International Chemical Workers Union v. Day & Zimmermann, Inc.
| Decision Date | 09 June 1986 |
| Docket Number | No. 85-2471,85-2471 |
| Citation | 791 F.2d 366 |
| Parties | 122 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2577, 104 Lab.Cas. P 11,922 INTERNATIONAL CHEMICAL WORKERS UNION And Local 526 of the International Chemical Workers Union, Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. DAY & ZIMMERMANN, INC., Defendant-Appellant. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit |
LeRoy Autrey, Texarkana, Ark., for defendant-appellant.
Salvatore J. Falletta, Gen. Counsel, Akron, Ohio, for plaintiffs-appellees.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.
Before WILLIAMS, GARWOOD and JONES, Circuit Judges.
The International Chemical Workers Union and Local 526 (union) brought this action against Day & Zimmermann, Inc. (company) pursuant to Sec. 301 of the Labor Management Relations Act, 29 U.S.C. Sec. 185, to enforce an arbitrator's award in a labor dispute. The district court granted enforcement. We affirm.
The union is the exclusive bargaining representative for certain production, inspection, stores, and maintenance employees of the company at the U.S. Government-owned and U.S. Army-controlled Lone Star Army Ammunition Plant. The plant is located within a federal enclave near Texarkana, Texas.
In 1980, the union filed a grievance contending that the company had violated the 1978-81 collective bargaining agreement. The grievance complained of "work being done by subcontractors of digging out and other related work in maintenance of street work on the plant site..." The union's complaint was based upon the contention that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was performing road work which was customarily performed by bargaining unit employees. The company responded that it had no control over the decisions of the Army Corps of Engineers as to the work it would do. Thus there was no violation of the contract.
This grievance was taken to arbitration by the union under the terms of the labor contract. The arbitrator found that the company had not subcontracted any street work, but, nevertheless, the company had violated the agreement when the U.S. Army did work customarily done by bargaining unit employees. The arbitrator found that this constituted a breach of Article II Sec. 4 of the agreement, which provides in pertinent part:
No persons excluded from the bargaining unit shall be permitted any of the work customarily done by those employees included in the bargaining unit.
The company refused to accept the arbitrator's award, and the union brought suit in district court for enforcement. The district court enforced the award, emphasizing the deference that must be given an arbitrator's decision. Because the arbitrator had not yet made a concrete award of damages, the district court remanded the grievance to the arbitrator to fashion an appropriate monetary remedy. The arbitrator was also directed to determine whether the award would include compensation for violations under collective bargaining agreements entered into subsequent to the expiration of the 1978-81 agreement.
On appeal to this Court, the company argues that the district court erred in upholding the arbitrator's award because: (1) the grievance was not arbitrable; (2) the arbitrator's award did not draw its "essence" from the contract; and (3) the court overstepped its authority in remanding to the arbitrator the issue of whether the award would apply to collective bargaining agreements subsequent to the 1978-81 agreement.
As the Supreme Court established in the Steelworkers trilogy, 1 a court reviewing an arbitration award may not address issues that go to the "intrinsic merits" of a dispute, and must limit its review to (1) whether the subject matter of the dispute is "arguably arbitrable"; and (2) whether the award draws its "essence" from the collective bargaining agreement. See International Ass'n of Machinists v. Texas Steel, 639 F.2d 279, 281 (5th Cir.1981).
The company contends that the dispute was not arbitrable. The company first argues that the grievance complained only of the company's subcontracting work, not work performed by the U.S. Army. We note that "labor grievances are not subject to the same niceties of pleading applicable in federal courts; and that ... substance must prevail over procedural technicalities." Id. at 282. Of substantial weight is the fact that in a conference with the arbitrator concerning the scope of the grievance before him, counsel for the company expressly gave the arbitrator authority to frame the issue when he stated:
I think possibly the best thing to do is to let the arbitrator hear it, and when he writes his opinion to decide what the issue is.
