Verville v. International Ass'n of Machinists and Aerospace Workers

• Decision Date: 05 August 1975
• Docket Number: Nos. 74-1914 and 74-1915,s. 74-1914 and 74-1915
• Parties: 89 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 3206, 77 Lab.Cas. P 11,048 Robert F. VERVILLE, and John G. DeBruyn, Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF MACHINISTS AND AEROSPACE WORKERS et al., Defendants-Appellants. Robert F. VERVILLE, and John G. DeBruyn, Plaintiffs-Cross-Appellants, v. INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF MACHINISTS AND AEROSPACE WORKERS et al., Defendants-Cross-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit

Page 615

520 F.2d 615

89 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 3206, 77 Lab.Cas. P 11,048

Robert F. VERVILLE, and John G. DeBruyn, Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF MACHINISTS AND AEROSPACE

WORKERS et al., Defendants-Appellants.

Robert F. VERVILLE, and John G. DeBruyn, Plaintiffs-Cross-Appellants, v. INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF MACHINISTS AND AEROSPACE

WORKERS et al., Defendants-Cross-Appellees.

Nos. 74-1914 and 74-1915.

United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit.

Aug. 5, 1975.

Gregory, Van Lopik & Higle, J. Douglas Korney, Detroit, Mich., Plato E. Papps, Washington, D.C., for defendants-appellants and defendants-cross-appellees.

James E. Tobin, Miller, Canfield, Paddock & Stone, Detroit, Mich., for Verville and DeBruyn.

Before WEICK, CELEBREZZE and McCREE, Circuit Judges.

WEICK, Circuit Judge.

This appeal is from an order of the District Court granting summary judgment in favor of the plaintiffs and enjoining the defendant unions from conducting disciplinary proceedings against the plaintiffs on account of the fact that plaintiffs, in reporting for work, crossed picket lines of a sister union. The facts were all stipulated.

Plaintiffs are employees of Northwest Airlines at Metropolitan Airport, Wayne County, Michigan. They are members of Detroit Air Transport Lodge 141 (Lodge 141) and its parent International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAMAW).

During the latter part of the year 1970 a sister union, namely, the Brotherhood of Railway and Airline Clerks (BRAC), engaged in a strike against Northwest and in connection therewith it established a picket line at Northwest facilities at Detroit Metropolitan Airport. At that time there was in full force and effect a collective bargaining agreement between Northwest and the defendant unions, which agreement contained a no-strike clause reading as follows:

It is understood and agreed that the Company will not lock out any employee covered hereby and the Union will not authorize or take part in any strike or picketing of Company premises during the life of this Agreement until the procedures for settling disputes as provided herein and as provided by the Railway Labor Act have been exhausted.

Plaintiffs were instructed by Lodge 141 not to cross the BRAC picket lines and not to report for work at Northwest during the existence of the picket lines. Plaintiffs were directed by their employer Northwest to report for work; and they did cross the BRAC picket lines and continued to work during the BRAC strike, which ended on December 14, 1970.

In accordance with the provisions of Section 204 of the Railway Labor Act, 45 U.S.C. § 184, Northwest and IAMAW had established a System Board of Adjustment (SBA) for resolution of disputes between them. On December 14, 1970, pursuant to a directive of United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, in an action which had been instituted by Northwest against IAMAW, ¹ SBA rendered a decision on the question referred to it by the Court, "Whether IAM in the light of the no-strike provisions of the bargaining agreement, retained the right to instruct its members to honor the picket lines of a sister Union."

The decision of SBA was as follows:

Award

IAM, in the light of the no-strike provisions of the bargaining agreement does not retain the right to instruct its members to honor the picket lines of a sister Union.

On December 8, 1970, shortly before the end of the BRAC strike, Northwest and IAMAW entered into an agreement for the return to work of IAMAW personnel, which agreement in relevant part provided as follows:

VI. There will be no reprisals, recriminations, disciplinary actions, grievances or reprimands by either party against any employee represented by IAMAW because of any action or non-action during or arising from the strike.

On December 9, 1970 Northwest and IAMAW entered into a further agreement which provided in part as follows:

4. Northwest Airlines and the IAMAW, their members and their officers, will not initiate any further actions or proceedings in any court or before any agency or in any other forum seeking damages or any other relief for any claim or cause arising out of the circumstances of the strike by the BRAC against Northwest Airlines which commenced on July 8, 1970.

On or about December 20, 1971 the plaintiffs were served with charges and a notice of hearing to be held before a union trial committee. Although the union has agreed not to proceed with the charges pending final decision in this cause, if the final decision permits the union to do so it will proceed with the trial of plaintiffs herein for their conduct in crossing the BRAC picket lines.

On July 14, 1971 Floyd E. Smith, International President of IAMAW, rendered a decision in another case involving the crossing of BRAC picket lines, denying the appeal of a member who had been found guilty by a trial committee of Local Lodge 1904.

