Jenkins v. General Motors Corporation

• Decision Date: 28 September 1973
• Docket Number: Civ. A. No. 4384.
• Citation: 364 F. Supp. 302
• Parties: Edward L. JENKINS, Plaintiff, v. GENERAL MOTORS CORPORATION, a Delaware corporation, et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Delaware

364 F. Supp. 302

Edward L. JENKINS, Plaintiff, v. GENERAL MOTORS CORPORATION, a Delaware corporation, et al., Defendants.

Civ. A. No. 4384.

United States District Court, D. Delaware.

September 28, 1973.

L. Vincent Ramunno, Wilmington, Del., for plaintiff.

Harvey B. Rubenstein, Wilmington, Del., for defendants.

OPINION

STAPLETON, District Judge:

This proceeding began as an action by an employee against his employer and his local union. The claim against the employer resulted from a discharge alleged to have been racially motivated. The claim against the local union was founded on an alleged breach of its duty of fair representation. Each defendant asserted that the claims against it were barred by limitations. The Court determined that the issues raised by these contentions should be heard and determined at the outset. After briefing and argument, the Court dismissed the claims against the employer as barred by limitations. As to the local, the Court construed the complaint as stating a cause of action for unlawful discrimination in the processing of plaintiff's grievance that was not necessarily barred by the applicable statute of limitations.¹

The union thereafter filed a motion to dismiss based upon the argument, among others, that plaintiff had failed to exhaust his internal union remedies. Both sides filed affidavits and the motion was briefed and argued.

The union's initial brief was filed on April 11, 1973; argument was held on July 5, 1973. At the oral argument plaintiff's counsel requested the opportunity to file additional affidavits on or before July 13, 1973 and indicating that the Court was prepared to treat the motion to dismiss as a motion for summary judgment. An opportunity for reply affidavits was afforded.

Plaintiff availed himself of this additional opportunity to file affidavits. Thereafter, he applied to the Court for leave to take discovery prior to any disposition of the defendant's motion. In response to the Court's request, plaintiff's counsel supplied the Court with a list of union officials to whom plaintiff wished to address interrogatories and set forth the scope of the interrogation which plaintiff desired to conduct. All of the requested discovery dealt with the handling of the grievance against the employer which plaintiff had filed as a result of his discharge and which the union allegedly failed to diligently pursue because of plaintiff's race.

While the local union's motion was under advisement, plaintiff was granted leave to amend his complaint and to bring in the International UAW as an additional defendant. The claims against this new defendant are similar to those against the local union and involve the processing of the same grievance.

Plaintiff was discharged by General Motors on July 9, 1968. A grievance was filed the same day. The grievance was unsuccessfully pursued through the first two steps of the grievance procedure specified in the collective bargaining agreement. An appeal was taken to the Appeals Committee. This "Step Three" procedure was initiated by an exchange of "Statements of Unadjusted Grievance" on or about September 12, 1968. The grievance remained unresolved at "Step Three" and, at some date not indicated in the record, the matter was pursued into Step Four and placed on the docket of an impartial "Umpire." Plaintiff's grievance was withdrawn by the union from the Umpire's Docket on April 12, 1970. According to the plaintiff, the union did not contact him to inform him of this withdrawal until December 29, 1970, when he received a letter in response to an inquiry which he had made concerning the status of his grievance. This suit was filed on May 22, 1972.

Under the collective bargaining agreement, the Regional Director of the International Union decides whether to take a grievance into Step Three and, if not there resolved, decides whether to press it through Step Four. The Appeals Committee which processes grievances in Step Three consists of the Regional Director or his designate, the Chairman of the local's Shop Committee or his designate, and "two representatives of Local or Divisional Management."

The local union relies upon the "exhaustion" rule stated by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Brady v. Trans World Airlines, Inc., 401 F.2d 87, 104 (1968):

It has been the general rule, and the rule of this circuit, that before a suit against a union for breach of its duty of fair representation may be brought in the courts, the member must first exhaust the available internal union remedies, or show an adequate reason for failing to do so. There is good reason for this rule which forestalls judicial interference with the internal affairs of a labor organization until it has had at least some opportunity to resolve disputes concerning its own legitimate affairs. . . .

