Sheet Metal Workers International Association v. Lynn

• Decision Date: 18 January 1989
• Docket Number: No. 86-1940,86-1940
• Citation: 109 S.Ct. 639,102 L.Ed.2d 700,488 U.S. 347
• Parties: SHEET METAL WORKERS' INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION et al., Petitioners v. Edward LYNN
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

488 U.S. 347

109 S.Ct. 639

102 L.Ed.2d 700

SHEET METAL WORKERS' INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION et al., Petitioners

v Edward LYNN.

No. 86-1940.

Argued Nov. 7, 1988.

Decided Jan. 18, 1989.

Syllabus

In an attempt to alleviate a financial crisis plaguing petitioner local union (Local), which is an affiliate of petitioner international union (International), the International's president appointed Richard Hawkins as trustee to supervise the Local's affairs, with authority under the International's constitution to suspend the Local's officers and business representatives. Five days after a special meeting at which the Local's membership defeated Hawkins' proposal to increase their dues, Hawkins notified respondent Lynn, an elected business representative of the Local, that he was being removed "indefinitely" from his position because of his outspoken opposition to the proposal at the meeting. After exhausting his intraunion remedies, Lynn brought suit in Federal District Court, claiming that his removal violated the free speech provision of Title I of the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959 (LMRDA or Act). The court granted summary judgment for petitioners under Finnegan v. Leu, 456 U.S. 431, 102 S.Ct. 1867, 72 L.Ed.2d 239, which held that the discharge of a union's appointed business agents by the union president, following his election over the incumbent for whom the business agents had campaigned, did not violate Title I. However, the Court of Appeals reversed, holding that Finnegan did not control where the dismissed union official was elected rather than appointed, and rejecting the contention that Lynn's removal was valid because it was carried out under Hawkins' authority as trustee.

Held: The removal of an elected business agent, in retaliation for statements he made at a union meeting in opposition to a dues increase sought by the union trustee, violates the LMRDA. Pp. 352-359.

(a) Petitioners' argument is unpersuasive that Lynn's status as an elected, rather than an appointed, official is immaterial, and that the loss of his union employment cannot amount to a Title I violation because he remains a member of the Local and was not prevented from attending the special meeting, expressing his views on the dues proposal, or casting his vote. Even though Lynn was not actually prevented from exercising such Title I rights, his removal interfered with those rights by forcing him to choose between them and his job. Moreover, in contrast to the discharge of an appointed union official, the removal of an elected official denies the members who voted for him the representative of their choice and has a more pronounced chilling effect upon their exercise of their own Title I rights, thereby contravening the LMRDA's basic objective of ensuring that unions are democratically governed and responsive to the will of the membership, which must be free to discuss union policies and criticize the leadership without fear of reprisal. Finnegan, supra, distinguished. Pp. 353-355.

(b) The cause of action of an elected union official removed for exercising his Title I rights is not affected by the fact that the removal is carried out during a trusteeship lawfully imposed under Title III of the Act. Nothing in the LMRDA's language or legislative history suggests that Title I rights are lost whenever a trusteeship is imposed. Given this congressional silence, a trustee's Title III authority ordinarily should be construed in a manner consistent with Title I's protections. As petitioners concede, the imposition of a trusteeship does not destroy the critical right to vote on dues increases which Title I guarantees to local union members. That right would not be meaningful if a trustee were able to control the members' debate over the issue. In the instant case, Lynn's statements concerning the proposed dues increase were entitled to protection, since nothing in the International's constitution suggests that the imposition of the trusteeship changed the nature of his office so that he was obligated to support Hawkins' positions. Pp. 356-358.

804 F.2d 1472 (9th Cir.1986), affirmed.

MARSHALL, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which REHNQUIST, C.J., and BRENNAN, BLACKMUN, STEVENS, O'CONNOR, and SCALIA, JJ., joined. WHITE, J., filed an opinion concurring in the judgment, post, p. 359. KENNEDY, J., took no part in the consideration or decision of the case.

Donald W. Fisher, Toledo, Ohio, for petitioners.

Bruce M. Stark, Long Beach, Cal., for respondent.

Justice MARSHALL delivered the opinion of the Court.

