Wightman v. Springfield Terminal Ry. Co.

• Citation: 100 F.3d 228
• Decision Date: 07 October 1996
• Docket Number: No. 96-1378,96-1378
• Parties: 153 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2869, 133 Lab.Cas. P 11,732 Douglas T. WIGHTMAN, et al., Plaintiffs, Appellants, v. SPRINGFIELD TERMINAL RAILWAY COMPANY and United Transportation Union, Defendants, Appellees. . Heard
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit

Page 228

100 F.3d 228

153 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2869, 133 Lab.Cas. P 11,732

Douglas T. WIGHTMAN, et al., Plaintiffs, Appellants, v. SPRINGFIELD TERMINAL RAILWAY COMPANY and United

Transportation Union, Defendants, Appellees.

No. 96-1378.

United States Court of Appeals, First Circuit.

Heard Oct. 7, 1996.

Decided Nov. 19, 1996.

Harold A. Ross, Cleveland, OH, with whom Ross & Kraushaar Co., L.P.A., Shelley B. Kroll, and Segal, Roitman & Coleman were on brief, for plaintiffs, appellants.

John R. Nadolny, for defendant, appellee Springfield Terminal Railway Co.

Norton N. Newborn, Cleveland, OH, with whom Norton N. Newborn Co., L.P.A., James F. Freeley, Jr., and Freeley & Freeley were on brief, for defendant, appellee United Transportation Union.

Before TORRUELLA, Chief Judge, BOWNES, Senior Circuit Judge, and STAHL, Circuit Judge.

STAHL, Circuit Judge.

Appellants, Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and several of its individual members ("BLE") sought to enjoin enactment of a clause in a newly negotiated collective bargaining agreement between Appellees United Transportation Union ("UTU") and Springfield Terminal Railway Co. ("ST"), as a violation of the Railway Labor Act ("RLA"), 45 U.S.C. §§ 151-188. The district court denied the injunction and granted summary judgment for UTU and ST on BLE's complaint. Wightman v. Springfield Terminal Ry. Co., 915 F.Supp. 503, 507 (D.Mass.1996). BLE now appeals.

Background

The RLA governs labor and collective bargaining arrangements between carriers, or employers, and unions. ST is a railroad operator located in Springfield, Massachusetts, and a carrier for purposes of the RLA. BLE and UTU are two of several trade unions who have collective bargaining agreements with ST. The individual plaintiffs in this case belong to BLE.

The RLA authorizes carriers and unions to establish union shops. A union shop in the railroad industry simply means that in order to remain employed with a railroad company, employees must belong to one of the national, RLA recognized railroad unions. See 45 U.S.C. §§ 152, Eleventh(a) and (c). ¹ ST and the unions with which it maintains collective bargaining agreements have established a union shop.

Employment in the railroad industry revolves around crafts or classes of work, each of which is represented by a different union. Train service and engineer service constitute two such crafts. The former encompasses conductors, brakemen, trainmen and yardmen, and the latter includes primarily locomotive engineers. UTU represents the train service craft and BLE represents the engineer service craft.

By practice, junior engineers advance from the ranks of the train service employees. Over the course of any given year, however, the amount of engineer work may fluctuate. During periods of reduced engineer work, junior engineers may have to return temporarily to train service in order to remain employed. ² Junior engineers, therefore, have an economic interest in maintaining their train service seniority.

Prior to 1995, the UTU-ST collective bargaining agreement allowed non-UTU member engineers to continue to accrue train service seniority. In 1995, however, UTU negotiated a provision known as Article 21, which requires that employees moving from train service to engineer service pay dues to UTU in order to maintain and continue to accrue their train service seniority. When BLE objected to Article 21, ST offered it a similar provision which BLE rejected, apparently believing it to be of little value to its membership.

BLE then challenged Article 21 on RLA grounds. It sought preliminary injunctive relief which the district court denied. Subsequently, on cross motions, the district court granted summary judgment in favor of UTU and ST. This appeal followed.

Standard of Review

We review the award of summary judgment de novo. Ortiz-Pinero v. Rivera-Arroyo, 84 F.3d 7, 11 (1st Cir.1996). Summary judgment is appropriate in the absence of a genuine issue of material fact, when the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. See Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c). Neither party may rely on conclusory allegations or unsubstantiated denials, but must identify specific facts deriving from the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, admissions and affidavits to demonstrate either the existence or absence of an issue of fact. See Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c) and (e).

Cross motions for summary judgment neither alter the basic Rule 56 standard, nor warrant the grant of summary judgment per se. See Wiley v. American Greetings Corp., 762 F.2d 139, 141 (1st Cir.1985). Cross motions simply require us to determine whether either of the parties deserves judgment as a matter of law on facts that are not disputed. Id. As always, we resolve all factual disputes and any competing, rational inferences in the light most favorable to the party against whom summary judgment has entered. Den Norske Bank v. First Nat'l Bank of Boston, 75 F.3d 49, 53 (1st Cir.1996).

