Madison Hotel v. Hotel and Restaurant Employees, Local 25, AFL-CIO, AFL-CI
| Decision Date | 07 November 1997 |
| Docket Number | No. 96-7270,A,AFL-CI,96-7270 |
| Citation | 128 F.3d 743 |
| Parties | 156 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2801, 327 U.S.App.D.C. 9, 134 Lab.Cas. P 10,078 MADISON HOTEL, Appellee, v. HOTEL AND RESTAURANT EMPLOYEES, LOCAL 25,ppellant. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — District of Columbia Circuit |
Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Columbia (No. 96cv01433).
Mady Gilson argued the cause for the appellant. David M. Silberman and Francis R. Sheed, Washington, DC, were on brief.
Jonathan W. Greenbaum, Washington, DC, argued the cause for appellee.
Before: SENTELLE, HENDERSON and RANDOLPH, Circuit Judges.
Opinion for the court filed by Circuit Judge HENDERSON.
Appellant Hotel and Restaurant Employees Local 25 (Union) seeks reversal of the district court's summary judgment vacating two awards of the Arbitrator in the Union's favor. Because we agree with the district court that the awards exceeded the scope of the Arbitrator's authority, we affirm the judgment.
The facts, as found by the Arbitrator, are undisputed. In July 1992 the Madison Hotel (Hotel) eliminated its food service bus positions and shifted bus responsibilities to its waiters. The Union, which represented a bargaining unit that included the Hotel's waiters and bus employees, filed a grievance on behalf of the laid-off employees. On July 24, 1992 the grievance was submitted to arbitration pursuant to the collective bargaining agreement.
On January 2, 1994 the Arbitrator issued a decision in favor of the grievants. In the decision the Arbitrator framed the "issue" as follows:
Whether the Hotel violated the Agreement by its abolishment of the Bus Employee position, its transfer of the duties of the Bus Employees to other positions and its layoff of the Grievants in July 1992 and, if so, what is the appropriate remedy?
JA 19. The Arbitrator balanced the Hotel's management rights under the collective bargaining agreement 1 against "those provisions which are of great importance to the employees who have worked at the Hotel for many years, i.e. provisions which afford employees rights in the matters of seniority, classification, layoff projections, retention of seniority following a layoff, etc," JA 32. 2 He concluded: "For the Hotel to take the drastic action of not just laying off employees during the period of slack business, as contemplated by the Agreement, but to instead completely eliminate their positions and reassign substantially all of their remaining duties to another position, the Hotel must demonstrate a legitimate business reason, i.e., a reason beyond mere 'slackness of business,' " a showing he determined the Hotel had not made. JA 32. Accordingly, the Arbitrator ordered the following remedy:
The Hotel is directed to reinstate the Grievants to their former positions and to make them whole for all losses, including seniority, attributable to their improper layoff. Pursuant to the Parties [sic] agreement to bifurcate this proceeding, the Parties are directed to attempt to resolve this matter and, if unsuccessful, either Party may return this matter to the Arbitrator for further proceedings with respect to the remedial aspects only.
JA 36.
When it turned out that none of the grieving bus employees desired reinstatement, 3 the Hotel took the position that the dispute was at an end while the Union insisted that the Arbitrator's award required that the bus positions be reestablished and filled by new employees. On December 14, 1994 the Union wrote the Arbitrator requesting "clarification" of the matter. After receiving a response from the Hotel, the Arbitrator decided by letter dated February 6, 1995 that, despite the mootness of the bus employees' grievance, the Hotel was required to reestablish the positions because his original decision treated the abolition of positions and the layoff of the grievants as separate elements in both the statement of the "issue," which characterized them as distinct violations of the agreement, and the remedy, which "necessarily" contemplated that the positions be reestablished before the employee grievants were reinstated. The Arbitrator then concluded:
At the point of offering each identified Grievant reinstatement to the restored Bus Employee positions, if any such offer to fill one of these restored positions is not accepted by a Grievant, such restored position becomes a vacancy subject to being filled in accordance with the applicable provisions of the Agreement. A restored position cannot be eliminated solely because a Grievant elected not to accept the offer to be reinstated in such position.
JA 39.
On April 18, 1995 the Union filed an action in the district court to enforce the Arbitrator's award. On February 13, 1996 the district court dismissed the action for lack of jurisdiction, concluding it was "not ripe for adjudication" because the Arbitrator had "not issued a final remedial order." 955 F.Supp. at 2.