The arbitrator characterized the issue posed as whether the company had breached the labor agreement when work "within the plant site was performed by persons not in the bargaining unit ..." It is appropriate for "the arbitrator to decide just what the issue was that was submitted to it and argued by the parties." Waverly Mineral Products Co. v. United Steelworkers of America, 633 F.2d 682, 685 (5th Cir.1980). Of course, if the arbitrator in his opinion stated the issue in terms far beyond his authority, this statement of the issue could not control. We find, however, that the arbitrator stated the issue within his interpretation of the scope of the contract. The parties, knowing the nature of the grievance, gave the arbitrator the authority to decide it. The company did not waive a claim of arbitrability but certainly seemed to accept the scope of the grievance as valid.
The company urges that the grievance was not arbitrable because the authority of the U.S. Army to perform work was not a matter covered by the collective bargaining agreement. The agreement includes a broad arbitration provision. It defines "grievance" as "any misunderstanding, controversy or dispute between the company and the union, or between the company and the employees over the interpretation or application of the terms of this agreement." Article IX of the agreement provides that "any matter that is not adjusted" may be arbitrated "upon written request."
When a labor contract contains an arbitration clause, Warrior & Gulf, 363 U.S. at 582-83, 80 S.Ct. 1353, 4 L.Ed.2d at 1417-18, quoted with approval in AT & T Technologies v. Comm. Workers of America, --- U.S. ----, 106 S.Ct. 1415, 89 L.Ed.2d 648 (1986). The fact that the U.S. Army performed work customarily done by bargaining unit members can be viewed rationally as a potential violation of Article II Sec. 4 of the contract. 2 We conclude in the next section of this opinion that the arbitrator's award drew its "essence" from the contract. We cannot say that the arbitration clause was not susceptible of an interpretation which covered this dispute.
In addition, no language in the contract can be said clearly to have excluded this grievance from the broad arbitration provision. "In the absence of any express provision excluding a particular grievance from arbitration ... only the most forceful evidence of a purpose to exclude the claim from arbitration can prevail...." Warrior & Gulf, 363 U.S. at 584-85, 80 S.Ct. at 1354, 4 L.Ed.2d at 1419. The company presented no evidence that this grievance was intended by the parties to be excluded from the arbitration provision. We agree with the district court that "it is settled beyond peradventure that this grievance was 'on its face' governed by the collective bargaining agreement."
The company's second objection to the arbitrator's award is that it did not draw its "essence" from the bargaining agreement. In determining whether an award arises from the "essence" of a labor contract, the contract should be interpreted "expansively so as to uphold the award, rather than restrictively." International Ass'n of Machinists v. Texas Steel Co., 538 F.2d 1116, 1121 (5th Cir.1976), cert. denied 429 U.S. 1095, 97 S.Ct. 1110, 51 L.Ed.2d 542 (1977). All that is necessary to pass muster is that it is "rationally inferable" that in "some logical way" the award was "derived from ... the contract." Brotherhood of RR Train v. Central of Georgia Ry. Co., 415 F.2d 403, 412 (5th Cir.1969), cert. denied, 396 U.S. 1008, 90 S.Ct. 564, 24 L.Ed.2d 500 (1970). Even if this court disagrees with the arbitrator's award, we must uphold it unless it is so "palpably faulty that no judge ... could ever conceivably have made such a ruling ..." Safeway Stores v. American Bakery & Confectionary Workers, 390 F.2d 79, 82 (5th Cir.1968).
The company contends first that the persons defined as "excluded" from the bargaining unit under Article I Sec. 2 3 of the agreement are meant to be the same people to whom Article II Sec. 4--which outlaws work by "excluded" persons--applies. Because the U.S. Army is not listed as "excluded" from the bargaining unit under Art. I Sec. 2, the company concludes that Art. II Sec. 4 is inapplicable to work done by the Army.
The company's view is a possible interpretation of the agreement. Article I Sec. 2, however, is not a definitional section for the entire contract. It is a more reasonable interpretation that Art. I Sec. 2 is merely a provision defining bargaining unit lines, while Art. II Sec. 4 is a totally separate provision dealing with subcontracting. The company's interpretation, if accepted, would mean that Article II Sec. 4 did not limit subcontracting at all except to very limited number of defined employees. This conclusion would fly in the face of a main purpose of such clauses. These clauses are intended to prohibit or regulate the "subcontracting out" of work to independent contractors and their employees. Thus, the arbitrator's award...
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