Manning v. American Airlines, Inc., 177

• Decision Date: 14 February 1964
• Docket Number: No. 177,Docket 28461.,177
• Citation: 329 F.2d 32
• Parties: Joseph V. MANNING, as President of the American Airlines Chapter, Flight Engineers' International Ass'n, et al., Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. AMERICAN AIRLINES, INC., Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit

329 F.2d 32 (1964)

Joseph V. MANNING, as President of the American Airlines Chapter, Flight Engineers' International Ass'n, et al., Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. AMERICAN AIRLINES, INC., Defendant-Appellant.

No. 177, Docket 28461.

United States Court of Appeals Second Circuit.

Argued October 22, 1963.

Decided February 14, 1964.

Arthur M. Wisehart, New York City (George A. Spater, H. Wayne Wile, New York City, of counsel), for American Airlines, Inc., defendant-appellant.

Asher W. Schwartz, O'Donnell & Schwartz, New York City (Walter N. Kaufman, New York City, of counsel), for plaintiffs-appellees.

John E. Stephen, Washington, D. C., submitted a brief for Air Transport Ass'n of America as amicus curiae.

Before LUMBARD, Chief Judge, and MEDINA and FRIENDLY, Circuit Judges.

FRIENDLY, Circuit Judge.

This appeal concerns another phase of the controversy between American Airlines, Inc. and its flight engineers discussed in the opinions in Ruby v. American Airlines, Inc., 2 Cir., 329 F.2d 11. At the same time that it signed the basic agreement of May 1, 1958, with its Chapter of Flight Engineers' International Association, which was to "continue in full force and effect until April 30, 1963 and shall renew itself without change until each successive April 30 thereafter unless written notice of intended change is served in accordance with Section 6, Title I, of the Railway Labor Act, as amended, by either party hereto at least sixty (60) days prior to April 30 in any year after April 30, 1962," American executed another agreement for the check-off of union dues of engineers who signed a prescribed authorization form. This check-off agreement was to "continue in full force and effect until April 30, 1963, and shall be subject to renewal thereafter only by mutual agreement of the parties hereto." American's February 28, 1963 "opener" under the basic agreement excluded "the dues-checkoff agreement which expires of its own terms on April 30, 1963." Although the Chapter's February 28 "opener" did not refer to the check-off agreement, the Chapter gave notice on March 8 of a desire to change the latter so that it would have a termination date and a self-renewal clause similar to the proposed new basic agreement. American discontinued the check-off of dues on May 1, 1963. In an action brought by the Chapter, Judge Wyatt issued an order directing it to resume this, from which it appeals.

Validity of the order turns primarily on § 6 of the Railway Labor Act, 45 U.S.C. § 156. The first sentence of that section requires 30 days' written notice of "an intended change in agreements affecting rates of pay, rules, or working conditions." The second sentence says that where such notice has been given, and in certain other instances not here material, "rates of pay, rules, or working conditions shall not be altered by the carrier" until the controversy has been finally acted upon by the Mediation Board or until a lapse of ten days after conferences without request for or proffer of its services — events which have not here occurred.

The propriety of an injunction to enforce the then unique provisions of the Railway Labor Act for maintaining the status quo while the parties to a labor dispute pursue various stages of negotiation, mediation or arbitration, was established long ago. Texas & N. O. R. R. v. Brotherhood of Ry. Clerks, 281 U.S. 548, 565-566, 50 S.Ct. 88, 74 L.Ed. 608 (1930). Although the Texas & N. O. decision antedated the Norris-LaGuardia Act, 29 U.S.C. §§ 101-115, the debates on that Act, 75 Cong.Rec. 5503-04 (1932), made clear that it was not intended to apply to injunctions of this nature. See Railroad Yardmasters v. Pennsylvania R. R., 224 F.2d 226 (3 Cir. 1955); Chicago, R. I. & P. R. R. v. Switchmen's Union, 292 F.2d 61, 63-64, 66 (2 Cir. 1961), cert. denied, 370 U.S. 936, 82 S.Ct. 1578, 8 L.Ed.2d 806 (1962).

American's principal argument, in which it is joined by the Air Transport Association of America as amicus curiae, is that § 6 is inapplicable because the check-off is a "specialized" agreement with a fixed termination date and without the self-renewal provisions of the basic agreement. Stated so broadly the argument is wholly without force. The effect of § 6 is to prolong agreements subject to its provisions regardless of what they say as to termination. If the basic agreement of 1958 had no automatic renewal clause, § 6 would have nonetheless applied; unless the terms of the agreement were still to be followed there would be "an intended change," which would bring into play the thirty-day notice provision of § 6 and with it the requirement of the second sentence that the status quo be maintained until compliance with all the demands of the section was had. Indeed, the current effectiveness of the wage and hour clauses of the basic agreement, which American does not contest, is due solely to the second sentence of § 6, since automatic renewal was prevented by the openers.

A stronger form of the argument is that the contrast of the language of the check-off agreement — "shall be subject to renewal thereafter only by mutual agreement of the parties hereto" — with the automatic renewal language of the basic agreement, and of two side agreements, warrants the conclusion that the parties did not mean § 6 to apply. Passing the question whether and how parties subject to the Railway Labor Act can lawfully make agreements "affecting rates of pay, rules or working conditions" so that these will not be subject to § 6, as might be convenient when unusual situations of short duration arise within the period of a basic...