A.T. Massey Coal Co., Inc. v. International Union, United Mine Workers of America, 1525
| Decision Date | 03 September 1986 |
| Docket Number | Nos. 86-2518,No. 1525,A,1525,s. 86-2518 |
| Citation | 799 F.2d 142 |
| Parties | 123 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2476, 55 USLW 2248, 105 Lab.Cas. P 12,035 A.T. MASSEY COAL COMPANY, INC.; Wyomac Coal Company, Inc.; Pike County Coal Corporation; Rawl Sales and Processing Co./Blackberry Creek Coal Company; Winston Coal Company; Robinson-Phillips Coal Company; Simron Fuel Company, Inc.; Shannon-Pocahontas Coal Corporation; Royalty Smokeless Coal Company/Trace Fork Coal Company; Big Bear Mining Company; Joboner Coal Company; T.C.H. Coal Company; Big Bottom Coal Company, Inc.; Sprouse Creek Processing Company; Tall Timber Coal Company; Pikco Mining Company; Rocky Hollow Coal Co.; M & B Coal Company; Dehue Coal Corporation; Blue Springs Coal Company; Allburn Coal Company; Pond Creek Coal Company; P.M. Charles Coal Co., Appellants, v. INTERNATIONAL UNION, UNITED MINE WORKERS OF AMERICA, Appellee. INTERNATIONAL UNION, UNITED MINE WORKERS OF AMERICA; District 17, United Mine Workers of America; United Mine Workers of America, Local Unionppellees, v. A.T. MASSEY COAL COMPANY, INC.; Rawl Sales and Processing Company/Blackberry Creek Coal Company; Sprouse Creek Processing Company; Tall Timber Coal Company; Pikco Mining Company; Rocky Hollow Coal Company; Blue Springs Coal Company; Allburn Coal Company, Inc.; Pond Creek Mining Company; P.M. Charles Coal Company; Wyomac Coal Company, Inc.; Winston Coal Company; Robinson-Phillips Coal Company; M. & B. Coal Company; Simron Fuel Inc.; Shannon-Pocahontas Coal Company; Royalty Fork Coal Company; Big Bear Mining Company; Pike County Coal Corporation; Joboner Coal Company; TCH Coal Company; Big Bottom Coal Company, Inc.; Omar Mining Company; and Dehue Coal Corporation, Appellants. (L), 86-3826. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit |
Gregory B. Robertson (Paul M. Thompson, Christine H. Perdue, Hunton & Williams, Richmond, Va., Forrest H. Roles, Smith, Heenan & Althen, Charleston, W. Va., on brief) for appellants.
Judith A. Scott (Michael H. Holland, United Mine Workers of America, Christopher L. Varner, Washington, D.C., Grant Crandall, Crandall, Pyles & Crandall, James M. Haviland; McIntyre, Haviland & Jordan, Charleston, W. Va., on brief) for appellees.
Before WIDENER, HALL, and MURNAGHAN, Circuit Judges.
A.T. Massey Coal Company and a number of other corporations affiliated with Massey have appealed a grant at the behest of International Union, United Mineworkers of America, et al., of an injunction by the United States District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia, directing Massey and its affiliates to arbitrate pursuant to the terms of an expired National Bituminous Coal Wage Agreement ("NBCWA"). The order was entered following a decision by the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in a related proceeding initiated by Massey and its affiliates that it lacked subject matter jurisdiction to consider the substantive issue. The two cases have been consolidated for appeal purposes.
Functioning as a single production entity with sales, transportation and distribution coordinated from Massey's Richmond headquarters, Massey and its affiliated companies have at times allowed the Bituminous Coal Operators Association ("BCOA") to represent them in collective bargaining. With respect to the 1981 NBCWA, some of the Massey companies thereby became bound. Other operating companies signed the agreement individually. The 1981 NBCWA was terminated by the union, the United Mine Workers of America ("UMWA"), effective September 30, 1984. Prior to that date, all of the Massey companies, with the single exception of Omar Mining Company, had withdrawn from the BCOA. All those who had withdrawn rejected a union request that they become signatories to the as yet unnegotiated successor contract to the 1981 NBCWA.
A 1984 NBCWA was negotiated and became effective October 1, 1984. The absence of an agreement covering companies not in the BCOA, i.e., all Massey's affiliated companies, excepting Omar, led the union promptly to strike as to them on October 1, 1984.