In Finnegan v. Leu, 456 U.S. 431, 102 S.Ct. 1867, 72 L.Ed.2d 239 (1982), we held that the discharge of a union's appointed business agents by the union president, following his election over the incumbent for whom the business agents had campaigned, did not violate the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959 (LMRDA or Act), 73 Stat. 519, 29 U.S.C. § 401 et seq. The question presented in this case is whether the removal of an elected business agent, in retaliation for statements he made at a union meeting in opposition to a dues increase sought by the union trustee, violated the LMRDA. The Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that the LMRDA protected the business agent from removal under these circumstances. We granted certiorari to address this important issue concerning the internal governance of labor unions, 485 U.S. 958, 108 S.Ct. 1219, 99 L.Ed.2d 420 (1988), and now affirm.

I

In June 1981, respondent Edward Lynn was elected to a 3-year term as a business representative of petitioner Local 75 of the Sheet Metal Workers' International Association (Local), an affiliate of petitioner Sheet Metal Workers' International Association (International).¹ Lynn was instrumental in organizing fellow members of the Local who were concerned about a financial crisis plaguing the Local. These members, who called themselves the Sheet Metal Club Local 75 (Club), published leaflets that demonstrated, on the basis of Department of Labor statistics, that the Local's officials were spending far more than the officials of two other sheet metal locals in the area. The Club urged the Local's officials to reduce expenditures rather than increase dues in order to alleviate the Local's financial problems. A majority of the Local's members apparently agreed, for they defeated three successive proposals to increase dues.

Following the third vote, in June 1982, the Local's 17 officials, including Lynn, sent a letter to the International's general president, requesting that he "immediately take what- ever action [is] . . . necessary including, but not limited to, trusteeship to put this local on a sound financial basis." App. 14. Invoking his authority under the International's constitution, the general president responded by placing the Local under a trusteeship and by delegating to the trustee, Richard Hawkins, the authority "to supervise and direct" the affairs of the Local, "including, but not limited to, the authority to suspend local union . . . officers, business managers, or business representatives." Art. 3, § 2(c), Constitution and Ritual of the Sheet Metal Workers' International Association, Revised and Amended by Authority of the Thirty-Fifth General Convention, St. Louis, Missouri (1978).

Within a month of his appointment, Hawkins decided that a dues increase was needed to rectify the Local's financial situation. Recognizing that he lacked authority to impose a dues increase unilaterally, Hawkins prepared a proposal to that effect which he submitted to and which was approved by the Local's executive board. A special meeting was then convened to put the dues proposal to a membership vote. Prior to the meeting, Hawkins advised Lynn that he expected Lynn's support. Lynn responded that he first wanted a commitment to reduce expenditures, which Hawkins declined to provide. Lynn thus spoke in opposition to the dues proposal at the special meeting. The proposal was defeated by the members in a secret ballot vote. Five days later, Hawkins notified Lynn that he was being removed "indefinitely" from his position as business representative specifically because of his outspoken opposition to the dues increase. App. 20.

After exhausting his intraunion remedies, Lynn brought suit in District Court under § 102 of the LMRDA, 29 U.S.C. § 412, claiming, inter alia, that his removal from office violated § 101(a)(2), the free speech provision of Title I of the LMRDA, 29 U.S.C. § 411(a)(2).² The District Court granted summary judgment for petitioners, reasoning that, under Finnegan v. Leu, supra, "[a] union member's statutory right to oppose union policies affords him no protection against dismissal from employment as an agent of the union because of such opposition." App. to Pet. for Cert. 36a.

The Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reversed. 804 F.2d 1472 (1986). The court held that Finnegan did not control where the dismissed union employee was an elected, rather than an appointed, official because removal of the former "can only impede the democratic governance of the union." 804 F.2d, at 1479. "Allowing the removal of an elected official for exercising his free speech rights," the court explained, "would in effect nullify a member's right to vote for a candidate whose views he supports," id., at 1479, n. 7, and would impinge on the official's right to "spea[k] . . . for himself as a member" of the union. Id., at 1479. The court also rejected the contention that Lynn's removal was valid because it was carried out under the trusteeship, stating that, "while a trustee may remove an elected local officer for financial misconduct, or incompetence, it may not do so in retaliation for the exercise of a right protected by the LMRDA, such as free speech." Id., at 1480 (citations omitted).³

II

The LMRDA "was the product of congressional concern with widespread abuses of power by union leadership." Finnegan, 456...