Waverly Mineral Products Co. v. United Steelworkers of America, AFL-CIO, Local No. 8290, AFL-CI
| Decision Date | 29 December 1980 |
| Docket Number | LOCAL,No. 78-3223,AFL-CI,78-3223 |
| Citation | 633 F.2d 682 |
| Parties | 106 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2117, 90 Lab.Cas. P 12,471 WAVERLY MINERAL PRODUCTS CO., Plaintiff-Appellee, v. UNITED STEELWORKERS OF AMERICA,NO. 8290, Defendant-Appellant. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit |
Cooper, Mitch & Crawford, Robert H. Stropp, Jr., Birmingham, Ala., Karsman & Brooks, Stanley Karsman, Savannah, Ga., Bernard Kleiman, Chicago, Ill., Carl B. Frankel, Pittsburgh, Pa., for defendant-appellant.
Altman & McGraw, Harry J. Altman, II, Thomasville, Ga., for plaintiff-appellee.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Middle District of Georgia.
Before VANCE, FRANK M. JOHNSON, Jr. and THOMAS A. CLARK, Circuit Judges.
This is an appeal from an order of the district court vacating the award of an arbitrator under a collective bargaining agreement. The issue is whether the arbitrator exceeded the scope of his authority under the arbitration provisions of the agreement in making his award. Because the district court erred in vacating the arbitrator's award, we reverse.
The facts are not in dispute. Plaintiff Waverly Mineral Products Co. (employer) and defendant United Steelworkers of America, AFL-CIO, Local No. 8290 (Union) were parties to a collective bargaining agreement covering the terms and conditions of employment at employer's Thomasville, Georgia, plant.
Under the terms of the collective bargaining agreement the employer reserved unto itself "the right to discharge for good cause not in violation of this Agreement." Moreover, Article III(B) of the agreement gave employer "the right to establish, maintain and enforce reasonable rules and regulations, it being understood and agreed that such rules and regulations shall not be in conflict with the express provisions of this Agreement." Addendum B of the agreement created sanctions for violations of certain enumerated rules, among them a rule prohibiting "(a)bsence from work without an excuse acceptable to the Company." For the third violation of any rules within a twelve-month period the agreement provided that "the employee shall be discharged."
In addition to those provisions respecting management rights, the agreement also contained a "No Discrimination" clause:
A. No employee shall be unfairly discriminated against because of membership or non-membership in the Union on the part of the Company or the Union.
B. It is mutually agreed by the Company and the Union that there shall be no discrimination because of race, color, religion, sex, age or national origin.
The agreement also provided a standard grievance procedure, which the parties agreed "shall be applied and relied upon by all parties as the sole and exclusive means of seeking adjustment of and settling grievances " The scope of the grievance machinery was broad, a "grievance" being defined as a "dispute between the Company and the Union, or an employee, over the application, interpretation or alleged violation of a specific provision of this Agreement." The first step of the grievance procedure is the submission of a grievance, signed and in writing, within seven days of the action complained of. The grievance is then taken up by the shop steward, and/or the complaining employee, and the department foreman. If the complaint isn't settled at this stage, it is referred to a larger group, consisting of a Union official, the steward, the department foreman, and the plant manager or his designee. Finally, "(a)ny grievance which concerns discharge and which remains unsettled after having been fully processed through the grievance procedure may be submitted to arbitration upon the written request of either the Company or Union "
Employee Gregory West was discharged for being absent from work three times within a twelve-month period without an excuse acceptable to employer. Within the time provided in the agreement, the Union filed the following grievance on West's behalf:
The Company violated the agreement when it discriminated against union, race and color by discharging Gregory West, a black man, for the third violation in a 12 month period 10-31-77, and took no discharge action against Harrell, a white man, for number of violations in the 12 month period.
The matter proceeded through the stages of the grievance procedure without resolution. Pursuant to the terms of the agreement, the issue was submitted to arbitration.
The arbitrator concluded that West was clearly "subject to discharge absent a showing by the Union that the Company acted in a disparate or discriminatory manner in the application of these rules." The Union had argued that the action against West "was without justification and not for 'just cause,' " while employer contended it had acted properly under the agreement's management rights provisions. In this report the arbitrator found:
Testimony for the Union showed clearly that the rules were not applied uniformly among employees for violations of the rules. The testimony did not necessarily show that blacks were discriminated against or that Union employees were discriminated against but it did show that employees as a whole were apparently treated differently by the Company in the meting out of discipline for the same rule infractions.
Because the rules were "applied in an unequal or disparate manner as between various employees," id., the arbitrator ordered West's reinstatement and back pay.
The district court set aside the award. All management rights, except those "specifically limited by this Agreement," were not, under the agreement, subject to arbitration. Since according to the district court the arbitrator did not determine that any of the enumerated exceptions were applicable, the matter was held not amenable to arbitration, and the arbitrator's award was vacated.
In vacating the award, however, the district court ignored the strong presumption favoring arbitrability, and attached an overly narrow interpretation to the contractual limitations on reserved management rights. In considering these questions, we find guidance in the Steelworkers trilogy, which defines the role of arbitration in the resolution of disputes in the labor-management context. See United Steelworkers of America v. American...
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