National Airlines, Inc. v. International Ass'n of M. & AW

• Decision Date: 23 September 1969
• Docket Number: No. 27312.,27312.
• Citation: 416 F.2d 998
• Parties: NATIONAL AIRLINES, INCORPORATED, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF MACHINISTS AND AEROSPACE WORKERS et al., Defendants-Appellants.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

416 F.2d 998 (1969)

NATIONAL AIRLINES, INCORPORATED, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF MACHINISTS AND AEROSPACE WORKERS et al., Defendants-Appellants.

No. 27312.

United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit.

September 23, 1969.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Joseph P. Manners, Miami, Fla., Plato E. Papps, Gen. Counsel, IAMAW, Washington, D. C., Manners & Amoon, Miami, Fla., for plaintiff-appellee.

William B. Killian, Jerry B. Crockett, Miami, Fla., for defendants-appellants.

Before BELL and THORNBERRY, Circuit Judges, and CHOATE, District Judge.

THORNBERRY, Circuit Judge.

This case concerns the status quo or "freeze" provisions of the Railway Labor Act applicable to major disputes. It arises out of a wildcat strike by the carrier's employees while the orderly processes provided by the Act were running their course. The question is whether the carrier, under the unusual circumstances of this case, violated the status quo by discharging strikers who refused to return to work under court order. The district court held that it did not, and, accordingly, that the employees were not entitled to reinstatement. We REVERSE and REMAND.

On October 31, 1968, National Airlines and the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, AFL-CIO (Union) exchanged § 6 notices of desired changes in their collective bargaining agreement. The parties thereby invoked the elaborate procedures set forth by the Railway Labor Act for the resolution of major disputes, which the Supreme Court has recently outlined as follows:

* * * A party desiring to effect a change of rates of pay, rules, or working conditions must give advance written notice. § 6. The parties must confer, § 2 Second, and if conference fails to resolve the dispute, either or both may invoke the services of the National Mediation Board, which may also proffer its services sua sponte if it finds a labor emergency to exist. § 5 First. If mediation fails, the Board must endeavor to induce the parties to submit the controversy to binding arbitration, which can take place, however, only if both consent. §§ 5 First, 7. If arbitration is rejected and the dispute threatens "substantially to interrupt interstate commerce to a degree such as to deprive any section of the country of essential transportation service, the Mediation Board shall notify the President," who may create an emergency board to investigate and report on the dispute. § 10. While the dispute is working its way through these stages, neither party may unilaterally alter the status quo. §§ 2 Seventh, 5 First, 6, 10. (Emphasis added)

Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen v. Jacksonville Terminal Co., 1969, 394 U.S. 369, 89 S.Ct. 1109, 1115, 22 L.Ed.2d 344. Conferences between the parties failed to resolve the dispute over the suggested changes, and several matters were referred to the National Mediation Board in December, 1968. All events giving rise to this suit occurred after the procedures of the Act had been set in motion, but before their completion.

Against this background, National suspended three men on Friday, January 17, 1969, at Kennedy Airport for refusing to taxi an aircraft. The action of the men in question was in response to a controversial order issued by the carrier reducing the number of men needed to taxi an aircraft from three to two. The men apparently determined that the reduction created an unsafe condition. Almost immediately after the suspension, members of the Union sat down on the job at National's Kennedy Airport and Miami International facilities.

Later that same afternoon, National filed a suit in the court below seeking injunctive relief against the Union alleging that the Union had violated the status quo requirements of the Act and had breached the collective bargaining contract by participating in a strike or sit down. At an emergency hearing the next morning, January 18, 1969, a representative of the Union testified that the strike was an "unauthorized work stoppage or a sit down." The attorney for the Union stated that "we are having a difficult time getting them the strikers back," and conceded that a preliminary injunction enjoining the strike was appropriate. The court entered a preliminary injunction ordering the Union to restore the status quo by ending the work stoppage. In addition, the Union sought and obtained a temporary restraining order requiring National to employ three men to taxi aircraft.¹

