Jackson v. Liquid Carbonic Corp., 87-2073

• Decision Date: 06 April 1988
• Docket Number: No. 87-2073,87-2073
• Citation: 863 F.2d 111
• Parties: 130 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2143, 57 USLW 2353, 110 Lab.Cas. P 10,848, 3 Indiv.Empl.Rts.Cas. 1825 George JACKSON, Plaintiff, Appellant, v. LIQUID CARBONIC CORPORATION, et al., Defendants, Appellees. . Heard
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit

Page 111

863 F.2d 111

130 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2143, 57 USLW 2353,

110 Lab.Cas. P 10,848,

3 Indiv.Empl.Rts.Cas. 1825

George JACKSON, Plaintiff, Appellant, v. LIQUID CARBONIC CORPORATION, et al., Defendants, Appellees.

No. 87-2073.

United States Court of Appeals, First Circuit.

Heard April 6, 1988.

Decided Dec. 1, 1988.

As Amended Dec. 13, 1988.

As Amended on Denial of Rehearing and Rehearing En Banc Dec. 29, 1988.

Gail Strassfeld with whom Judith Mizner, Silverglate, Gertner, Fine, Good & Mizner, and Marjorie Heins, Massachusetts Civil Liberties Union Foundation, Boston, Mass., were on brief for plaintiff, appellant.

Kathleen Edwards with whom Norman Holtz, Holtz and Gilman, P.C. and Brian P. Curtis, Corporate Counsel, Boston, Mass., were on brief for defendants, appellees.

Before COFFIN, BOWNES and SELYA, Circuit Judges.

SELYA, Circuit Judge.

This appeal presents a narrow question, but one of considerable significance. It requires that we decide whether an ex-employee's state-law claims for invasion of privacy, mounted in the wake of the employer's unilateral inauguration of a drug-testing program (on the supposed authority of a collective bargaining agreement), are preempted by the terms and tenor of section 301 of the Labor Management Relations Act, 29 U.S.C. Sec. 185 (1982). ¹ The district court answered this inquiry in the affirmative, and dismissed the former employee's suit. Although we regard the question as close, we believe that the district court reached the appropriate result. We therefore affirm.

I. BACKGROUND

Beginning in 1976, plaintiff-appellant George Jackson toiled for defendant-appellee Liquid Carbonic Corporation (L-Corp), principally as a truckdriver. At all times material hereto, L-Corp and Local 49, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen, and Helpers, were parties to a collective bargaining agreement (Agreement), and Jackson, a union member, was part of the bargaining unit. By early 1986, plaintiff was working out of appellee's terminal in Tewksbury, Massachusetts and was engaged in hauling pressurized gases--materials which were invariably volatile, often hazardous, and deserving of cautious handling. It was work of a kind where, one suspects, there might be old practitioners, and there might be bold practitioners--but there would likely be few (if any) old, bold practitioners.

In compliance with regulations issued by the Federal Highway Safety Administration, see 49 C.F.R. Sec. 391.41 (1987), L-Corp's truckdrivers were required to submit to biennial medical examinations. The examination necessitated, inter alia, that a urine specimen be taken and a urinalysis performed to check for diabetes. See 49 C.F.R. Sec. 391.43 (1987). But in March 1985, appellee added a new wrinkle; it disseminated a document entitled "Transportation Bulletin I-13" in which it announced that the urine samples would thereafter be screened not only for diabetes, but for the presence of alcohol and various narcotic drugs. L-Corp then distributed consent forms and notified the drivers that permitting these tests to be performed was a condition of continued employment.

Neither Local 49 nor plaintiff challenged the broadened protocol when management inaugurated it. Rather, Jackson signed the consent form, reported for his next scheduled examination several months after the format was amended, and gave a urine specimen. The new tests were performed. On February 13, 1986, Jackson was informed that traces of marijuana had been detected. A week later, notwithstanding his denial of all marijuana use, he was dismissed. Plaintiff requested an "independent" drug test. The employer declined. The firing stood.

At this juncture, we refer to the pertinent provisions of the Agreement. The union pact was in effect both in 1985 (when the drug-testing program was announced) and in 1986 (when appellant underwent his medical examination). Article XXI comprised a fairly standard "management rights" clause, giving L-Corp "the right to post reasonable rules and regulations from time to time...." Article XII rendered all disputes "involving the meaning, application, or interpretation of, or compliance with, the provisions of" the Agreement subject to mandatory grievance and arbitration procedures. Jackson never pursued the grievance procedures available to him thereunder, although, shortly after his discharge, representatives of Local 49 met with management to discuss the situation. After the lone informational meeting, and in the absence of any formal complaint by the aggrieved employee, the union took no further action.

