Ramey v. District 141, Intern. Ass'n of Machinists
| Decision Date | 10 August 2004 |
| Docket Number | Docket No. 03-7798. |
| Parties | Gary H. RAMEY; Dean R. Droz; Euclides Paim; Dennis J. Seath; Ryan T. Abdool; Thomas P. O'Grady; Joseph R. Cummings; Anthony Grginovich; Peter T. Ehrling; Martin Higgins; Joseph Pescatore; John I. Rudic; Rocco F. Salerno; Michael J. Dunne; Garry Hagstrom; Michael A. Pitelli; John Mcardle; Thomas J. Eng; William Moskowitz; Michael J. Andrews; Laszlo Mayer; Wayne P. Feuerherm; Michael Frim; Charles Morro; John Untisz; Raymond J. Simuta; James M. Lowe; Jack K. Grimes; David R. Hill; John W. Lane; Stephen R. Cunningham; Alan W. Cockerham; Gerald W. Davidson; Allen D. Hilton; Eric J. Stoffer; Glenn R. Pigg; Christopher A. Koberg; Robert L. England; Edward S. Moore; Richard Shimkus; Richard Alluzio; Ernest J. Angelosanto; James L. Barnes; Normand J. Castonguay; Lloyd Cheney; Michael Chesna; Robert P. Clinton; Ronald E. Coffin; John H. Corkery, III; John N. D'Angelo; Kenneth C. Danisevich; Elvio Delise; Ronald A. Fraser; Joseph J. Harrington; Joseph R. Huard; Ralph L. Imbriano; Herbert L. Johnson, Jr.; Peter D. Lawrence; Robert Lewis; Paul Lewis; Donald E. Loeber; Joseph McGrath; William A. Morgan; George A. Nichols; Edwin F. Parsons, Jr. and Robert E. Smith, Jr., Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. DISTRICT 141, INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF MACHINISTS AND AEROSPACE WORKERS and International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, AFL-CIO, Defendants-Appellants, Kenneth Thiede, in his capacity as President and General Chairman of District 141, International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers; David Snyder a/k/a David "Duke" Snyder, in his capacity as Assistant General Chairman, District 141, International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers; US Airways Group, Inc.; US Air, Inc., a/k/a U.S. Airways, Inc.; Shuttle, Inc. and John and Jane Does 1-20, Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit |
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York, Edward R. Korman, Chief Judge.
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Jeffrey A. Bartos, Washington, DC (Joseph Guerrieri, Jr., Guerrieri, Edmond & Clayman, Washington, DC, of counsel), for Appellants.
Eric M. Nelson, New York City, for Appellees.
Before: MESKILL, POOLER and SOTOMAYOR, Circuit Judges.
A group of plaintiffs sued their labor union in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York, Korman, J., alleging that the union breached its duty of fair representation. A jury found for the plaintiffs, and the union's motions for judgment as a matter of law and for a new trial were denied. The union appealed, and we affirm.
Plaintiffs are airline mechanics currently employed by U.S. Airways, Inc. (USAir). They were formerly employed by Eastern Airlines (Eastern). Plaintiffs have sued their labor union, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, their local, District 141, and various union officials. For the sake of simplicity, we refer to defendants collectively as IAM.
In early 1988, while plaintiffs were employed by Eastern and represented by IAM, Eastern and the Trump Organization (Trump) announced plans for a sale of the Eastern Shuttle operation, a regional airline service, to Trump. Under the terms of the proposed sale, Trump would acquire the entire Eastern Shuttle operation, including planes, routes, landing slots and equipment. Additionally, various Eastern employees would be offered the opportunity to become employees of Trump and operate the new airline, Trump Shuttle. The sale was completed, and plaintiffs accepted the offer to work for Trump Shuttle. In March 1989, shortly after the sale went through, Eastern declared bankruptcy. During the course of the bankruptcy proceedings, IAM took the position that plaintiffs should be viewed as having "transitioned" from Eastern to Trump Shuttle, rather than having resigned from Eastern and subsequently hired by Trump Shuttle.
While employed by Trump Shuttle, plaintiffs grew frustrated with IAM's representation. Consequently, in 1990 they voted out IAM as their labor union and voted instead to be represented by the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association (AMFA). In 1992, as a result of Trump Shuttle's financial difficulties, a consortium of banks took control of the airline and renamed it Shuttle, Inc. (Shuttle). Almost immediately thereafter, Shuttle entered into an agreement with USAir by which USAir would manage Shuttle's operations. This agreement also provided USAir with an option to purchase Shuttle within five years.