Although National complied with the court's order on the taxi dispute, the Union's attempts to return the men to work were unsuccessful, and the strike continued. On January 20, the fourth day of the strike, the airline scheduled a second hearing before the district court, seeking further relief to compel compliance with the injunction. As a result of the strike, the airline had already cancelled approximately 36 flights. Representatives of the Union asserted that the employees disregarded the Union's orders to return to work and that the Union had lost control of its members. The first injunction issued by the court had proved ineffective. Accordingly, the district court entered a second order at 12:30 P.M. on the same day, ordering the defendants to "advise the membership that it is the order of the Court and of the defendant IAM that all men return to work by their next shift, and that individuals who refuse to so report are subject to penalties which could include dismissal by NATIONAL AIRLINES." (Emphasis added). At 3:41 P.M. that afternoon, the Union sent out 993 telegrams advising its members of the court's second order. Shortly thereafter, at approximately 7:00 P.M. that evening, National notified the strikers that they would be terminated if they did not report for duty at their next regularly scheduled shift starting at 3:30 P.M. the next day, January 21.

When the strikers did not return to work the next day at the 3:30 P.M. shift, National sent termination notices to approximately 940 IAMAW workers. The Union promptly filed a motion to dissolve the orders enjoining and restraining the strike and, in addition, an "Application for Rule to Show Cause and Preliminary Injunction," seeking to require the reinstatement of all discharged employees. The district court denied the motion and application, and the Union appeals.

The Union's position is that the discharge of the striking employees violated the status quo or "freeze" provisions of the Railway Labor Act, and that the discharged employees are therefore entitled to reinstatement. The applicable provision of the Railway Labor Act is Section 6, 45 U.S.C. § 156, which provides in relevant part:

In every case where such notice of intended change has been given, or conferences are being held with reference thereto, or the services of the Mediation Board have been requested by either party * * * rates of pay, rules, or working conditions shall not be altered by the carrier until the controversy has been finally acted upon, as required by section 155 of this title * * *. Emphasis added.

"The purpose of § 6 was to prevent rocking of the boat by either side until the procedures of the Railway Labor Act were exhausted." Manning v. American Airlines, Inc., 2d Cir. 1964, 329 F.2d 32, 35. "The legislative history of the statute shows the `freeze' provisions were intended to enforce a `cooling off' period upon both labor and management * * *." Rutland Railway Corp. v. Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, 2d Cir. 1962, 307 F.2d 21, 45, n. 11 (dissenting opinion). Consequently, where a dispute is working its way through the processes provided by the Act, "neither party may unilaterally alter the status quo," Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen v. Jacksonville Terminal Co., 1969, 394 U.S. 369, 89 S.Ct. 1109, 1115, 22 L.Ed.2d 344, and "no self-help is permitted." Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen v. Akron & B.B.R. Co., 1967, 128 U.S.App. D.C., 59, 385 F.2d 581, 597. "The parties may not * * * have resort to either the strike or the lockout before the procedures provided by the Act have been exhausted and a strike or lockout during that period is illegal and forbidden by the Act." American Airlines, Inc. v. Air Line Pilots Ass'n, S.D.N.Y.1958, 169 F.Supp. 777, 789.

National argues that the status quo provisions of the Act are inapposite here because the change in the taxi crews constitutes only a "minor" dispute.² National points out that the men struck over the suspension of the three employees in New York who were suspended because they disputed the work change in the taxi crews at JFK by refusing an assignment to taxi an aircraft. Inasmuch as this minor dispute ultimately led to the discharge of the strikers, the argument continues, the status quo provisions of the Act, applicable only to major disputes, cannot be invoked to compel reinstatement. But it is undisputed that the "major dispute" procedures of the Act were brought into play by the exchange of § 6 notices on October 31, 1968 and that those procedures had not been exhausted on January 21, 1969 when the strikers were discharged. Consequently, the discharge occurred during a "freeze" period when self-help is ordinarily unlawful. This would be true even if (and we need not decide the issue) the change in the taxi crews constituted a minor dispute: Plainly a carrier may not, under the guise of resolving a minor dispute, circumvent and defeat the statutory proscription on self-help while a major dispute is running its course. Cf. Brotherhood of Railway and Steamship Clerks, Freight Handlers, Exp. and Station Emp., A.F.L.-C.I.O. v. Florida East Coast Ry. Co., 1966, 384 U.S. 238, 247, 86 S.Ct. 1420, 1425, 16 L.Ed.2d 501. The statutory ban on self-help is apposite: The question is whether this change violated the status quo.

The Union maintains that the discharge of the striking employees constitutes a permanent change in the status quo, thereby truncating the purpose of the Railway Labor Act. It argues that the district court abused its...