On November 1, 1984, the union filed an unfair labor practice charge against Massey and its affiliated companies on the grounds that, as a common, or single, employer, they were all bound by Omar's acceptance of the 1984 NBCWA negotiated by the BCOA. The unfair labor charge asserts that it is wrong for each of the companies which had withdrawn from the BCOA prior to October 1, 1984 to attempt to bargain separately for a new contract. Another unfair labor practice charge has been filed claiming "surface bargaining with a view to avoiding an agreement" in violation of the National Labor Relations Act ("NLRA" or "the Act"). The charge is still pending. 1
The single employer charges which had been filed were disposed of by a December 20, 1985 agreement providing that "A.T. Massey Coal Company, Inc. will sign any collective bargaining contract[s] negotiated which embodied terms and conditions of employment to which it agreed." The agreement further provided:
Further, it is understood and agreed that if the charged parties and charging party agree during negotiations that any contract[s] negotiated and embodying agreed upon terms and conditions of employment shall be signed only by the operating companies set forth in Attachment B, in that event, A.T. Massey Coal Company, Inc. will not be obligated to sign the contract[s].
Through that agreement the strike was terminated with the union agreeing that its members should return to work. However, the UMWA then asserted that despite the fact that the agreement covered only future contracts with the union the individual employers had been bound all along by the 1984 NBCWA, although they had withdrawn from the BCOA, because of their relationship to Omar and, in turn, Omar's linkage with the BCOA. On that theory, the UMWA has sought to hold Massey and each subsidiary or affiliate to the 1984 NBCWA terms. The question of whether the negotiation conducted on Omar's behalf bound Massey and its affiliates to the 1984 NBCWA has obviously loomed large in the minds of the parties in the present consolidated actions. Massey's attempt to obtain declaratory relief in an action initiated on December 2, 1985 in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia foundered on the ruling of the district court that it lacked subject matter jurisdiction. 2 2] That ruling is on appeal and is one of the consolidated cases to be resolved by us. Contemporaneously, Massey also filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board.
On January 2, 1986, the other case productive of an appeal in the consolidated proceeding before us was filed in the Southern District of West Virginia. The union there sought a declaratory judgment that the 1984 NBCWA was binding on the Massey companies, as well as a preliminary injunction requiring that the companies be deemed to have joined in a grievance the UMWA had filed against Omar on the basis that all Massey companies were bound by the 1984 NBCWA.
The district court, following extensive introduction of evidence, made findings that:
1) The several employers involved were wholly-owned subsidiaries of Massey;
2) The 1984 NBCWA language making operation of all coal lands and preparation facilities owned or held under lease by any party, or by any subsidiary or affiliate subject to the terms thereof, on the basis of Omar's clearly being a party, rendered all the other Massey companies parties as well;
3) The arbitration provision of the 1984 NBCWA, therefore, applied to each of the Massey companies;
4) Massey had refused to arbitrate grievances submitted under the 1984 NBCWA;
5) Massey supervises day to day matters of its subsidiaries and dictates union negotiating procedures, though it and the subsidiaries portray themselves as negotiating individually; and
6) The union and associated plaintiffs have suffered or will suffer irreparable injury because of the defendants' refusal to arbitrate.
On the basis of those findings, the district judge concluded that the arbitration proceedings clearly bound Omar and that "whether or not the defendant companies are 'subsidiaries or affiliates' of Omar within the meaning of Article I(A)(f) 3 ... is a matter which can only be determined under the grievance and arbitration procedure of the 1984 [NBCWA]." The court further concluded that the single employer status applicable to Massey and Omar made it appropriate to require Massey to arbitrate the grievance according to the 1984 NBCWA. The court also applied the criteria in Blackwelder Furniture Co. v. Seilig Manufacturing Co., 550 F.2d 189 (4th Cir.1977) and determined it was appropriate to issue the preliminary injunction, whose validity now is before us on appeal.
As a preliminary matter we address Massey's appeal from the order entered by the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia that it lacked subject matter jurisdiction under Sec. 301 of the LMRA to issue a declaratory judgment to the effect that Massey and its affiliated companies (excepting Omar) were not party to the NBCWA of 1984 and the December 23, 1985 collective bargaining agreement. The district court relied on the plain language of Sec. 301 which states that "[s]uits for violation of contracts between an employer and a labor organization...
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