The matter, however, was far from over. That December, appellant brought an action in a Massachusetts state court seeking, inter alia, an injunction barring further drug testing and an award of damages. L-Corp removed the case to the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts. Because of the acknowledged presence of diversity of citizenship and a controversy in the requisite amount, 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1332(a), jurisdiction is not in issue. ²

Jackson's complaint alleged that his employer had coerced him into providing the urine sample, then wrongfully tested it for evidence of drug ingestion, leading to the supposed detection of marijuana and the end of his job tenure. He fashioned three statements of claim, which may be paraphrased as follows:

1. The search and seizure of his urine without any previous suspicion of drug use violated the Massachusetts Civil Rights Act (MCRA), Mass.Gen.L. ch. 12, Secs. 11H-11I, by interfering with his rights to privacy and to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures, as secured by both the state and federal constitutions (Count I).

2. The seizure and testing of his urine constituted an unreasonable invasion of his privacy in violation of Mass.Gen.L. ch. 214, Sec. 1B (Count II).

3. His dismissal was contrary to public policy and, under state law, comprised a wrongful discharge (Count III).

Contending that all of Jackson's causes of action were preempted by section 301, see supra note 1, defendant moved to dismiss the suit for failure to state any cognizable claim. Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6). After extensive briefing and argument, the district court granted the motion. This appeal ensued. In its course, Jackson waived any error in the dismissal of Count III, see Reply Brief at 15, so we need not concern ourselves with the state-law wrongful termination claim.

II. DISCUSSION

In this instance, the language of section 301 is not, in and of itself, dispositive. Thus, in considering whether appellant's remaining claims are preempted by the statute, we must pay great heed to Congress' intent. See Puerto Rico Dep't of Consumer Affairs v. Isla Petroleum Corp., --- U.S. ----, 108 S.Ct. 1350, 1354, 99 L.Ed.2d 582 (1988); Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. v. Massachusetts, 471 U.S. 724, 738, 105 S.Ct. 2380, 2388, 85 L.Ed.2d 728 (1985). Our task in construing the statutory language is "to interpret the words of the[ ] statute[ ] in light of the purposes Congress sought to serve." Chapman v. Houston Welfare Rights Organization, 441 U.S. 600, 608, 99 S.Ct. 1905, 1911, 60 L.Ed.2d 508 (1979).

The Supreme Court has long recognized that the breadth of section 301 is no accident, but is commensurate with an overreaching congressional purpose: to "authoriz[e] federal courts to create a body of federal law for the enforcement of collective bargaining agreements--'which law the courts must fashion from the policy of our national labor laws.' " IBEW v. Hechler, 481 U.S. 851, 107 S.Ct. 2161, 2165, 95 L.Ed.2d 791 (1987) (quoting Textile Workers v. Lincoln Mills, 353 U.S. 448, 456, 77 S.Ct. 912, 917, 1 L.Ed.2d 972 (1957)). The reason Congress tendered such a wide-ranging ministry to the federal courts was not only to promote the creation of a uniform body of federal labor law, but also to ensure that, when developed, the resultant rules would be applied through the grievance procedures agreed upon between unions and management. See Teamsters v. Lucas Flour Co., 369 U.S. 95, 104, 82 S.Ct. 571, 577, 7 L.Ed.2d 593 (1962) (in passing section 301, "Congress intended doctrines of federal labor law uniformly to prevail over inconsistent local rules"); Republic Steel Corp. v. Maddox, 379 U.S. 650, 653, 85 S.Ct. 614, 616, 13 L.Ed.2d 580 (1964) (noting congressional approval of "contract grievance procedures as a preferred method for settling disputes and stabilizing" the common law of the plant). To the extent that judicial determination of Jackson's state-law claims would conflict with this federal scheme, those claims would be preempted by section 301 and relegated, in the first instance, to the grievance procedures available under the Agreement. See United Paperworkers International Union v. Misco Inc., 484 U.S. 29, 108 S.Ct. 364, 370, 98 L.Ed.2d 286 (1987) ("where the [labor] contract provides grievance and arbitration procedures, those procedures must first be exhausted and courts must order resort to the private settlement mechanism without dealing with the merits of the dispute").

In Allis-Chalmers Corp. v. Lueck, 471 U.S. 202, 105 S.Ct. 1904, 85 L.Ed.2d 206 (1985), the Supreme Court articulated the analytical framework within which we must determine whether Jackson's claims are preempted by section 301. There, the Court defined the scope of the statute's preemptive effect broadly, declaring that "if the policies that animate section 301 are to be given their proper range ... the preemptive effect of section 301 must extend beyond suits alleging contract violations." Id. at 210-11, 105 S.Ct. at 1910-11. The Court itself has recently characterized the essential lesson which Lueck taught in this regard:

... Lueck faithfully applied the principle of Sec. 301 preemption developed in Lucas Flour: if the resolution of a state-law claim depends upon the meaning of a collective-bargaining agreement, the application of state law (which might lead to inconsistent...