U.S. Steel Corp. v. United Mine Workers of America, Dist. 20

• Decision Date: 05 July 1979
• Docket Number: No. 77-2696,77-2696
• Citation: 598 F.2d 363
• Parties: 101 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2830, 86 Lab.Cas. P 11,411 UNITED STATES STEEL CORPORATION, Plaintiff-Appellee, Cross-Appellant, v. UNITED MINE WORKERS OF AMERICA, DISTRICT 20 et al., Defendants-Appellants, Cross-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

Page 363

598 F.2d 363

101 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2830, 86 Lab.Cas. P 11,411

UNITED STATES STEEL CORPORATION, Plaintiff-Appellee, Cross-Appellant, v. UNITED MINE WORKERS OF AMERICA, DISTRICT 20 et al Defendants-Appellants, Cross-Appellees.

No. 77-2696.

United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit.

July 5, 1979.

William E. Mitch, Birmingham, Ala., for defendants-appellants, cross-appellees.

C. V. Stelzenmuller, D. Frank Davis, Birmingham, Ala., for plaintiff-appellee, cross-appellant.

Appeals from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama.

Before GODBOLD, MORGAN and RONEY, Circuit Judges.

RONEY, Circuit Judge:

This appeal involves two kinds of district court action: first, a judgment awarded in favor of an employer against a local union for an "unauthorized" or "wildcat" strike over an arbitrable issue in violation of an implied contractual no-strike clause; and second, contempt sanctions against a local and a district union for violation of a temporary restraining order entered to end the strike. The unions appeal both the damage award and the contempt judgments, and the employer appeals the failure of the court to assess damages against the district and international unions and its failure to impose stricter contempt sanctions. Holding the court not clearly erroneous in finding the Local responsible for the strike, we affirm all decisions of the district court except the contempt sanction requiring the Local to set up certain internal procedures to be used in the event of a similar future injunction.

The parties are as follows: The employer the United States Steel Corporation; the Local UMW Local 8982; the District UMW District 20; the International United Mine Workers of America. The scene of action: the Company's Concord mine in Jefferson County, Alabama. The dates involved: March 9 through March 14, 1977.

An unauthorized strike began on the afternoon of March 9, 1977 with a refusal to work by the "evening" shift. Although the grievance underlying the strike was not conclusively established, the district court noted as the most probable cause the Company's refusal to allow an injured worker to collect pay for sitting in the bathhouse, an issue clearly arbitrable under the contract. The strike continued through the "owl" and "day" shifts of March 10, on which date the Company obtained a temporary restraining order enjoining the strike. No appeal was taken, and it is assumed for the purpose of this appeal that injunction was appropriate within the guidelines of Boys Markets, Inc. v. Retail Clerks Union, Local 770, 398 U.S. 235, 90 S.Ct. 1583, 26 L.Ed.2d 199 (1970).

The strike continued through another three shifts. On March 11 the unions and three named Local officials received an order to show cause why they should not be held in contempt. Three more work shifts failed to work before the evening shift on Monday, March 14, finally resumed work. Several months later the combined contempt and damage hearing was held and the court's order issued.

The issues raised on appeal are (1) liability of the Local, District, and International for strike damages, (2) contempt adjudications of the Local and District, and (3) permissible penalties for contempt. Although the International was included in the notice of appeal, it prevailed completely in the district court, so its appeal is dismissed. See Deaton Truck Line, Inc. v. NLRB, 337 F.2d 697 (5th Cir. 1964).

I. Liability for Strike Damages

A. Local liability

The district court found the Local liable for damages of $87,291.

Union liability requires a showing that the union in some way made itself a party to the illegal strike. United States Steel Corp. v. UMWA,526 F.2d 377, 378 (5th Cir. 1976), Denying rehearing to 519 F.2d 1249 (1975). Since the Local's officers did not formally authorize the strike, liability for damages here depends on the Local's responsibility as an entity for the acts of virtually its entire workforce at the Concord mine, approximately 800 miners, almost all of whom participated in the strike. See Turnkey Constructors, Inc. v. Cement Masons Local 685, 580 F.2d 798, 800 (5th Cir. 1978) (where illegal activity is conducted by the union membership functioning as an entity, union is responsible for members' mass action).

