National Post Office Mail Handlers Local No. 305, LIUNA, AFL-CIO v. U.S. Postal Service

• Decision Date: 30 March 1979
• Docket Number: No. 78-1192,A,AFL-CI,78-1192
• Citation: 594 F.2d 988
• Parties: 100 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 3211, 85 Lab.Cas. P 11,208 NATIONAL POST OFFICE MAIL HANDLERS LOCAL NO. 305, LIUNA,ppellants, v. UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE, B. N. Conyers, Sectional Center Postmaster, Rocky Mount, North Carolina, F. T. Southerland, Sectional Center Director/Employment & Labor Relations, L. R. Bullock, Sectional Center Director/Mail Processing, Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit

Page 988

594 F.2d 988

100 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 3211, 85 Lab.Cas. P 11,208

NATIONAL POST OFFICE MAIL HANDLERS LOCAL NO. 305, LIUNA AFL-CIO, Appellants, v. UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE, B. N. Conyers, Sectional Center Postmaster, Rocky Mount, North Carolina, F. T Southerland, Sectional Center Director/Employment & Labor Relations, L. R. Bullock, Sectional Center Director/Mail Processing, Appellees.

No. 78-1192.

United States Court of Appeals Fourth Circuit.

Argued Jan. 11, 1979.

Decided March 30, 1979.

Deborah G. Mailman, Raleigh, N.C. (Deborah Mailman and Sharon Thompson, Raleigh, N.C., on brief), for appellants.

Thomas H. Pigford, Senior Asst. Regional Labor Counsel, U. S. Postal Service, Memphis, Tenn. (George M. Anderson, U. S. Atty., and Bruce H. Johnson, Asst. U. S. Atty., Raleigh, N.C., on brief), for appellees.

Before WINTER and BUTZNER, Circuit Judges, and FIELD, Senior Circuit Judge.

WINTER, Circuit Judge:

Plaintiff, National Post Office Handlers Local No. 305, Laborers' International Union of North America, AFL-CIO (hereafter "local union"), sued the United States Postal Service (Postal Service) and others ¹ to enforce a number of grievance settlements reached with the Postal Service Sectional Center at Rocky Mount, North Carolina, and to recovery compensatory and punitive damages for the Service's failure to implement the settlements. The district court dismissed the complaint on the grounds that the local union lacked standing to sue and that it had failed to exhaust its contractual remedies. Because we are advised that if it has not already alleged standing the local union is able to allege and prove that the suit was authorized by the national union, and because we think that under the facts alleged further exhaustion of contractual remedies should not be required, we reverse and remand for further proceedings.

I.

The complaint and its attachments disclose these facts: The local union is chartered by National Post Office Mail Handlers, Watchmen, Messengers and Group Leaders Division of the Laborers' International Union of North America, AFL-CIO (hereafter "national union"). The national union together with three other labor organizations, and the Postal Service entered into a collective bargaining agreement governing hours, wages and working conditions of Postal Service employees. Inter alia, this agreement established a multi-step procedure culminating in arbitration for the resolution of employee grievances. ² Only when the decision is adverse to the union at any given step in the grievance procedure may the grievance be appealed to the next highest level, including arbitration.

The agreement between the national union and the Postal Service also authorizes local memoranda of understanding to implement the national collective bargaining agreement with respect to certain aspects of working conditions, vacations, leave and the like. Of course, the national collective bargaining agreement provides that local memoranda may not conflict with it, and it further provides that grievances arising from an alleged violation of a local memorandum of understanding shall be resolved by the grievance procedure established in the national contract. The local union executed a local memorandum of understanding with the Postal Service Sectional Center at Rocky Mount, North Carolina.

The local union alleges that it has appeared in forty-five separate grievances involving the work assignments of certain employees, the filling of a vacancy, the discharge or demotion of certain employees, and the harassment of union representatives, and all resulted in favorable decisions short of arbitration. ³ Additionally, it has appeared in seven class-action grievances brought because of defendants' failure to comply with the settlements in earlier cases. In each of these, it was also successful without resort to arbitration. ⁴ Indeed, in the latest class-action complaint, the resolution was:

Provisions of the National Agreement; Local Memorandum of Understanding between the U. S. Postal Service, Rocky Mount, NC and Mailhandler Local 305, Rocky Mount, NC; and grievance appeal decisions will be complied with by both parties of this resolution. Whenever violations, interpretations or misunderstandings arise, both parties will exercise formal and informal procedures to correct said problems promptly.

It is further understood that this (is the) final disposition of the grievance, and it is not subject to further appeal. ⁵

The local union alleges that, notwithstanding its success in all of the grievances that it has presented, defendants have failed to implement these and other grievance decisions. The local union charges that defendants' failure to implement grievance decisions has been wanton, willful, malicious and in bad faith. The suit that it filed seeks a declaratory judgment that defendants are obligated to implement grievance decisions which are resolved before arbitration, an order directing defendants to implement such grievance decisions and an award of compensatory and punitive damages. The district court dismissed the action without opinion, but its order recited that the complaint was dismissed on both plaintiff's "lack of standing . . . to sue" and "failure to exhaust its arbitration remedies under the collective bargaining agreement."

II.

The succinctness of the district court's ruling on standing makes it impossible to determine accurately the basis for its decision. The parties seem to believe that the case was dismissed, in part, because plaintiff lacked standing under § 301(a) of the Labor Management Relations Act, 29 U.S.C. § 185(a). That Act, however, does not apply because by its terms the United States or any wholly owned government corporation is not an "employer" to whom the Act extends. See 29 U.S.C. § 152(2). ⁶ Nonetheless, decisions under that Act are pertinent in determining how this case should be decided because the Postal Reorganization Act of 1970, 39 U.S.C. § 1208(b), tracks the language of § 301(a) of the Labor Management Relations Act. See National Association of Letter Carriers v. Sombrotto, 449 F.2d 915, 918 (2 Cir. 1971).

The local union claims that the language of the national collective bargaining agreement and the local memorandum of understanding evidences an agency relationship with the national union which gives it standing to sue under either of the agreements. Defendants assert, on the other hand, that in order to establish standing the local union must show express authorization from the national union to bring this suit. We were told in oral argument that the local union, if given the right to amend, will allege and be prepared to prove that this suit is filed with the authority and consent of the national union and that in this respect the local union is the agent of its parent. We think it unnecessary to decide on the present record whether standing on the part of the local union has been alleged. The amendment to allege standing explicitly should be permitted and on remand the district court shall grant leave to amend. Rule 15(a), F.R.Civ.P.

III.

It is a well-established principle of labor law that a union and its members must exhaust the remedies provided in their collective bargaining agreement with the employer before they seek judicial intervention. See Republic Steel Corp. v. Maddox, 379 U.S. 650, 652-53, 85 S.Ct. 614, 13 L.Ed.2d 580 (1965); United Steelworkers v. American Manufacturing Co., 363 U.S. 564, 566, 80 S.Ct. 1343, 4 L.Ed.2d 1403 (1960). The requirement of exhaustion of contractual remedies is not, however, inflexible. An employee and the union acting in his behalf need only "Attempt " to use the remedy provided by contract. Republic Steel Corp. v. Maddox, 379 U.S. at 652, 85 S.Ct. 614. Where contractual remedies are unsatisfactory or unworkable by reason of misconduct of the employer or of...