Maine School Administrative Dist. No. 5 v. M. S. A. D. No. 5 Teachers Ass'n

• Decision Date: 05 August 1974
• Citation: 324 A.2d 308
• Parties: 74 Lab.Cas. P 53,427 MAINE SCHOOL ADMINISTRATIVE DISTRICT #5 et al. v. M. S. A. D. #5 TEACHERS ASSOCIATION et al.
• Court: Maine Supreme Court

Page 308

324 A.2d 308

74 Lab.Cas. P 53,427

MAINE SCHOOL ADMINISTRATIVE DISTRICT #5 et al. v. M. S. A. D. #5 TEACHERS ASSOCIATION et al.

Supreme Judicial Court of Maine.

Aug. 5, 1974.

Sanborn, Moreshead, Schade & Dawson, by Richard B. Sanborn, Augusta, for plaintiff.

Maine Teachers Ass'n, by Stuart G. Snyder, Augusta, for defendant.

Before DUFRESNE, C. J., and WEATHERBEE, POMEROY, WERNICK, ARCHIBALD and DELAHANTY, JJ.

WEATHERBEE, Justice.

This appeal presents to us for the first time the question of whether appellate review of the award of arbitrators after grievance arbitration in a municipal public employer-employee dispute is that provided in 26 M.R.S.A. § 972 (the Municipal Public Employees Labor Relations Act) or that found in 14 M.R.S.A. §§ 5937-5939 (the Uniform Arbitration Act).

The Plaintiff School Administrative District (District) and the first Defendant, the Teachers Association (Association), had executed a collective bargaining agreement as they were authorized to do by 26 M.R.S.A. chapter 9-A, known as the Municipal Public Employees Labor Relations Law. The agreement contained a 4-step procedure for disposition of grievances, the final step, if the other methods failed, being submission to binding arbitration.

The second Defendant, Miss Dow, a teacher in the system, was dismissed by the Plaintiff's Board of Directors under 20 M.R.S.A. § 473 on the ground that her services were no longer profitable to the District. The Association filed a grievance on her behalf which ultimately was submitted to arbitration. On January 9, 1973 the third Defendant, Mr. McConnell, the Arbitrator, ¹ delivered his award ordering that the teacher be reinstated and paid her salary from the date of her dismissal.

On January 23, 1973 the District filed this complaint in the Superior Court under M.R.C.P., Rule 80B (obviously assuming that the appropriate appellate procedure was that provided in 26 M.R.S.A. § 972, the Municipal Public Employees Labor Relations Law), asking that the award of the Arbitrator be reversed and that the dismissal be sustained or, in the alternative, that the matter be remanded to the Board.

On February 12, 1973 the Association moved to dismiss the District's 80B complaint on the ground that it failed to state a claim upon which relief could be granted. On April 6, 1973 a Justice of the Superior Court denied the Association's motion to dismiss but without deciding which of the two review procedures could be used by the District. The rationale of the Justice was that even if the District had adopted the wrong review procedure, the District's 80B appeal complaint should not be dismissed but, rather, that the District should be given opportunity to amend its 80B complaint to enable it to comply with the review requirements of the Uniform Arbitration Act. No further action has been taken in the Superior Court as to the District's complaint.

The Association then answered the 80B complaint on April 12, 1973, disputing the District's allegations as to the grievance issues and, by counterclaim, asking that the Superior Court order the Arbitrator's award confirmed and for an entry of judgment in accordance with 14 M.R.S.A. §§ 5937 and 5940. ²

On July 16, 1973 the Association moved for an order confirming the Arbitrator's award. Another Justice in the Superior Court denied this motion without explanation.

It is the denial of this motion which is now before this Court on the Association's appeal. ³ The issues raised by the Association's motion were whether appellate review from the award of the Arbitrator is that provided under the Municipal Public Employees Labor Relations Act as the District assumed, or that found in the Uniform Arbitration Act, as the Association contends and-if the Association's position is correct-whether the District has initiated the review procedure authorized by the Uniform Arbitration Act.

The District asserts that such review can be had only by the 80B procedure which it has followed and that, as its 80B complaint has not yet been heard in the Superior Court, the dispute is not yet ripe for review here.

We are forced to conclude that the District has mistaken its remedy.

