West Gulf Maritime Ass'n v. ILA Deep Sea Local 24, South Atlantic and Gulf Coast Dist. of ILA, AFL-CIO

• Citation: 751 F.2d 721
• Decision Date: 07 January 1985
• Docket Number: No. 84-2442,AFL-CIO,84-2442
• Parties: 118 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2916, 102 Lab.Cas. P 11,324 WEST GULF MARITIME ASSOCIATION, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. ILA DEEP SEA LOCAL 24, SOUTH ATLANTIC AND GULF COAST DISTRICT OF THE ILA;, etc., et al., Defendants-Appellants.
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (5th Circuit)

Page 721

751 F.2d 721

118 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2916, 102 Lab.Cas. P 11,324

WEST GULF MARITIME ASSOCIATION, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. ILA DEEP SEA LOCAL 24, SOUTH ATLANTIC AND GULF COAST

DISTRICT OF THE ILA; AFL-CIO, etc., et al.,

Defendants-Appellants.

No. 84-2442.

United States Court of Appeals,

Fifth Circuit.

Jan. 7, 1985.

Thomas W. Gleason, Charles R. Goldburg, New York City, for defendants-appellants.

Royston, Rayzor, Vickery & Williams, William Jensen, Marilyn T. Hebinck, Houston, Tex., for plaintiff-appellee.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas.

Before GARZA, RANDALL, and TATE, Circuit Judges.

TATE, Circuit Judge:

The defendant longshoremen's labor unions appeal from a preliminary injunction entered by the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas. 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1292(a). The injunction restrains work stoppage and compels local arbitration of a dispute concerning the number of longshoring workers required to load and unload cargo containers. The district court entered the injunction on the authority of Boys Markets, Inc. v. Retail Clerk's Union, 398 U.S. 235, 90 S.Ct. 1583, 26 L.Ed.2d 199 (1970), which states a "limited" exception to the anti-injunction provisions of the Norris-LaGuardia Act, 29 U.S.C. Sec. 104, and permits an injunction restraining work stoppage where a union has agreed to arbitrate the grievance underlying the work stoppage. See Jacksonville Bulk Terminals, Inc. v. International Longshoremen's Ass'n, 457 U.S. 702, 707-09, 102 S.Ct. 2673, 2678-79, 73 L.Ed.2d 327 (1982).

We hold that the district court should have dismissed or stayed the action or should have transferred it to the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York where a pending action involved closely related issues. Accordingly, we vacate the injunction and remand.

Facts

The "containerization" issue has confronted the shipping industry for some time. Containers are metal boxes in which matter to be shipped is placed to facilitate easy handling in the loading and unloading process. Because containers reduce handling by longshoremen during loading and unloading of vessels, containerization threatens to reduce the number of longshoring jobs.

Through collective bargaining, labor and management have attempted to solve the problem posed by containerization. Paragraph 5 of an agreement known as the containerization agreement (part of a master contract between the International Longshoremen's Association (ILA) and various employer associations, including the plaintiff below, West Gulf) provides:

The minimum number of the container gang used in loading or unloading containers to or from container ships shall consist of 18 men plus two drivers.

The parties agree that paragraph 5 requires employers to "order" from the union no less than twenty workers when containers are to be loaded or unloaded.

The parties do dispute, however, whether paragraph 5 permits employers to use more than two workers in the twenty-worker unit as drivers. The union contends that, if an employer needs more than two drivers, it must order workers in addition to the twenty-worker unit. The employers of the Association, however, contend that workers within the "18 men" part of the twenty-worker unit may be used as drivers.

Such containerization disputes under the master contract are to be resolved by an entity known as the Emergency Hearing Panel. In the parties' so-called Tampa agreement, at paragraph IV, they provide:

In order to correct all violations and to resolve all grievances it is agreed that an emergency panel of an equal number of representatives from each side shall be named by the President of the ILA and by Management for the purpose of hearing and resolving all cases relating to the Containerization Agreement, on an emergency basis at the earliest possible moment. It is agreed that the first of such meetings shall be convened in New York not later than the month of May, 1981. The Committee shall hold such further meetings, on an emergency and expedited basis, to the fullest extent necessary to resolve the above issues.

