INTERN. BROTH. OF BOILER MAKERS v. Local Lodge D31

• Decision Date: 03 August 1988
• Docket Number: Civ. No. PN-87-3442.
• Citation: 694 F. Supp. 1203
• Parties: INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF BOILERMAKERS, IRON SHIP BUILDERS, BLACKSMITHS, FORGERS AND HELPERS, AFL-CIO; Allan Stubna, as International Trustee of Local Lodge D31 of the Cement, Lime, Gypsum, and Allied Workers Division of the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, Iron Ship Builders, Blacksmiths, Forgers and Helpers, AFL-CIO. v. LOCAL LODGE D31 OF the CEMENT, LIME, GYPSUM AND ALLIED WORKERS DIVISION OF the INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF BOILERMAKERS, IRON SHIP BUILDERS, BLACKSMITHS, FORGERS AND HELPERS, AFL-CIO, James E. Harris; William A. Sprague; J. Kenneth Black.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Maryland

694 F. Supp. 1203

INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF BOILERMAKERS, IRON SHIP BUILDERS, BLACKSMITHS, FORGERS AND HELPERS, AFL-CIO; Allan Stubna, as International Trustee of Local Lodge D31 of the Cement, Lime, Gypsum, and Allied Workers Division of the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, Iron Ship Builders, Blacksmiths, Forgers and Helpers, AFL-CIO. v. LOCAL LODGE D31 OF the CEMENT, LIME, GYPSUM AND ALLIED WORKERS DIVISION OF the INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF BOILERMAKERS, IRON SHIP BUILDERS, BLACKSMITHS, FORGERS AND HELPERS, AFL-CIO, James E. Harris; William A. Sprague; J. Kenneth Black.

Civ. No. PN-87-3442.

United States District Court, D. Maryland.

August 3, 1988.

Richard Zeff, Pfiefer and Fabian, Baltimore, Md., Michael J. Stapp, Blake & Uhlig, Kansas City, Kan., for plaintiffs.

Robert Rothstein, Meranze & Katz, Philadelphia, Pa., Victoria Hedian, Abato, Rubenstein & Abato, Lutherville, Md., for defendants.

MEMORANDUM

NIEMEYER, District Judge.

Plaintiffs, International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, Iron Ship Builders, Blacksmiths, Forgers and Helpers (hereafter the IBB) and Allan Stubna, the IBB appointed trustee for Local Lodge D31, commenced this action against Local Lodge D31 of the IBB, James E. Harris, William A. Sprague, and J. Kenneth Black, its officers, to enforce a trusteeship over Local Lodge D31 pursuant to Article XVIII, Section 1 of the IBB Constitution. An evidentiary hearing was held in open court on June 13, 1988 on plaintiffs' motion for a preliminary injunction to enforce the trusteeship. At the conclusion of the hearing the Court announced it would grant the motion to establish the trusteeship and directed that the defendants provide plaintiffs with copies of books and records of Local Lodge D31. The Court also froze existing bank accounts. After receiving a proposed order from counsel, the Court entered an order on August 1, 1988.

The reasons for that order are given herein.

I

Plaintiff IBB is an international labor organization that represents employees throughout the United States for purposes of collective bargaining with, among others, the Lehigh Portland Cement Company. Plaintiff's headquarters and principal place of business are in Kansas City, Kansas. Plaintiff Allan Stubna is an employee of the IBB who was appointed by the IBB as the Trustee of Local Lodge D31. He joined as a plaintiff in his official capacity.

Defendant Local Lodge D31 is a certified local labor organization at the Lehigh Portland Cement Company facility in Union Bridge, Maryland. The Lehigh cement facility is one of eight Lehigh cement plants in the United States, the locals of which are combined to form the Lehigh Joint Conference for purposes of bargaining with the Lehigh Portland Cement Company. Defendant James Harris is President of Local Lodge D31; defendant William Sprague is Recording Secretary; and defendant Kenneth Black is Financial Secretary. They have been sued in their official capacity.

Prior to 1984, Local Lodge D31 was affiliated with the Cement, Lime, Gypsum and Allied Workers International Union (hereafter the CWI). On April 1, 1984 the CWI merged with the IBB. Pursuant to the terms of the Merger Agreement and the amendments to the Constitution of the IBB which were agreed to, the Lehigh Joint Conference remained, but with the IBB instead of the CWI as bargaining agent. Under the merger agreement, joint officers were to be selected and the CWI was entitled to elect one international vice president. Each union member would pay a per capita tax in the amount of 1.65 times the base rate (as opposed to 1.0 paid by CWI members prior to the merger). The implementation of the agreements in electing officers was to take place at the bi-annual convention of the IBB in August, 1986.

Problems resulting from the merger first arose in August, 1986, at the IBB bi-annual convention. There was disagreement over who was eligible to vote for one of the vice presidents, and as a result the former president of the CWI was not elected to a vice presidency of the IBB. Following the convention, he and those who had supported him, formed a new union known as Independent Workers of North America (IWNA), which has sought to become the new bargaining agent for IBB local lodges that used to be local unions of the CWI.