A brief review of statutory history is necessary. Since 1957 Maine had had a statute establishing the enforceability of a written provision in any collective bargaining contract to settle by arbitration a controversy arising out of such a contract and providing arbitration procedure and machinery for the enforcement of awards. 26 M.R.S.A. § 951 et seq. This procedure was originally used only in the private sector, because until the enactment of the Fire Fighters Arbitration Law (P.L.1965, ch. 396, 26 M.R.S.A. § 980 et seq., repealed by P.L.1969, ch. 424, § 2) in 1965 our Legislature had not authorized any of our public employees to organize and bargain collectively with their public employers. This 1965 law gave the fire fighters 'all of the rights of labor other than the right to strike or engage in any work stoppage or slowdown'. It prticularly provided that fire fighters and municipalities may enter into contracts of employment and, if unable to agree as to the terms of a contract, they may submit disputes as to the formation of the contract to binding arbitration. Such arbitration is usually referred to as 'interests arbitration'. This law, however, was silent as to arbitration of disputes arising later out of employment under the contract which is called 'grievance arbitration'.

The Legislature then enacted P.L.1967, ch. 430 (now 14 M.R.S.A. § 5927 et seq.) entitled the Uniform Arbitration Act, which reiterated the Legislature's earlier pronouncement concerning the enforceability of collective bargaining agreements to arbitrate labor disputes and which provided machinery for grievance arbitration and enforcement of awards more complete than had previously been available.

In the meantime (before the effective date of this new Uniform Arbitration Act), the City of Rockland and its fire fighters had entered into a contract of employment under which the parties had agreed that certain types of grievance disputes should (if they arose) be submitted to binding arbitration. Such a dispute arose, was submitted to arbitration and an award was rendered in favor of the labor association which brought an application for judgment. A Justice in the Superior Court denied the application for judgment, holding that the Fire Fighters Arbitration Law had conferred upon the fire fighters a right to enter into binding arbitration only as to the formation of the labor contract-not as to grievances arising out of the employment.

We sustained the Fire Fighters' appeal, ruling that the Legislature had intended the fire fighters to have all the rights of labor organizations (except those specifically withheld) and that the Legislature, in 26 M.R.S.A. § 951, had empowered all parties to labor agreements to agree irrevocably to submit grievance disputes to binding arbitration. The authority of the union to require the city to comply with its contract to arbitrate grievances was found in the 1957 labor relations statute which had extended this authority to all parties to valid labor contracts. Rockland Professional Fire Fighters Ass'n v. City of Rockland, Me., 261 A.2d 418 (1970).

In 1969 the Legislature eliminated the possible confusion which might exist with the existence of two statutes (the older 26 M.R.S.A. § 951 et seq., and the newer Uniform Arbitration Act), each providing for arbitration of labor contract grievances, by limiting the application of the older law to agreements entered into on or before October 6, 1967. P.L.1969, ch. 287, § 2. For all practical purposes the effectiveness of the 1957 law disappeared. It appears unmistakable that the 1969 Legislature intended the Uniform Arbitration Act to replace the older law and to offer its exclusive procedures for obtaining grievance arbitration under all valid labor agreements and for the enforcement of awards thus obtained.

That same Legislature also enacted the Municipal Public Employees Labor Relations Law which authorized all public employees to be represented by labor organizations and to bragain collectively 'for terms and conditions of employment.' P.L.1969, ch. 424, §§ 1, 2, 26 M.R.S.A. § 961 et seq. This act is fully analyzed in City of Biddeford v. Biddeford Teachers Ass'n, Me., 304 A.2d 387 (1973).

For our present purposes it is sufficient to note:

(1) Its purpose is stated to be to improve public employer-employee relationships 'by providing a uniform basis for recognizing the right of public employees to join labor organizations of their own choosing and to be represented by such organizations in collective bargaining for terms and conditions of employment.' (Emphasis added.)

(2) It repeals the Fire Fighters Arbitration Law.

(3) It provides procedures for negotiation, fact-finding, mediation and binding arbitration (in certain areas) in the making of an employment contract.

(4) It defines the duty to 'bargain collectively' as requiring the parties to 'meet' and '. . . confer and negotiate in good faith with respect to wages, hours, working conditions and contract grievance arbitration' and to 'execute in writing any agreements arrived at'.

(5) It provides for the appointment by the Governor of a Panel of Mediators and for the availability of the Mediators in aid of the settlement of disputes, with the reservation that

'(t)he services of the Panel of Mediators shall not be invoked in any dispute regarding a matter of grievance between the parties to an agreement, if such agreement provides for an alternate method of settlement of such grievance dispute.' (Emphasis added.)

(6) It provides for binding arbitration of 'their controversy'. After discussing the selection of the arbitrators and the conduct of the hearing, the statute states that the determinations of the arbitrators '. . . will be binding on both parties and the parties...