Further, the parties provide in an agreement known as the Hollywood agreement, at paragraph 6, for specific procedures to govern the Emergency Hearing Panel. Paragraphs 6(A) and 6(B) provide that alleged violations of the containerization agreement are "heard" at the local port under local procedures and, if there is failure to agree or one party wishes to appeal, the matter is "referred" to the Emergency Hearing Panel. Pursuant to paragraph 6(F), "[c]harges of alleged violations of the Master Agreement involving more than one port shall be referred directly to the Management-ILA Emergency Hearing Panel for final determination." Paragraph 6(C) provides that the Emergency Panel is constituted of an equal number of labor and management representatives and that a "majority vote" of the panel "shall be final and binding and shall constitute an enforceable award." Under paragraph 6(C), if the panel deadlocks, a "third party" (a neutral arbitrator) is selected "to break the deadlock". Finally, paragraph 6(E) explains when the right to stop work or strike exists:

The ILA shall have the right to refuse to render service to any carrier or direct employer (but only with respect to the carrier charged) who, after a determination under Steps One and Two above [referring apparently to paragraphs 6(A), 6(B) and 6(F) ] has been found to have violated the provisions of the said Master Agreement, and who refuses to abide by the decisions rendered under Steps One and Two above, and the provisions of any no-strike clause shall be rendered inapplicable in such situation.

In this case, the union referred the dispute concerning the meaning of "18 men plus two drivers" to the Emergency Hearing Panel at its meeting on June 12, 1984. At the meeting, a union representative made a motion "that the gang size shall be 18 plus two with drivers added to the twenty." The nine union members present voted in favor of the motion. Eight of the management representatives voted against the motion, but the minutes show that one of these representatives was an alternate, not a regular panel member, and "it was subsequently determined that alternates were not entitled to cast a vote." As to the ninth management representative, one Costello, the minutes state: "When polled, Mr. Costello stated that he would abstain from voting. However, he subsequently stated that he would stand by the Master Contract. This was considered to be a vote in favor of the motion."

According to the minutes, the panel's co-chairman, Dickman, a management representative, declared that a "motion has been made and carried." In line with this ruling by Dickman, the minutes state:

RESOLVED: That in accordance with the provisions of the Master Collective Bargaining Agreement, negotiated by and agreed to by the parties, the minimum size of a container gang shall be 18 men plus two drivers and that should additional drivers be required, such drivers are to be drawn from outside the gang and shall not be part of the regular 20-man gang.

The panel's vote and the resulting resolution immediately became the subject of vigorous dispute. Management took, and continues to take, the position that the vote was invalid because allegedly, among other reasons, (1) local dispute resolution procedures were not followed prior to consideration by the Emergency Hearing Panel, (2) the agenda notice did not sufficiently describe the matter purportedly resolved by the panel's vote and resolution, (3) the agenda notice was not given at least five days before the panel's meeting, (4) the union's motion may not have carried because the vote of management's alternate was not counted, and (5) Costello's abstention, if that is what it was, did not give the union the majority required for a panel decision because it did not give the union more than one-half the available votes.

To settle the controversy about the vote and the ensuing resolution, the ILA filed on June 28, 1984 in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (Judge Sand) an action against West Gulf (the present plaintiff) to enforce the decision of the Emergency Hearing Panel. West Gulf responded by moving to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction or, alternatively, to transfer the action to the Southern District of Texas. On August 9, 1984, the district court in New York ruled that it had jurisdiction of West Gulf and denied West Gulf's motion to transfer the action to Texas.

While the motions to dismiss and transfer were pending in New York, West Gulf filed on August 3, 1984 in the Southern District of Texas the present action, from which this appeal arises. It named the ILA and its regional and local affiliates as defendants and, with respect to each of them, sought declaratory and injunctive relief. West Gulf specifically sought declarations that the decision of the Emergency Hearing Panel was invalid for the reasons outlined above and that its local practices did not violate the "18 men plus two drivers" provision of the master contract. West Gulf also sought by its complaint an injunction restraining the union defendants from refusing to fill orders for longshoremen made by employers who would not abide by the decision of the Emergency Hearing Panel (i.e., enjoining a work stoppage) and requiring the union defendants to arbitrate at the local level the dispute about the number of drivers who could be taken out of a twenty-worker gang. On the day West Gulf filed its complaint, August 3, the district court issued an ex parte temporary restraining order concerning the work stoppage.

On August 13, 1984--four days after the district court in New York denied West Gulf's motion to transfer that action to the Southern District of Texas--West Gulf filed in the Southern District of Texas its application for a preliminary injunction, and...