On June 6, 1996 the Arbitrator issued a final remedial order, reaching the same conclusion as he had in the February 6, 1995 letter. The Arbitrator again asserted that his statement of the "issue" in his original (January 2, 1994) decision treated separately the abolition of positions and the layoff of the grievants. He then characterized the original remedy as "an attempt to recreate the status quo ante the Hotel's violation of the Agreement," namely "restaurant and Room Service facilities which operated with Bus Employees," JA 48, and observed that "the Hotel never has returned to the status quo ante," JA 49. The Arbitrator determined that his original decision had "necessarily found that the bargaining unit employees generally, as well as the specific individuals who filed the grievance, have a seniority right to have as many positions in the bargaining unit as possible in which to bump in the event of an economic layoff pursuant to the provisions of Article 12, Section 12.2(a)" of the collective bargaining agreement. JA 48. According to the Arbitrator, "[t]he Union, as the representative of all of the unit employees, has an interest in protecting the seniority rights of all of the unit employees and preserved its right to do so in this case by raising in this grievance the issue of the abolishment of the classification as well as the layoff of the particular Grievants." JA 48. Finally, the Arbitrator stated: "The Hotel ... has not identified any 'changed circumstances', other than the passage of time, nor has the Hotel identified any legitimate business reasons which occurred since the classifications improperly were abolished which after-the violation business reasons, arguably, would mitigate against a remedial order requiring the Hotel to reinstate the classification and to fill it until such time as the Hotel has a proper justification for abolishing it." JA 49. The Arbitrator then issued the following final award:
The Hotel is directed to reinstate the Bus Employee classification for its restaurant outlets and for its Room Service operations and to fill the number of Bus Employee positions in each area which existed at the time of the layoff and to operate with such Bus Employee classifications until it can demonstrate an appropriate basis, under the Agreement, to abolish such positions.
JA 49.
On June 20, 1996 the Hotel filed an action to vacate the Arbitrator's award and the Union counterclaimed for enforcement. On cross-motions for summary judgment, the district court granted judgment in the Hotel's favor on December 17, 1996, concluding that the Arbitrator "exceeded the scope of his jurisdiction, both by deviating from the issues submitted for arbitration and by issuing an award that does not draw its essence from the parties' agreement." Madison Hotel v. Hotel & Restaurant Employees Local 25, 955 F.Supp. 1, 3 (D.D.C.1996). The Union appeals the judgment. We conclude that the district court correctly held the Arbitrator's final award went beyond the scope of his authority, which was limited to arbitrating the laid-off bus employees' grievance. 4
The "scope of review of an arbitrator's award interpreting a collective bargaining agreement is extremely narrow." American Postal Workers Union v. United States Postal Serv., 52 F.3d 359, 361 (D.C.Cir.1995) (citing United Steelworkers of America v. American Mfg. Co., 363 U.S. 564, 567, 80 S.Ct. 1343, 1346, 4 L.Ed.2d 1403 (1960); United Steelworkers of America v. Warrior & Gulf Navigation Co., 363 U.S. 574, 578, 80 S.Ct. 1347, 1350-51, 4 L.Ed.2d 1409 (1960); United Steelworkers of America v. Enterprise Wheel & Car Corp., 363 U.S. 593, 597, 80 S.Ct. 1358, 1361, 4 L.Ed.2d 1424 (1960)). " '[A] labor arbitration award must be enforced if the arbitrator acts within the confines of his jurisdiction and his award draws its essence from the parties' collective bargaining agreement; this is so even when a reviewing court disagrees with the arbitrator's judgment on the merits.' " United States Postal Serv. v. National Ass'n of Letter Carriers, 810 F.2d 1239, 1241 (D.C.Cir.1987) (quoting Northwest Airlines v. Air Line Pilots Ass'n, 808 F.2d 76, 78 (D.C.Cir.1987), cert. denied, 486 U.S. 1014, 108 S.Ct. 1751, 100 L.Ed.2d 213 (1988)). Nevertheless, " 'arbitration is a matter of contract and a party cannot be required to submit to arbitration any dispute which he has not agreed so to submit.' " AT&T Technologies, Inc. v. Communications Workers of America, 475 U.S. 643, 648, 106 S.Ct. 1415, 1418, 89 L.Ed.2d 648 (1986) (quoting United Steelworkers v. Warrior & Gulf, 363 U.S. at 582, 80 S.Ct. at 1353); see Davis v. Chevy Chase Fin. Ltd., 667 F.2d 160, 165 (D.C.Cir.1981) (citing United Steelworkers v. Warrior & Gulf, 363 U.S. at 582, 80 S.Ct. at 1352-53) ("[A]rbitration is, however, a matter of contract, and the contours of the arbitrator's authority in a given...
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