Jolly v. Gorman

• Citation: 428 F.2d 960
• Decision Date: 30 June 1970
• Docket Number: No. 27825.,27825.
• Parties: J. D. JOLLY et al., Plaintiffs, Granville Sellers and Herbert Ishee, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. Walter GORMAN, Individually and as Trustee of, and International Woodworkers of America, AFL-CIO, and Masonite Corporation, Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (5th Circuit)

428 F.2d 960 (1970)

J. D. JOLLY et al., Plaintiffs, Granville Sellers and Herbert Ishee, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. Walter GORMAN, Individually and as Trustee of, and International Woodworkers of America, AFL-CIO, and Masonite Corporation, Defendants-Appellees.

No. 27825.

United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit.

June 30, 1970.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

George Maxey, Laurel, Miss., Jack Peebles, Metairie, La., Benjamin E. Smith, W. William Hodes, Smith & Scheuermann, New Orleans, La., for plaintiffs-appellants.

T. Harvey Hedgepeth, Hedgepeth & Hedgepeth, Jackson, Miss., for Gorman and Woodworkers.

Denton Gibbes, Laurel, Miss., Hulse Hays, Jr., Alan E. Harazin, Cincinnati, Ohio, for appellee, Masonite Corp.; Gibbes & Graves, Laurel, Miss., of counsel.

James E. Youngdahl, McMath, Leatherman, Woods & Youngdahl, Little Rock, Ark., for Gorman.

Before THORNBERRY, COLEMAN and INGRAHAM, Circuit Judges.

THORNBERRY, Circuit Judge:

Appellants, former officers of Local 5-443 of the International Woodworkers of America, AFL-CIO, brought this suit in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi, challenging a trusteeship imposed on the Local by the International and also a supplemental collective bargaining agreement between the International and Masonite Corporation. On motions for summary judgment by all parties, the district court held that the trusteeship and the supplemental bargaining agreement were valid, and entered judgment for the defendants.

In March of 1967, the Union and Masonite entered into a collective bargaining agreement covering the employees at Masonite's Laurel, Mississippi plant. The agreement included a no-strike clause, and was to be effective through March 2, 1970. The agreement was executed by the certified union, International Woodworkers of America, "for and on behalf of" the members of Local 5-443. In April of 1967, a dispute arose over assignment of job duties by the employer, which certain employees believed to be inconsistent with the job classification structure at the plant. On April 21, the dispute erupted into a strike of all 2050 active employees. A National Labor Relations Board trial examiner found that the work stoppage was approved and encouraged by the Local.

On April 24, 1967, the IWA president sent a telegram to the president of Local 5-443 directing him to comply with the provisions of the collective bargaining agreement and specifically with the no-strike clause. Compliance did not result. On April 25, 1967, Masonite sued the International and the Local for $25,000 damages for each day of the strike. The International attempted to settle the dispute with Masonite but the employer took the position that no settlement was possible within the framework of an illegal strike. On July 17, 1967, the attorney of the International wrote the Local a letter advising that the legal interests of the membership would best be served by a return to work. No action was taken by the Local.

On September 6, 1967, the International Executive Board considered the Laurel strike problem and directed the International officers "to continue their efforts to end the illegal dispute." After a report from one of his officers, the IWA president requested that Local 5-443 be placed under trusteeship. On November 28, 1967, a special IWA Executive Board meeting was held and the Board directed the International's officers to conclude a settlement with Masonite and to place Local 5-443 in trusteeship to ensure enforcement of that settlement. The agreement between the Union and Masonite was entered on December 6, 1967, and on December 7 a trustee was appointed to administer the affairs of Local 5-443. On November 12, 1968, a formal hearing on this trusteeship was held before the Executive Committee, and the Committee made formal findings and specifically ratified the previous imposition of a trusteeship on the Local.

I.

Appellants argue that the trusteeship imposed by the International on the Local was invalid for three basic reasons:

(1) The procedures outlined in the IWA constitution for the establishment of a trusteeship were not followed by the International in the imposition of this trusteeship, and thus the trusteeship was in violation of the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959.

(2) The trusteeship was not established for a proper purpose as defined in the LMRDA and therefore was invalid.