The district court explicitly found this strike was not called by any union official or entity. Liability was premised, rather, on the Local's subsequent ratification of the strike by which it was deemed to have adopted the illegal activity as its own. Ratification occurs where the union's efforts to return strikers are so minimal that the union's approval or encouragement may be inferred. Liability may be avoided, obviously, by a credible demonstration of union disapproval. See Eazor Express, Inc. v. International Brotherhood of Teamsters, 520 F.2d 951, 963-964 (3d Cir. 1975), Cert. denied, 424 U.S. 935, 96 S.Ct. 1149, 47 L.Ed.2d 342 (1976).

The conduct of the Local following initiation of the strike must be assessed in light of the mine's strike history. The Concord mine has been the site of wildcat strikes on the average of one per month during 1977 and almost one every other month for the previous five years. This Court has discussed the legal effect of such a history in another case between these parties. United States Steel Corp. v. UMWA, 519 F.2d 1249 (5th Cir. 1975), Reh. denied, 526 F.2d 377 (1976). The Court stated that a series of unauthorized strikes puts the union on notice, creates or supports an inference of union ratification of strike activity, and raises the level of effort required to exculpate the union from liability. 519 F.2d at 1256.

The Local claims to have exculpated itself by taking immediate steps which it anticipated would end the strike. The Local president and several Mine Committee members went to the bathhouse where miners change into work clothes and told the first shift of striking miners to go to work. When the evening shift did not work, the president called a union meeting for the following morning, Thursday, March 10. The meeting was publicized by radio. At the Thursday meeting the president refused a motion which would have permitted a formal vote on continuing the strike. The miners in attendance were told to return to work. When it became apparent on Thursday night that work was not being resumed, a second meeting was called for the next day. At Friday's meeting the miners were urged to return to work and the president read them the temporary restraining order and advised them of potential contempt sanctions. One Mine Committee member testified that many miners telephoned him on Friday and he told them to return to work.

The Company correctly persuaded the district court, however, that the steps taken were foreseeably ineffective. Reciting a number of available measures which were not tried, the Company points out that the first union meeting was not called at the earliest possible time, Wednesday evening. By not calling a meeting until Thursday morning, the Local insured that the strike would continue at least three shifts through the day shift on Thursday which would miss work to attend the meeting. The Local failed to notify the District until Thursday morning. Union officials made no attempt to reach striking miners by telephone, though the Company had provided lists of names and numbers in the past and a Company supervisor testified that the Company had been able to reach 90-95% Of the employees by telephone in 21/2 hours on occasions when the mines were not operating. The Local officials themselves failed to work during most of the strike, and no disciplinary action was ever taken by the Local against strike instigators or participants.

We are not affirming the Local's damage liability on the theory that any particular more effective tactic was left untried, though the availability of stronger persuasive measures is relevant to the critical question of the reasonableness of the steps which were taken. The record supports the district court's characterization of the Local officials' return-to-work directives as "so lacking in authoritative forcefulness that they either were not heard at all . . . or were discounted as being merely stage lines parroted for the benefit of some later judicial review" and its observation that what force the directives did carry was belied by the officials' failure to return to work themselves after issuing them.

Furthermore, the participation in the strike of virtually all Local members and their officers suggests the availability of the "mass action" theory as an alternative basis for Local liability. Turnkey Constructors, Inc. v. Cement Masons Local 685, 580 F.2d at 800. No persuasive argument or authority has been advanced to show why the Local should not be responsible for damages thus caused.

B. District and International liability

The Company cross-appeals the district court's finding that neither District nor International was liable for damages. To succeed, the Company would have to show that the District or International in some way also made itself a party to the strike. United States Steel, 526 F.2d at 378.

We are unpersuaded by the Company's argument that members of the Mine Committee, because they were charged by the International with responsibility for making binding grievance settlements, were "agents" of the International while dealing with this grievance in however improper a manner. The members of the Mine Committee were elected officials of the Local and their involvement in or endorsement of this particular display of employee dissatisfaction can only be reasonably construed as occurring on behalf of or in furtherance of local interests.

We observe additionally that the "mass action" theory of liability, absent a showing of complicity on the part of a larger union entity, prescribes liability only for the local whose members act collectively. United States Steel Corp. v. UMWA, 534 F.2d...