United Textile Workers of America, AFL Local 1802 v. Goodall-Sanford, Inc.

• Decision Date: 01 June 1955
• Docket Number: Civ. A. No. 4-40.
• Citation: 131 F. Supp. 767
• Parties: UNITED TEXTILE WORKERS OF AMERICA, A.F.L. LOCAL 1802 and United Textile Workers of America, A.F.L., Plaintiffs, v. GOODALL-SANFORD, Inc., Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Maine

131 F. Supp. 767

UNITED TEXTILE WORKERS OF AMERICA, A.F.L. LOCAL 1802 and United Textile Workers of America, A.F.L., Plaintiffs, v. GOODALL-SANFORD, Inc., Defendant.

Civ. A. No. 4-40.

United States District Court D. Maine, S. D.

June 1, 1955.

Sidney W. Wernick, Portland, Maine, for plaintiffs.

William B. Mahoney, Daniel T. Drummond, Jr., Portland, Maine, for defendant.

CLIFFORD, District Judge.

This matter comes before this Court upon the motion of the plaintiffs for summary judgment upon that part of their complaint, as amended, in which they request specific performance of the arbitration clauses of a collective bargaining agreement. The plaintiffs instituted their action under Section 301 of the Labor Management Relations Act of 1947, 29 U.S.C.A. § 185.

With regard to the aforementioned request for specific performance, this Court is of the opinion that there is no genuine issue of material fact. Briefly, the facts are as follows:

The plaintiff, United Textile Workers of America, A. F. L. Local 1802, and the plaintiff, United Textile Workers of America, A. F. L. are both unincorporated associations and at all times relevant herein, have been labor organizations and trade unions engaged in representing employees for the purposes of collective bargaining. The plaintiffs have been representing, or acting for, employee members of the plaintiff labor organizations in the State and District of Maine, and, in particular, have been representing and acting for members of the plaintiff organizations who are employees of the defendant corporation, Goodall-Sanford, Inc. They are the sole and exclusive statutory collective bargaining representative of, and agency for, all the production and maintenance employees of the defendant corporation, including working foremen, employed at Sanford and Springvale, Maine.

The defendant corporation, Goodall-Sanford, Inc., is a corporation duly organized and existing under and by virtue of the laws of the State of Maine with its principal office and place of business at Sanford, Maine. As of April 5, 1955, it has completely terminated all production operations in its Sanford and Springvale mills and all of the real estate and buildings have been sold. Prior to such termination, however, the defendant corporation was engaged in the business of manufacturing and selling textile products which moved in interstate commerce. Its conduct of said business was such that it affected interstate commerce within the meaning of Federal Laws and, in particular, the Labor Management Relations Act of 1947, 29 U.S.C.A. § 185.

On October 1, 1951, the plaintiff labor organizations and the defendant corporation entered into and executed a collective bargaining agreement which was renewed by the parties thereto on July 29, 1953. As thus renewed, said agreement provided, as to its duration, that the said agreement is to

"continue in full force and effect until July 15, 1955, unless either party gives a notice to modify, 60 days prior to July 15, 1954."

On May 12, 1954, the defendant corporation gave notice of modification to the plaintiff labor organizations as a result of which a supplemental agreement was entered into and executed by the plaintiff and defendant on June 21, 1954. Because of the execution of said supplemental agreement, the defendant corporation withdrew the aforesaid notice of May 12, 1954, with the result that the agreement dated October 1, 1951, as renewed July 29, 1953, and as supplemented by the supplemental agreement executed June 21, 1954, constitutes the entire collective bargaining agreement between the plaintiff labor organizations and defendant corporation. The said collective bargaining agreement provides that it shall continue in full force and effect until July 15, 1955.

Among the provisions of said collective bargaining agreement between the plaintiffs and the defendant are found the following:

Article I — A. Bargaining Unit:

"The Company recognizes the Union as the exclusive collective bargaining agency for all its production and maintenance employees including working-foremen employed at Sanford and Springvale, Maine, in respect to rates of pay, wages, hours, and other conditions of employment. Executives, overseers, second hands, foremen, section hands, guards, and all office workers, laboratory workers, and research workers are not considered production and maintenance employees under this agreement."

Article VI — A-3. Continuous Service:

"Employee's service in an occupation will be continuous except as broken under the provisions of Section E (Transfers) of this Article VI or by termination of his employment under the provisions of Article VII."

Article VII — A. Reasons for Termination:

"An employee's continuous service and his employment with the Company shall be terminated by:

1. Voluntary quit.

2. Discharge for cause.

3. Absence from work for a period of (18) months or more for any reason other than to fill a Union position to which the employee was elected or appointed or where an entire operation has been discontinued."

Article VIII—B. Arbitration:

"If a satisfactory adjustment is not reached within (10) working days after initiation of conferences in Step 4, any dispute which relates solely to the meaning and application of this Agreement or any individual grievance may be referred to arbitration by written notice by either party to the other. If the written notice is not given within five (5) working days after the completion of Step 4, the grievance shall be considered as settled, and any right to arbitrate waived. Arbitration shall be in accordance with the following procedure:

1. The arbitrator shall be a single arbitrator selected from a panel of three agreed to by the Union and the Company. If the Company and the Union are unable to agree on one of the three, the arbitrator who will first be available for a hearing shall be selected.

2. The Arbitrator shall have no power to add to or subtract from the terms of this Agreement.

3. The Arbitrator's decision shall be in writing and shall be final and binding on the Company and the Union.

4. Awards or settlements of grievances shall be effective as of the date on which the written grievance was first presented, except as otherwise provided by this Agreement, or by mutual consent."

Purpose of Agreement

"It is the intent and purpose of the parties hereto to promote and improve the industrial and economic relations between the Company, its employees, and the Union, and to establish and maintain a basic understanding in relation to rates of pay, hours of work, and other conditions of employment toward full cooperation, good quality of production, and successful operation of the Company's plants."

Article XVI — Waiver

"The parties acknowledge that during the negotiations which resulted in this agreement each had the unlimited right and opportunity to make demands and proposals with respect to any subject or matter not removed by law from the area of collective bargaining, and that the understandings and agreements arrived at by the parties after the exercise of that right and opportunity are set forth in this agreement. Therefore, the Company and the Union, for the life of this agreement, each voluntarily and unqualifiedly waives the right, and each agrees that the other shall not be obligated, to bargain collectively with respect to any subject or matter referred to or covered in this agreement, or with respect to any subject or matter not specifically referred to or covered in this agreement, even though such subjects or matter may not have been within the knowledge or contemplation of either or both parties at the time that they negotiated or signed this agreement."

Because of continued heavy losses, the defendant corporation decided to terminate all operations at its mills in Sanford and Springvale, Maine, and inaugurated a program of liquidation. On December 29, 1954, the defendant notified approximately 1,136 of its production and maintenance employees, who had theretofore been employed in Mills "A", "B", "C", and the "Printworks" of the defendant corporation, that effective December 29, 1954, their names were being removed from the payroll records of the company and that their respective employment with the company was terminated as of December 29, 1954. On February 18, 1955, the defendant corporation further notified approximately 263 production and maintenance employees of the defendant corporation employed at Sanford, that the employment of each with the defendant was terminated and each employee was advised that his name was being removed from the payroll records of the company, effective February 18, 1955.

The ground on which the aforesaid...