Aguilera v. Pirelli Armstrong Tire Corp.

223 F.3d 1010, 2000 WL 1271078
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedSeptember 8, 2000
DocketNo. 98-16899
StatusPublished
Cited by52 cases

This text of 223 F.3d 1010 (Aguilera v. Pirelli Armstrong Tire Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Aguilera v. Pirelli Armstrong Tire Corp., 223 F.3d 1010, 2000 WL 1271078 (9th Cir. 2000).

Opinion

HUG, Chief Judge:

The questions before us are whether the appellants’ state law fraud and breach of contract claims against their former employer are preempted by section 301 of the Labor Management Relations Act (“LMRA”), 29 U.S.C. § 185, and whether them statutory claim was properly dismissed. The district court granted summary judgment to the appellants’ former employer on the appellants’ claims brought under California law, ruling that section 301 preempted them. The court also held that the appellants’ state statutory and public policy claims were barred by the applicable statute of limitations or, in the alternative, were without merit. We affirm the district court’s judgment in all respects.

I BACKGROUND

Rodolfo Abella and other workers (collectively “appellants” or “replacements”), were hired as strike replacements during a United Rubber Workers’ strike at Pirelli Armstrong Tire Corporation’s (“Pirelli”) tire manufacturing plant in Hanford, California. The United Rubber Workers Union Local 703 (“union”) represented the production and maintenance employees at Pirelli for the purposes of collective bargaining. In May 1994, Pirelli and the union began .negotiations to replace an expiring collective bargaining agreement (“CBA”). When the negotiations failed in July 1994, more than 500 union employees began a strike at the Hanford plant.

In August 1994, Pirelli began hiring temporary replacement workers to replace the striking workforce. Pirelli continued to hire replacement workers on a staggered basis and subsequently converted temporary replacements to permanent replacements. The appellants were replacement workers hired in September and October 1994 and contend that at the time [1013]*1013they were hired, they were promised that they would be permanent employees who would not subsequently be replaced by returning strikers. The terms and conditions of the appellants’ employment were not expressly governed by a CBA.

On September 14, 1994, the union filed unfair labor practice charges against Pirel-li with the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”). In a decision issued February 24, 1995, the NLRB regional director agreed with the union that Pirelli had engaged in unfair labor practices. On February 28, 1995, the union offered to settle the strike and return to work. Pirelli’s appeal of the NLRB Regional Director’s decision was denied without comment on March 7, 1995. Pirelli then accepted the union’s offer to return to work on March 8, 1995.

In order to accommodate returning strikers, Pirelli laid off the 207 replacement workers who were hired after October 3, 1994, because they had the lowest seniority. Replacement employees with “clock numbers” 3561 or lower (hired on or before October 3, 1994) were retained; those with clock numbers higher than 3561 (hired after October 3, 1994) were laid off with future rehire rights. Strikers returned to work beginning March 13, 1995. The appellants-all of whom were hired on or before October 3, 1994-were not laid off at this time.

Pirelli and the union entered into a new CBA on March 27, 1995. The CBA recognized the union as “the exclusive collective bargaining agent for the employees” of Pirelli. Appellants were employed in collective bargaining unit positions during and after the strike and became members of the union at the conclusion of the strike pursuant to the terms of the CBA, which conditioned future employment on union membership. Former strikers retained seniority when the strike ended based on original hire dates.

During the strike, Pirelli’s tire sales dropped nearly 25% from pre-strike levels. Diminished sales continued after the strike ended and Pirelli’s post-strike earnings were lower than management projections. Consequently, on September 23, 1995, Pi-relli laid off 175 union workers with the least seniority, including the appellants.

The appellants did not file union grievances following their layoffs. They instead chose to file suit in the district court on November 1, 1995. That case, Anderson v. Pirelli Armstrong Tire Corporation, was originally brought by three named plaintiffs and pled as a class action on behalf of the 175 former replacement employees laid off during the September 1995 reduction in force. The operative facts and legal arguments in Anderson were identical to those in the instant case and each appellant herein was a putative class member in the Anderson case. The Anderson class was never certified and in March 1997, the district court granted summary judgment for Pirelli on all counts of the complaint. We affirmed in an unpublished Memorandum Disposition. See Anderson v. Pirelli Armstrong Tire Corp., 152 F.3d 923, 1998 WL 385528 (9th Cir.1998).1

The instant suit was filed February 27, 1997. The complaint alleged state law causes of action for fraud, negligent misrepresentation, breach of individual employment contract, violation of California Labor Code § 970, and discharge in violation of the public policy expressed in California Labor Code § 970. On August 31, 1998, the district court issued an opinion granting Pirelli’s summary judgment motion. The court found that (1) the state law fraud, negligent misrepresentation and [1014]*1014breach of contract claims were preempted by the Labor Management Relations Act § 301 as each claim required an interpretation of the CBA; (2) the breach of contract, negligent misrepresentation and fraud claims were also preempted by the National Labor Relations Act, 29 U.S.C. § 151, et seq., as the claims involve “arguably prohibited” activity (unfair labor practices) within the exclusive jurisdiction of. the NLRB; and (3) the California Labor Code and public policy claims were barred by the applicable statute of limitations or otherwise lacked merit. This appeal, in which the appellants abandoned the negligent misrepresentation claims, followed. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291, and we affirm.

II STANDARD OF REVIEW

We review a grant of summary judgment de novo and we will affirm only if, viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party, there are no genuine issues of material fact and the trial court correctly applied the substantive law. See Robi v. Reed, 173 F.3d 736, 739 (9th Cir.1999). The district court’s decision regarding preemption is reviewed de novo. See Niehaus v. Greyhound Lines Inc., 173 F.3d 1207, 1211 (9th Cir.1999).

III DISCUSSION

(A) Section 301 Preemption

Section 301 of the LMRA preempts state law claims that are based directly on rights created by a collective bargaining agreement, and also preempts claims that are substantially dependent on an interpretation of a collective bargaining agreement. See Beals v. Kiewit Pacific Co., Inc., 114 F.3d 892, 894 (9th Cir.1997) (citing Caterpillar, Inc. v. Williams,

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223 F.3d 1010, 2000 WL 1271078, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/aguilera-v-pirelli-armstrong-tire-corp-ca9-2000.