International Brotherhood v. United Parcel
Decision Date | 26 April 2006 |
Docket Number | No. 05-5478.,05-5478. |
Parties | INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF TEAMSTERS, AFL-CIO, and Teamsters Local Union No. 2727, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. UNITED PARCEL SERVICE CO., Defendant-Appellee. |
Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit |
Roland Wilder, Jr., Baptiste & Wilder, Washington, D.C., for Appellants. Tony C. Coleman, Frost Brown Todd LLC, Louisville, Kentucky, for Appellee.
ON BRIEF:
Roland Wilder, Jr., Katherine A. McDonough, Baptiste & Wilder, Washington, D.C., for Appellants. Tony C. Coleman, David L. Hoskins, Frost Brown Todd LLC, Louisville, Kentucky, for Appellee.
Before: SILER, SUTTON, and COOK, Circuit Judges.
Section 3 of the Railway Labor Act (RLA), Pub.L. No. 442, 48 Stat. 1185 (1934) ( ), grants adjustment boards exclusive jurisdiction to resolve disputes over the "interpretation or application of [collective bargaining] agreements" affecting the railroad and airline industries. At issue in this case is a claim by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (the union) that it has a right to designate a representative on a safety committee established by its collective bargaining agreement with United Parcel Service (UPS). The district court dismissed the suit, concluding that it fell within the exclusive jurisdiction of the adjustment board. The union responds that the dispute lies outside of the board's exclusive jurisdiction because it involves a dispute between labor and management about the "[d]esignation of representatives." § 2, Third. Concluding that the union has construed the board's exclusive jurisdiction in § 3 too narrowly and the term "representatives" in § 2, Third too broadly, we affirm.
The union represents maintenance technicians and other workers employed by UPS at 88 "gateways" across the country (hubs for the company's airborne shipping business). UPS and the union entered into a collective bargaining agreement that established, among other things, a safety committee at each of the larger gateways. Representatives of both parties sit on these safety committees, where they work together to address the safety concerns of employees at the gateways. At gateways with fewer than 20 employees, the Local 2727 Safety Committee chairman works with UPS's safety manager to resolve employee safety concerns.
In April 2003, Local 2727 hired John J. Tulipana, Jr. to be (1) its Safety Committee Chair and (2) the Union Chair of the Louisville Gateway Safety Committee. UPS, however, refused to acknowledge Tulipana as chair of the Louisville Committee, arguing that the collective bargaining agreement mandated that a UPS employee hold the position. On November 3, 2003, the union filed this lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Western District of Kentucky, seeking a declaratory judgment and injunctive relief under § 3 of the Railway Labor Act. Claiming that UPS had refused "to `treat' with Mr. Tulipana on health and safety issues," the union complained that "UPS has interfered with its employees' choice of representative and has violated § 2, Third and Fourth of the Act." JA 9. UPS filed a motion to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction, which the district court granted. Even if UPS had failed to "treat with" Tulipana in this safety committee position, the district court held that "the dispute . . . qualified as `minor' under the Railway Labor Act [and] was committed to the exclusive jurisdiction of the system adjustment board." D. Ct. Op. at 24, 26.
The union appealed. We give fresh review to a district court's decision to dismiss a suit for lack of statutory jurisdiction. Airline Prof'ls Ass'n of the Int'l Bhd. of Teamsters v. ABX Air, Inc., 274 F.3d 1023, 1027 (6th Cir.2001).
Enacted in 1926, the Railway Labor Act was designed to "avoid any interruption to commerce or to the operation of any [railroad] engaged therein" caused by labor-management disputes. 45 U.S.C. § 151a(1); see also H.R.Rep. No. 328, at 1 (1926) ( ). In 1936, Congress extended the Act to "every common carrier by air engaged in interstate or foreign commerce." Act of April 10, 1936, Pub.L. No. 487, 49 Stat. 1189 (codified at 45 U.S.C. § 181).
In attempting to prevent labor disputes from crippling freight and passenger delivery in the railway and airline industries, the Act divides labor disputes into four categories: representation disputes, major disputes, minor disputes and collateral disputes governed by independent state or federal laws. Representation disputes are governed by § 2, Ninth of the Act and address conflicts that arise before certification of a union and that concern who will represent employees in future labor negotiations. See Virginian Ry. Co. v. System Federation No. 40, Ry. Employees, 300 U.S. 515, 543, 57 S.Ct. 592, 81 L.Ed. 789 (1937) (); see also W. Airlines, Inc. v. Int'l Bhd. of Teamsters, 480 U.S. 1301, 1302-03, 107 S.Ct. 1515, 94 L.Ed.2d 744 (1987) (O'Connor, Circuit Justice) () (internal quotation marks omitted).
"Major disputes" occur after certification "over the formation of collective agreements or efforts to secure them" and Elgin, Joliet & E. Ry. Co. v. Burley, 325 U.S. 711, 723, 65 S.Ct. 1282, 89 L.Ed. 1886 (1945); see also Pittsburgh & Lake Erie R.R. Co. v. Ry. Labor Executives' Ass'n, 491 U.S. 490, 496 n. 4, 109 S.Ct. 2584, 105 L.Ed.2d 415 (1989) (); Burlington N. R.R. Co. v. Bhd. of Maint. of Way Employees, 481 U.S. 429, 432, 107 S.Ct. 1841, 95 L.Ed.2d 381 (1987) () (citation and quotation marks omitted); Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe R.R. Co. v. Ruell, 480 U.S. 557, 562-63, 107 S.Ct. 1410, 94 L.Ed.2d 563 (1987) ( )(internal quotation marks and brackets omitted).
A minor dispute Burley, 325 U.S. at 723, 65 S.Ct. 1282; see also Hawaiian Airlines v. Norris, 512 U.S. 246, 252-54, 114 S.Ct. 2239, 129 L.Ed.2d 203 (1994) () (internal quotation marks and citation omitted); Pittsburgh & Lake Erie R.R. Co., 491 U.S. at 496, 109 S.Ct. 2584 (); Buell, 480 U.S. at 563, 107 S.Ct. 1410 () (internal quotation marks omitted); cf. Conrail v. Ry. Labor Executives' Ass'n, 491 U.S. 299, 302, 109 S.Ct. 2477, 105 L.Ed.2d 250 (1989) (); id. at 307, 109 S.Ct. 2477 () .
Finally, disputes over rights granted by other provisions of federal and state law, which are not otherwise covered by any of the previous dispute categories, are largely unaffected by the Act. Hawaiian Airlines, 512 U.S. at 260, 114 S.Ct. 2239 (); id. at 265-66, 114...
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