The defendant local union also refers the Court to Section 13 of Article 33 of the Constitution of the International Union UAW which provides:

It shall be the duty of any member or subordinate body who feels aggrieved by any action, decision, or penalty imposed upon him or it, to exhaust his or its remedy and all appears therefrom under the laws of the International Union prior to appealing to a civil court of governmental agency for redress.

An affidavit of the Administrative Assistant to the President of the UAW accurately summarized the provisions of Article 33 of the Constitution:

. . . Article 33 of the 1970 Constitution guarantees members of Local Unions the right to challenge the actions of the local union at a membership meeting. This includes wrongful Local Union actions in regard to the processing or withdrawal of contract grievances. If the membership of a Local Union rejects this challenge of its members, or if the member was unable to get the matter raised at a local membership meeting, then the member would have the right to appeal to the International Executive Board. . . . At a hearing before the Appeals Committee of the International Executive Board, the member has the right to be represented by counsel, to produce witnesses and other evidence and to submit briefs or have them submitted on his behalf. A court reporter makes a verbatim transcript of such a hearing. If the member was dissatisfied with the decision of the International Executive Board, he has the further right to appeal to the Constitutional Convention Appeals Committee or to the Public Review Board.²

The Public Review Board referred to here was established under Section 1 of Article 32 of the Constitution which provides:

For the purpose of insuring a continuation of high moral and ethical standards in the administrative and operative practices of the International Union and its subordinate bodies, and to further strengthen the democratic processes and appeal procedures within the Union as they affect the rights and privileges of individual members or subordinate bodies, there shall be established a Public Review Board consisting of impartial persons of good public repute, not working under the jurisdiction of the UAW or employed by the International Union or any of its subordinate bodies.

The local union's affidavits further establish that the plaintiff did not pursue any of these remedies in connection with his claim of a breach of its duty of fair representation.

Section 101(a)(4) of the Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959, 29 U.S.C. § 411(a)(4), provides in part as follows:

No labor organization shall limit the right of any member thereof to institute an action in any court, or in a proceeding before any administrative agency, irrespective of whether or not the labor organization or its officers are named as defendants or respondents in such action or proceeding, or the right of any member of a labor organization to appear as a witness in any judicial, administrative, or legislative proceeding, or to petition any legislature or to communicate with any legislator: Provided, That any such member may be required to exhaust reasonable hearing procedures (but not to exceed a four-month lapse of time) within such organization, before instituting legal or administrative proceedings against such organizations or any officer thereof . . .

As noted by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Harris v. International Longshoremens Association, 321 F.2d 801, 805 (3rd Cir. 1963), "the proviso of section 101(a)(4), that a `member may be required to exhaust reasonable hearing procedures (but not to exceed a four-month lapse of time)', reflects an effort to encourage mature, democratic self-government of labor organizations through the development of internal procedures for the correction of abuses by union officials and at the same time to provide reasonably expeditious judicial relief to aggrieved union members."

While Section 101(a)(4) has been held to constitute a congressional endorsement of the judicially created exhaustion rule, it does not mandate that courts reject every petition where internal union remedies have not been exhausted. Where the available remedies are not "reasonable," where those remedies are not "expeditious" within the time frame of the four month proviso, where pursuit of those remedies would be futile, or where the employee has otherwise adequately explained his failure to pursue available remedies, courts will entertain the request for judicial relief.³

A number of courts have heretofore reviewed the internal union remedies upon which the local union here relies and found them to be fair and reasonable.⁴ This Court's review of the UAW Constitution leads it to the same conclusion. Indeed, plaintiff does not dispute that the relevant provisions of this Constitution are reasonable as a general proposition. He resists summary judgment, rather, on four grounds: (1) internal union remedies would be futile here because the union must sit in judgment on its own officials and hence cannot be impartial and because the union has already demonstrated its...