New Orleans Steamship Ass'n v. General Longshore Workers
| Decision Date | 12 March 1968 |
| Docket Number | No. 24738.,24738. |
| Parties | NEW ORLEANS STEAMSHIP ASSOCIATION, Appellant, v. GENERAL LONGSHORE WORKERS, I. L. A. LOCAL UNION #1418 et al., Appellees. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit |
Samuel Lang, Andrew C. Partee, Jr., Kullman & Lang, New Orleans, La., for appellant.
Victor H. Hess, Jr., Alvin J. Liska, New Orleans, La., for appellees.
Before GEWIN, BELL and AINSWORTH, Circuit Judges.
Appellant New Orleans Steamship Association appeals from an order dismissing its complaint which in substance amounted to a request for a mandatory injunction to enforce an arbitration award. The award directed two local unions, the appellees, and their members to cease and desist work stoppages in violation of a collective bargaining agreement. The District Court was of the view that enforcement of such an order by a federal court was barred by the Norris-LaGuardia Act, 29 U.S.C.A. § 104.1 We reverse.
Appellant is an association representing various employers who employ longshoremen for the loading and unloading of cargo in the port of New Orleans. These longshoremen are members of and are represented by appellee unions. Appellant and the unions are signatories to a collective bargaining agreement. The parts of the agreement which are involved in this dispute are a no strike clause, an arbitration clause, and a clause empowering the arbitrator to issue a desist order. They provide in pertinent part:
The arbitrator in this matter served by virtue of his inclusion on a panel of six permanent arbitrators selected by the parties to serve for the duration of the agreement. On October 5, 1965 appellant notified the arbitrator that appellees had engaged in work stoppages and requested a hearing within 72 hours as provided in the agreement, Article XVIII, § (d), supra. A four day hearing was held commencing on October 8, 1965. The award was entered on December 13, 1965. The arbitrator found that stoppages had occurred in violation of the contract and sustained appellant's grievance. He directed appellees, their officers, agents, representatives and members to "* * * cease and desist from work stoppages in violation of their contract * * *"
Alleging that work stoppages had occurred subsequent to this award, appellant sought relief in the District Court in March 1966 in the form of an order enforcing the award of the arbitrator. The District Court dismissed the complaint, relying on the Norris-LaGuardia Act, supra, and the cases of Sinclair Refining Co. v. Atkinson, 1962, 370 U.S. 195, 82 S.Ct. 1328, 8 L.Ed.2d 440; and Gulf & South American Steamship Co., Inc. v. National Maritime Union of America, AFL-CIO, 5 Cir., 1966, 360 F.2d 63.
The court erred in its interpretation of our Gulf & South American Steamship case. Our holding there was that the arbitrator exceeded his jurisdiction in making the award and thus there could be no judicial enforcement of the award. We did not reach the question presented here. We held, as had the District Court that Sinclair Refining Company v. Atkinson, supra, was direct authority on the question and controlling. Absent jurisdiction in the arbitrator, the case was nothing more than an effort to obtain a federal injunction to enjoin a work stoppage arising out of a labor dispute.
Our decision here turns on a construction of the Sinclair holding. That case did not involve an arbitration award. It involved an effort to obtain an injunction to enforce a no strike clause where strikes were ensuing but where there had been no arbitration. The Supreme Court has not considered the precise question with which we are now concerned. Nevertheless, the sweep of Sinclair is broad; the Norris-LaGuardia Act is treated as all encompassing despite § 301 of the Labor-Management Relations Act, 29 U.S.C.A. § 185, and the congressional and national policy enunciated in Textile Workers Union of America v. Lincoln Mills, 1957, 353 U.S. 448, 77 S.Ct. 912, 1 L.Ed.2d 972, and the Steelworkers Triology,2 fostering the arbitration process.
The court stated in Textile Workers Union of America v. Lincoln Mills, supra, that the agreement of the employer to arbitrate disputes is the quid pro quo for the agreement not to strike. These cases and their progeny now make it settled law that federal courts can compel parties to collective bargaining agreements to carry out their agreements to arbitrate. The court alluded to this in Sinclair but stated that such injunctive orders do not conflict with the matters (strikes, work stoppages, and picketing) over which federal courts were deprived of jurisdiction by the Norris-LaGuardia Act.
Meanwhile it has become commonplace for federal courts to enforce arbitration awards by mandatory injunction where matters other than strikes, work stoppages or picketing are involved. See e. g., Minute Maid Co. v. Citrus, Cannery, Food Processing and Allied Workers, Drivers, Warehousemen and Helpers, Local Union #444, 5 Cir., 1964, 331 F.2d 280, 281; Fontainebleau Hotel Corp. v. Hotel Employees' Union Local 255, 5 Cir., 1964, 328 F.2d 310.
In sum the situation to date is that arbitration is encouraged; it may be compelled where the parties have contractually adopted such a procedure. And the award may be judicially enforced up to the point of those matters proscribed by Norris-LaGuardia.
The question presented now is the power of the District Court to enforce the award of an arbitrator in a setting where the arbitrator, in the exercise of undisputed contractual jurisdiction, has ordered an end to work stoppages. The union has refused to abide by his order and asserts that the court is without jurisdiction to remedy...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Buffalo Forge Co v. United Steelworkers of America
...v. Marine Trade Assn., 389 U.S. 64, 77-79 (Douglas, J., concurring in part and dissenting in part); New Orleans S.S. Assn. v. General Longshore Workers, 389 F.2d 369 (CA5 1968), cert. denied, 393 U.S. 828, 89 S.Ct. 92, 21 L.Ed.2d 99, Dunau, Three Problems in Labor Arbitration, 55 Va.L.Rev. ......
-
Boys Markets, Inc v. Retail Clerk Union, Local 770
...an arbitrator's order directing a union to terminate work stoppages in violation of a no-strike clause. New Orleans Steamship Assn. v. General Longshore Workers, 389 F.2d 369, cert. denied, 393 U.S. 828, 89 S.Ct. 92, 21 L.Ed.2d 99 (1968); see Pacific Maritime Assn. v. International Longshor......
-
U.S. Steel Corp. v. United Mine Workers of America
...of the no-strike clause, and this Court will enforce an arbitrator's back-to-work order. New Orleans Steamship Ass'n v. General Longshoreworkers Local 1418, 5 Cir. 1968, 389 F.2d 369; see Boys Markets, 389 U.S. at 244 n. 10, 90 S.Ct. 1583; Gould, On Labor Injunctions, Unions and the Judge: ......
-
New Orleans S.S. Ass'n v. General Longshore Workers
...Ass'n v. International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union, 517 F.2d 1158 (9th Cir. 1975); New Orleans Steamship Ass'n v. General Longshoreworkers Local 1418, 389 F.2d 369 (5th Cir. 1968), cert. denied, 393 U.S. 828, 89 S.Ct. 92, 21 L.Ed.2d 99 (1968); Philadelphia Marine Trade Ass'n v. ......