After months of mounting dissatisfaction over the election procedures, which defendants characterize as undemocratic, officers and members of Local Lodge D31 resolved to disaffiliate from the IBB and to affiliate with the IWNA at a meeting on May 20, 1987. The 29 members present at the meeting signed a resolution to that effect, and the petition was then circulated to other workers at the plant for an additional 83 signatures, representing almost three-quarters of the membership of Local Lodge D31. There is no evidence that Local Lodge D31 ever advised the IBB of this vote.

Soon after the petition was signed, Local Lodge 31 began calling itself Local 31 IWNA (Local 31). It stopped paying the per capita tax to the IBB and opened a new checking account in the name of "Cement Workers Local 31." Monthly dues collected after May 1987 were deposited in this new account. None of the funds in the preexisting checking and savings accounts of Local Lodge D31 were transferred to the new account. However, monies in the original accounts of Local Lodge D31 were used to pay operating expenses of Local 31 after May 1987 and to pay dues to the AFL-CIO. (The IBB is affiliated with the AFL-CIO, but the IWNA is not.) Some monies from the original account were also spent in sending several members of Local 31 to a meeting with IWNA officials in Las Vegas in August 1987. The two accounts predating the opening of the new account in May 1987 are now exhausted, and all monies are held in the new account in the name of "Cement Workers Local 31." No payments have ever been made to the IWNA from any of the accounts.

Officers of Local 31 who testified at the preliminary injunction hearing said they believed that Local Lodge D31 had become Local 31 of the IWNA after the May 1987 meeting. While the IBB was never advised of this, James E. Harris, President of Local 31, did write Mr. Henry Brechtholdt, International Vice President of the IBB on July 14, 1987, notifying him that Local 31 would not be party to any agreement negotiated between the IBB and Lehigh Portland Cement Company, and any authority given to the IBB to negotiate was withdrawn. Harris sent a copy of the letter to officials of Lehigh Portland Cement Company. This may have been the first indication that the IBB had of the Local's intention to disaffiliate from the IBB and affiliate with the IWNA.

After unsuccessful attempts were made by representatives of the IBB to persuade Local 31 to reconsider its actions, IBB President Charles Jones placed Local Lodge D31 under trusteeship, effective September 1, 1987, pursuant to Article XVIII of the IBB Constitution giving him authority to place a subordinate body in trusteeship in "emergency (situations) imminently threatening the welfare, funds, or property of the subordinate body." Allan Stubna was appointed trustee with full authority to manage and direct the affairs of Local Lodge D31. He promptly removed defendants Harris, Sprague, and Black from office and asked for the books, records, properties, funds and assets of Local Lodge D31 (which the officers refused to do up to the day of the court hearing). A hearing was scheduled to be held before the Executive Council of the IBB on September 15, 1987 to determine whether or not grounds existed for continuation of the trusteeship. In moving to establish a trusteeship, the IBB charged Local Lodge D31 with (1) promoting dual unionism, (2) pursuing disaffiliation, (3) failing to perform their duties, (4) failing to submit reports and per capita tax payments, and (5) possibly committing financial malpractice. Defendants elected not to attend the hearing on September 15, 1987, and the trusteeship was ratified, mainly on the basis that Local Lodge D31 failed to send in the per capita tax payments and misused treasury monies to finance discussions with the IWNA. IBB officials also assumed (incorrectly, as it turns out) that the Local was paying dues to the IWNA.

Notwithstanding the trusteeship, officers and members of Local 31 met again on October 12, 1987 to ratify their earlier decision of May 20, 1987 to disaffiliate. A secret ballot was taken, with a vote of 94 to 10 (with two votes discounted) in favor of disaffiliation. The IBB was not formally advised of this action.

Despite these moves to disaffiliate from the IBB, Local 31 filed an unfair labor practice charge with the NLRB against Lehigh Portland Cement Company in April 1988, denominating itself as an affiliate of the IBB. President Harris explained that he did this without consulting a lawyer and because the NLRB still recognized Local 31 as an affiliate of the IBB. He insists, however, that he and the other members of Local 31 think of themselves as belonging to the IWNA, even though the Local remains certified as a local of the IBB. He and other members of the Local admit to having engaged in some of the conduct cited by the IBB as justification for imposing a trusteeship, but they insist that the reasons given by the IBB for imposing the trusteeship are basically a pretext for the IBB's real purpose of preventing disaffiliation. Defendants do not challenge the procedures that were followed in imposing the trusteeship as improper procedures.

II

At the outset, defendants argue that this Court is without jurisdiction to enforce the trusteeship since it is a matter that is properly within the jurisdiction of the NLRB. In making this jurisdictional argument, defendants characterize this case as one involving issues of representation (i.e. the choice of representatives to engage in collective bargaining with an employer on behalf of the employees). The National Labor Relations Act vests exclusive...