened at the time the parties entered into the arbitration agreement; at least the prerequisite executive proclamation as to the existence of an emergency required under the act before the compulsory arbitration sections come into play was not promulgated by the Governor. The effect of the signing of the voluntary submission was to postpone if not to avoid the creation of a situation of a threat to the public interest through interruption of service, the existence of which is the essential ingredient to the operation of the compulsory sanctions of the statute.

There remains to be considered the source of the Court's authority to confirm this award, and whether, if the power exists, it should be exercised favorably to the motion on the facts presented.

There are two voluntary arbitration statutes which refer expressly to labor disputes and three general statutes which apply both to commercial and labor disputes.

The labor disputes arbitration statutes are R.S. 34:13-1 to 9, N.J.S.A., Laws 1886, p. 315 et seq., and R.S. 34:13A-7, N.J.S.A., Laws 1941, c. 100, p. 231. The former is expressly limited to labor disputes between employers and employees ‘engaged in manufacturing’ and is not pertinent here. The latter is a section of the New Jersey Labor Mediation Act and while it provides that a labor controversy not settled by negotiation or mediation under the act ‘may, by agreement of the parties, be...