Adams TV of Memphis, Inc. v. International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 474

932 S.W.2d 932, 155 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2871, 1996 Tenn. App. LEXIS 256
CourtCourt of Appeals of Tennessee
DecidedApril 29, 1996
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 932 S.W.2d 932 (Adams TV of Memphis, Inc. v. International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 474) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Tennessee primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Adams TV of Memphis, Inc. v. International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 474, 932 S.W.2d 932, 155 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2871, 1996 Tenn. App. LEXIS 256 (Tenn. Ct. App. 1996).

Opinion

TOMLIN, Senior Judge.

Adams TV of Memphis, Inc. (“plaintiff’) filed suit in the Circuit Court of Shelby County against the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 474 (“IBEW”) and Bernard Lilton (“defendant” or by name) seeking to have that court vacate an arbitration award that reinstated Lil-ton’s employment after plaintiff discharged him. The trial court denied plaintiffs application to vacate. On appeal, plaintiff has presented one issue for our consideration: whether the trial court erred in denying plaintiffs application to set aside the arbitration award on the grounds that the arbitrator exceeded his powers. For the reasons hereinafter stated, we affirm the judgment of the trial court.

There appears to be no dispute as to the basic facts. Plaintiff and IBEW entered into a collective bargaining agreement that cov[933]*933ered all “technicians” employed by plaintiffs television station in Memphis. Under the agreement, IBEW could submit to arbitration any grievance that arose from the interpretation, application, or compliance with any of the agreement’s terms. In regard to plaintiffs right to discipline and discharge its employees, Article III of the agreement reads as follows:

Section 1 — It is agreed that the rights of the management of the Company (the “Management”) have been bargained, and include, but are not limited to, the following:
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H. To establish reasonable rules of employee conduct;
I. To relieve Technicians from duty because of lack of work or other legitimate reasons.
Section 2 — The Company shall also have the exclusive right to direct its employees, the right to hire, promote, demote, transfer, discharge or discipline for just cause and to maintain discipline among employees, and generally manage the Company’s business as it deems best.
Section 3 — The Company construes and the Union recognizes the specific provisions of this bargaining Agreement as constituting limitations and the only limitations upon Company’s right to manage its business.

Article X of the agreement defined the scope of the arbitrator’s power to resolve grievances:

The decision of the arbitrator shall be in writing, shall be conclusive, final and binding upon the parties, and shall be complied with promptly. The arbitrator shall have no power to change, add to, subtract from or modify this agreement, (emphasis added).

As an employed technician, Lilton was covered by the agreement. Plaintiff terminated Lilton’s employment following a series of incidents that plaintiff characterized as “continual misconduct, insubordination, inattention to detail and lack of cooperation.” An arbitration hearing was held after IBEW filed a grievance on behalf of Lilton. At that hearing, plaintiff presented the following summaries of Lilton’s incidences of misconduct.

2/22/90 — Grievant’s failure to spot cheek a recording of “A Current Affair” resulted in the broadcast “sitting on black” for about 15 minutes. (Performance of duty)
1/31/91 — Upon a complaint from Susan Christenbury about the grievant being slow, Coughlan went to the Record Room and told the grievant that rolling back and forth between machines was inefficient. Lilton said he could cue faster his way rather than walking. When Coughlan left, Lilton was still doing it his way. Later on that day Coughlan told Lilton that if he didn’t change, “it would come to a bad end for him.” (Performance of duty and insubordination)
2/1/91 — Lilton was needed in the Record Room and no one knew where he had gone. Shortly afterwards he was seen on the carport deck. He’d been told many times to let the switcher know when he left his post. (Inattention to duties)
2/4/91 — After learning he was needed in Record Room, Coughlan saw Lilton in the hall and told him to go show tape to Tim Lynch and others. Later Coughlan saw someone else showing Lynch. (Insubordination)
2/19/91 — Coughlan noticed Lilton peeking through a crack in the door in the Creative Service Room while other people were doing his work in the Record Room. He told him to come out. Later that day Lilton left Record Room without notice of where he was going. Later saw him walking from ear to building. (Inattention to duties)
2/20/91 — Lilton went to his immediate supervisor, Dick Romine, and to Coughlan to report equipment problems. He tried to get another employee to leave her post to be a witness for him. Some of the “trouble tickets” (problems) reported by Bernard could be duplicated. (Misconduct)
2/21/91 — Romine asked Lilton to work overtime from 4:00 to 5:30 when the [934]*934relief could come in to work until midnight. Lilton said he could work 4:00-12:00, but not 4:00-6:30. (Lack of cooperation)
3/6/91 — Lilton was asked by fellow employees to make a “cart dub” and change the number on the dub sheet. He refused, and in violation of long-standing policy, demanded that Mattei come to record room to make the change herself. (Lack of cooperation)
3/6/91 — Lilton told Romine in a “telling manner” that he was going to load up a tape machine and start recording at the correct time, and if the Satellite receiver 2.3 was not working properly, he was going to record it anyway. Lilton had exhibited this trait several times previously. (Misconduct)

Following the initial incident plaintiff gave Lilton a written reprimand. Lilton received no further warnings from plaintiff prior to his dismissal.

The arbitrator in his opinion set aside Lil-ton’s discharge, but gave him a fourteen day disciplinary suspension. Although the arbitrator agreed with plaintiff that the long list of incidents of misconduct made “an excellent case” for Lilton’s termination, nonetheless he found that plaintiff did not have “just cause” to terminate Lilton as required by the agreement. The arbitrator’s decision stated in part:

Combining the good with the bad, the picture of the grievant that the testimony portrays is the that of a well-educated, well-trained, capable employee of nine years, who, for whatever reason, in the past year progressively became inattentive to his work and sullen, fractious and uncooperative towards management and fellow employees alike.
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... What I’m getting to is that fairness (call it just cause) will not allow the Company to go along over a period of time with the grievant committing more or less benign offenses one after another until one day, having withstood all of the offensive behavior that it was able, to summarily terminate him. Just cause required that an employee be made aware that a particular behavior or behavior pattern will or has put his job in jeopardy.
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Bluebook (online)
932 S.W.2d 932, 155 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2871, 1996 Tenn. App. LEXIS 256, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/adams-tv-of-memphis-inc-v-international-brotherhood-of-electrical-tennctapp-1996.