The plaintiffs filed suit against the labor unions in the District Court on January 26, 1972. Count I of the complaint asked for enforcement of the SBA award. Count II asked for enforcement of the agreements of December 8 and 9, 1970.

Two other Circuits have decided cases similar to the instant case, arising from the crossing of BRAC picket lines by IAMAW members. Adamszewski v. Local 1487, International Ass'n of Machinists, 496 F.2d 777 (7th Cir. 1974), cert. denied, 419 U.S. 997, 95 S.Ct. 311, 42 L.Ed.2d 271; Buzzard v. Local 1040, Int'l Ass'n of Machinists, 480 F.2d 35 (9th Cir. 1973).

Relying on Adamszewski and Buzzard, the District Court dismissed Count I; however, it granted the relief prayed for under Count II. Plaintiffs have cross-appealed from the order dismissing Count I. In our opinion the District Court had jurisdiction of both Counts I and II. It should not have dismissed Count I.

I

It is well established that under 28 U.S.C. §§ 1331 or 1337, a federal court has jurisdiction of a suit to enforce an award of an airline System Board of Adjustment. International Ass'n of Machinists v. Central Airlines, Inc., 372 U.S. 682, 83 S.Ct. 956, 10 L.Ed.2d 67 (1963); Diamond v. Terminal Ry. Alabama State Docks, 421 F.2d 228 (5th Cir. 1970).

The District Court also indicated that it had jurisdiction of Count II under the reasoning of the Central Airlines case. In Central Airlines the Supreme Court examined the history and purpose of the Railway Labor Act. In particular it noted that the National Railroad Adjustment Board was established by the Act with power to make final and binding awards enforceable in federal courts. 45 U.S.C. § 153 First. Although voluntary system, group, or regional boards could be established and utilized, in the event that either party is dissatisfied with such arrangement it may elect to come under the jurisdiction of the Adjustment Board. 45 U.S.C. § 153 Second.

When Congress extended the Railway Labor Act to cover airlines, it provided that 45 U.S.C. § 153 would not apply to the airlines. Instead, pending establishment of a National Air Transport Adjustment Board Congress provided in § 204 of the Act, 45 U.S.C. § 184, that carriers and their employees had the duty to create System Boards of Adjustment.

The Supreme Court held:

Congress intended no hiatus in the statutory scheme, 372 U.S. at 690, 83 S.Ct. at 961.

Federal law required the parties to enter into a contract establishing a System Board of Adjustment. Therefore, pursuant to 28 U.S.C. §§ 1331 or 1337, federal courts had jurisdiction of suits to enforce awards of airline System Boards of Adjustment.

In contrast, § 204 of the Railway Labor Act has nothing to do with the applicability of the December 8th and 9th agreements to the dispute of the plaintiffs with their union. An airline System Board of Adjustment does not have jurisdiction of a dispute between a union and a union member. Brady v. Trans World Airlines, Inc., 401 F.2d 87 (3d Cir. 1968), cert. denied, 393 U.S. 1048, 89 S.Ct. 680, 21 L.Ed.2d 691 (1969).

In our opinion the District Court had pendent jurisdiction of the claims under Count II. The claims under Counts I and II "derive from a common nucleus of operative fact" and "are such that he (the plaintiffs) would ordinarily be expected to try them all in one judicial proceeding . . .." United Mine Workers v. Gibbs, 383 U.S. 715, 86 S.Ct. 1130, 16 L.Ed.2d 218 (1966); Gray v. International Ass'n of Heat & Frost Insulators & Asbestos Workers, Local 51, 447 F.2d 1118 (6th Cir. 1971).

II

Buzzard and Adamszewski, supra, held that the award of the System Board of Adjustment was limited in scope and did not cover the matter of discipline by IAMAW of its members who crossed the BRAC picket line. We disagree. These two decisions focused on the following language in the opinion of the Board:

. . . (W)e deem it well to point out that we are not here concerned with matters of discipline or discharge of individuals for refusing to cross picket lines of sister unions. Our sole concern is with the "no-strike" clause as it affects Union conduct (43a)

We believe that the Board language quoted above is directed to excluding only matters of discipline or discharge which might be open to Northwest. The union would have no occasion to discipline its members for refusing to cross a picket line because that is the very thing it wanted its members to do; and of course the union could not discharge an employee of Northwest. Only the employer could do that. ²

The question before the Board was whether IAMAW had the right under the collective bargaining agreement to instruct its members to recognize the picket line of a sister union.

In contrast, when the Board held that IAMAW did not have the right to instruct its members not to cross the BRAC picket line, it necessarily held that union members were required by the collective bargaining agreement to cross the BRAC picket line.

IAMAW's power to discipline union members who crossed the BRAC picket line is inconsistent with such a "no-strike" ple...