(3) The trusteeship was not imposed after due notice, an opportunity to prepare a defense, and a fair hearing; and therefore was invalid.

Compliance with the Constitution's Procedures.

Section 302 of the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act, 29 U.S.C. A. § 462, provides that a trusteeship shall be established by a labor organization over a subordinate body "only in accordance with the constitution and bylaws of the organization which has assumed trusteeship over the subordinate body * * *." Article II, section 7 of the IWA constitution¹ requires that four steps be taken by the International before it imposes a trusteeship on one of its locals: (1) A charge in writing against the local; (2) an immediate written communication of the charge to the local by the International president; (3) efforts to obtain voluntary compliance if the charge is true; and (4) appointment of a trustee upon approval of the International Executive Board. Appellants claim that the second and fourth of these requirements were not complied with in this case.

The IWA constitution states that once a charge has been made against a local, "the International President shall immediately communicate in writing by registered mail with the Regional President and the local Union President involved." All parties to the present dispute agree that the registered mail requirement is a technical one and should not control the outcome of this suit. Appellees argue that the telegram dated April 24, 1967, from the International president to the Local president directing the latter to comply with the no-strike obligations of the collective bargaining agreement in existence between the Union and Masonite, or the letter dated July 17, 1967 from the International's attorney to Local President Jolly advising termination of the strike, constituted sufficient notice in writing of the charges against the Local. Appellants disagree. Really, appellants simply make the conclusory statement that the April 24 telegram and the July 17 letter do not satisfy the written communication requirement of the constitution. Such a conclusory statement, unsupported by analysis or a line of logic, is not persuasive and allows this Court to make its own conclusions. Our conclusion is this: The written communication requirement of the constitution contemplates that fair warning of a charge be given to the Local, and the telegram sent to the Local president directing him to comply with the collective bargaining agreement and the letter sent to the Local advising it to end the unlawful strike, gave the local fair warning that a charge had been made against it and that the International was deeply concerned about the Local's activities. An opposite interpretation of the constitution and the communications sent to the Local would be unduly technical and restrictive. Cf. Schonfield v. Raftery, S. D.N.Y. 1967, 271 F.Supp. 128.

The second provision of Article II of the IWA constitution that was allegedly violated was the requirement that "the International President may appoint upon approval of the International Executive Board a Trustee to supervise and administer all of the affairs of the Region or Local Union". We think this provision was complied with in this case, and hold that the trusteeship was imposed "upon approval of the International Executive Board."

A special IWA executive board meeting was held on November 28, 1967, which was attended by Local president Jolly. The minutes reflect that the board authorized the International officers to resolve the strike at Laurel. While the board never passed a resolution authorizing the imposition of a trusteeship, we do not think such a formal compliance with the constitution is necessary as long as it is clear beyond reasonable doubt from the record that the trusteeship was imposed with the actual approval of the board. We think that when the purpose of the trusteeship is as clearly proper as it was in this case, precise compliance with the labor organization's constitutional procedures is not necessarily required as long as there is substantial compliance consistent with the purposes of the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act. Those purposes are the prevention of arbitrary imposition of trusteeships or the imposition of trusteeships for wrongful purposes. We are careful to note that the purposes of the Act demand that any variation in the procedures set forth in the labor organization's constitution be only slight and insignificant, as they were in this case.

The Purpose of the Trusteeship.

Section 302 of the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act, 29 U.S.C.A. § 462, allows a labor organization to establish a trusteeship over a subordinate body for several purposes, including "assuring the performance of collective bargaining agreements or other duties of a bargaining representative." We hold that the imposition of the trusteeship over Local 5-443 was for that very purpose and thus was authorized by the Act.

Local 5-443 was engaged in an illegal strike, one that violated the collective bargaining agreement in effect between the Union and Masonite and one that was unprotected by the National Labor Relations Act. The strike was held to be unlawful by the Mississippi Supreme Court and by the National Labor Relations Board. The International was threatened by a ten million dollar liability suit filed by Masonite and was itself convinced that the strike was unlawful. It is clear, then, that the International had a right to impose a trusteeship on the...