In August 1992, the National Mediation Board (NMB) granted USAir "single carrier status" for the purposes of collective bargaining. As a result, AMFA ceased to represent plaintiffs, and IAM, which represented the USAir mechanics, resumed its position as plaintiffs' collective bargaining representative.
Shortly afterward, so-called "mainline" USAir mechanics — those employed by USAir rather than Shuttle — went on strike. Plaintiffs were unsure whether they should join the strike. On the one hand, their previous collective bargaining agreement, which appeared to remain in effect despite USAir's assumption of control of Shuttle, included a no-strike clause that could cause them to lose their jobs if they joined in a strike. On the other hand, they were now a part of the same local as their co-workers at USAir, and there was some suggestion that their previous collective bargaining agreement was extinguished, which would free them to join the mainline strike. In the end, they opted not to join in the strike.
In late 1992 or early 1993, IAM and USAir commenced negotiations concerning the integration of plaintiffs into the mainline workforce. The effect of integration would be to include plaintiffs under the same collective bargaining agreement as the mainline employees. This was attractive to plaintiffs because it offered the prospect of higher pay and better benefits.
The integration, or "mainlining," process required USAir and IAM to come to an agreement as to how plaintiffs' seniority status would be calculated with respect to their peers in the mainline workforce. IAM has a longstanding policy of "dovetailing" seniority lists, which involves blending the two employee groups based on their pre-merger employment dates at each of the merging airlines. In applying this policy to plaintiffs, IAM had to decide what it would consider to be plaintiffs' start dates at Shuttle. Plaintiffs felt that IAM should apply their Eastern start dates because they viewed their move from Eastern to Trump Shuttle as a "transfer." IAM, however, argued that plaintiffs resigned from Eastern prior to accepting employment at Trump Shuttle and, therefore, they should only be accorded seniority classification from their start-dates at Trump Shuttle.
Plaintiffs vigorously opposed IAM's preferred position and retained Attorney Lee Seham to advocate on their behalf to IAM. Plaintiffs believed that IAM had taken this position to punish them for voting for AMFA during their brief period at Trump Shuttle and for refusing to join the mainline strike when Shuttle was taken over by USAir. Seham was unsuccessful in persuading IAM to reconsider its position. IAM subsequently presented its position to USAir. Before an agreement could be reached, however, USAir decided not to proceed with the mainlining and announced that it would not integrate the two employee groups unless and until it decided to exercise its five-year option to purchase Shuttle. Therefore, the seniority issue receded into the background and plaintiffs continued to work for USAir under a separate collective bargaining agreement.
In late 1997, USAir decided to exercise its option and, in March 1998, it announced its intention to integrate the two workforces. However, in July 1998, IAM announced that, based on preliminary discussions, it appeared that USAir would not proceed with integration "in the immediate future." Subsequently, in December 1998, plaintiffs received a memo from IAM explaining that IAM would once again take the position during negotiations that plaintiffs' Eastern seniority should not be applied. It is not clear from the record precisely when negotiations between USAir and IAM formally commenced or when plaintiffs learned of their commencement. In May 1999, USAir agreed to IAM's terms.
In late July 1999, plaintiffs instituted this action in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York, Korman, J., and alleged that IAM breached the duty of fair representation it owed them under the Railway Labor Act, 45 U.S.C. § 151 et seq., by failing to accord them their Eastern seniority.1 They maintained that IAM punished them for having chosen AMFA over IAM and for opting not to participate in the mainline mechanics' strike in 1992. IAM moved for summary judgment on various grounds, including that (1) it did not breach its duty because its position was objectively reasonable, (2) the statute of limitations had lapsed before plaintiffs instituted the action, and (3) plaintiffs had insufficient evidence to prove that IAM was motivated by hostility or animus toward plaintiffs. Judge Korman denied the motion, Ramey v. District 141, 2002 WL 32152292, 2002 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 26670 (E.D.N.Y. Nov. 4, 2002), and the case proceeded to trial.
IAM argued to the jury that its seniority decision was reasonable because plaintiffs had resigned from Eastern before they were hired by Trump Shuttle and, therefore, they were not entitled to their Eastern seniority. However, plaintiffs showed that IAM had taken the position during the Eastern bankruptcy proceeding that plaintiffs were to be viewed not as having resigned from Eastern, but rather as having "transitioned" from Eastern to Trump. Plaintiffs also elicited testimony to the effect that IAM officials were hostile toward AMFA and those associated...
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