Discussion

BLE raises three basic arguments, each of which involves a different statutory provision of the RLA. First, BLE contends, Article 21 violates the prohibition of mandated dual unionism under 45 U.S.C. § 152, Eleventh(c). Second, BLE urges, Article 21 impermissibly interferes with employees' rights to organize and choose their own collective bargaining representative under 45 U.S.C. §§ 152, Third and Fourth. Finally, BLE asserts, the RLA, 45 U.S.C. § 156, required UTU and ST to provide BLE, an interested party, notice of their contract negotiations and an opportunity to participate in them. We conclude that the district court ably analyzed each of BLE's arguments and properly found them lacking in substance. We affirm.

A. 45 U.S.C. § 152, Eleventh(c)

According to BLE, Article 21 violates 45 U.S.C. § 152, Eleventh(c), part of the union shop provisions of the RLA. Analysis of BLE's argument requires a brief detour into the background of the union shop provisions generally, and how § 152, Eleventh(c) fits into the union shop scheme.

Under 45 U.S.C. § 152, Eleventh(a), carriers and unions may establish union shops. Section 152, Eleventh(a) specifically provides that carriers and unions may "make agreements, requiring as a condition of continued employment, that ... all employees shall become members of the labor organization representing their craft or class." Read in isolation, the plain language of this provision would allow carriers and unions to require employees to belong not to the union of their choice, but to the union certified as the representative of their craft or class.

Organized labor petitioned Congress for the union shop option in order to eradicate the problem of "free riders," railroad employees who do not pay dues to any union but receive whatever benefits collective bargaining confers. See generally Pennsylvania R.R. Co. v. Rychlik, 352 U.S. 480, 489-94, 77 S.Ct. 421, 426-29, 1 L.Ed.2d 480 (1957). In acceding to labor's request, however, Congress recognized that the intercraft mobility not uncommon in the railroad industry could pose a problem for employees in a union shop. Under § 152, Eleventh(a), an employee shuttling between train service and engineer service could either be forced to change unions or to belong and pay dues to two unions until reaching a level of seniority sufficient to stabilize him as an engineer. As the Supreme Court pointed out, "[t]he former alternative would, of course, be expensive and sometimes impossible, while the latter would be complicated and might mean the loss of seniority and union benefits." Id. at 490, 77 S.Ct. at 426.

Congress attempted to tailor union shops to accommodate intercraft mobility through § 152, Eleventh(c). That subsection provides, "[t]he requirement of membership in a labor organization in [a union shop] shall be satisfied ... if said employee shall hold or acquire membership in any one of the labor organizations, national in scope, organized in accordance with this chapter." 45 U.S.C. § 152, Eleventh(c). On its face, § 152 Eleventh(c) appears to contradict § 152, Eleventh(a) by allowing any employee in any union shop to belong to any of the RLA recognized railroad unions.

The purpose of § 152, Eleventh(c), however, significantly circumscribes its language. See Rychlik, 352 U.S. at 488, 492, 77 S.Ct. at 425-26, 427; see also Landers v. Nat'l R.R. Passenger Corp., 814 F.2d 41, 44-45 (1st Cir.1987) (recognizing limited applicability of § 152, Eleventh(c)), aff'd, 485 U.S. 652, 108 S.Ct. 1440, 99 L.Ed.2d 745 (1988). Despite its broad language, "the only purpose of Section 2, Eleventh(c) was a very narrow one: to prevent compulsory dual unionism or the necessity of changing from one union to another when an employee temporarily changes crafts." Landers v. Nat'l R.R. Passengers Corp., 485 U.S. 652, 657-58, 108 S.Ct. 1440, 1443, 99 L.Ed.2d 745 (1988); Rychlik, 352 U.S. at 492, 77 S.Ct. at 427. Section 152, Eleventh(c) does not exist to benefit unions by permitting them to recruit members from the ranks of other established unions, or to provide railroad employees with a general right to join unions other than the designated bargaining representative of their craft, except to meet the narrow problem of intercraft mobility in a union shop. Rychlik, 352 U.S. at 493, 77 S.Ct. at 427-28.

Bearing in mind the context and purpose of § 152 Eleventh(c), we turn to BLE's challenge to Article 21. BLE essentially attacks Article 21 from two angles. First, BLE contends, Article 21 constitutes either a § 152, Eleventh(a) union shop agreement that violates § 152, Eleventh(c) or an amendment to the existing ST-UTU agreement that violates § 152, Eleventh(c). Second, BLE argues, Article 21 will upset "the cost sharing scheme which was continued and fostered by the 1951 union shop amendments." We disagree.

On its face, Article 21 can neither constitute a union shop agreement by itself, nor an amendment to the ST-UTU agreement that violates Eleventh(c). Nothing...