United Food and Commercial Workers, Local No. 222, AFL-CIO v. Iowa Beef Processors, Inc., AFL-CI

• Decision Date: 26 July 1982
• Docket Number: AFL-CI,No. 82-1054,A,82-1054
• Citation: 683 F.2d 283
• Parties: 110 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 3278, 94 Lab.Cas. P 13,712 UNITED FOOD AND COMMERCIAL WORKERS, LOCAL NO. 222,ppellee, v. IOWA BEEF PROCESSORS, INC., a Corporation, Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

Page 283

683 F.2d 283

110 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 3278, 94 Lab.Cas. P 13,712

UNITED FOOD AND COMMERCIAL WORKERS, LOCAL NO. 222, AFL-CIO, Appellee, v. IOWA BEEF PROCESSORS, INC., a Corporation, Appellant.

No. 82-1054.

United States Court of Appeals Eighth Circuit.

Submitted June 16, 1982.

Decided July 26, 1982.

Harry H. Smith, MacDonald Smith, Sioux City, Iowa, for appellee.

Arthur T. Carter, Alaniz, Bruckner & Sykes, Lincoln, Neb., for appellant.

Before LAY, Chief Judge, FAIRCHILD, Senior Circuit Judge, ^* and BRIGHT, Circuit Judge.

BRIGHT, Circuit Judge.

Iowa Beef Processors, Inc. (IBP), appeals from a district court order granting summary judgment in favor of the United Food and Commercial Workers, Local No. 222, AFL-CIO (the Union), and adverse to the interests of IBP. The Union had instituted the district court proceeding to enforce a labor arbitration award issued by the arbitrator, Raymond Goetz, on April 20, 1980. The district court sustained the arbitrator's award; we affirm the district court. ¹

I. Background.

The Union and IBP are parties to a collective bargaining agreement effective from May 1, 1978, to May 1, 1982, which covers IBP's production and maintenance employees at its Dakota City, Nebraska, facility. A dispute arose over the interpretation of article VIII, section 1 of the collective bargaining agreement, which provides:

The Company will provide each regular full-time employee, other than maintenance employees, thirty-six (36) hours of pay in each week of employment at the employee's straight time hourly rate which is to be scheduled Monday through Friday inclusively. However, it is agreed that the Company may for not more than six (6) weeks during each contract year satisfy the guarantee by utilizing the days Tuesday through Saturday inclusively, provided the Company shall post a notice to that effect not later than the last work-day of the week preceding any week in which this is to be applicable. Regular full-time maintenance employees will be guaranteed thirty-six (36) hours of pay in five (5) days for each week of employment. Hours employees are absent for any reason will be deducted from such thirty-six (36) hours. The Guarantee will also be reduced by eight (8) hours for each full shift on which the plant is unable to operate because of storm, flood, fire, explosion, power failure, strikes, or boycotts by any labor union or the National Farm Organization or similar groups. (Emphasis supplied.)

After exhausting the contract grievance procedures, the parties submitted the dispute to arbitration. In the arbitration, IBP contended that the underlined language allowed it to change its normal Monday-through-Friday scheduling to Tuesday-through-Saturday for six weeks each contract year for each working group of its employees in the Dakota City plant. The Union maintained that this same language allowed IBP to change the work schedule only six weeks per year, regardless of whether only one or all working groups operated on the alternative schedule.

The arbitrator upheld the Union's position and sustained the grievance for two reasons. First, the arbitrator considered the express terms of the disputed language, concluding that the plain meaning of the language in the provision supported the Union's position. The arbitrator then continued, stating that he believed a mutual misunderstanding existed between the parties. Given the different meanings the parties attached to the same language, the arbitrator resorted to general contract principles and construed the provision against IBP because IBP should have been aware of the Union's position.

IBP contended in the district court that the arbitration award should be set aside because (1) it did not draw its essence from the collective bargaining agreement, (2) the contract precluded the arbitrator from proceeding once he had acknowledged a misunderstanding between the parties, (3) the arbitrator improperly failed to consider the entire contract, (4) the literal language of the whole contract supported IBP's position, (5) the arbitrator improperly interpreted the contract, and (6)...