Consolidation Coal Co. v. United Mine Workers, Local Union No. 6869

362 F. Supp. 1073, 84 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2091, 1973 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12338
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. West Virginia
DecidedAugust 10, 1973
DocketCiv. A. 1338
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 362 F. Supp. 1073 (Consolidation Coal Co. v. United Mine Workers, Local Union No. 6869) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. West Virginia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Consolidation Coal Co. v. United Mine Workers, Local Union No. 6869, 362 F. Supp. 1073, 84 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2091, 1973 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12338 (S.D.W. Va. 1973).

Opinion

*1075 MEMORANDUM ORDER

K. K. HALL, District Judge.

Plaintiff is engaged in the business of mining and selling bituminous coal, an industry affecting commerce as defined in the Labor Management Relations Act, 1947, as amended, 29 U.S.C. § 152(6) and (7). Plaintiff’s Pocahontas Fuel Company Division operates the Buckeye mine in Wyoming County, West Virginia. The defendant, Local Union No. 6869 of the United Mine Workers of America, is an unincorporated labor organization representing, for collective bargaining purposes, its members who are employed at plaintiff’s Buckeye mine. Production and maintenance workers at the mine are covered by the National Bituminous Coal Wage Agreement of 1971, effective November 12, 1971, until November 12, 1974. The agreement provides procedures for settlement of disputes. Article XVII provides in part as follows:

Should differences arise between the Mine Workers and the Employer as to the meaning and application of the provisions of this agreement, or should differences arise about matters not specifically mentioned in this agreement, or should any local trouble of any kind arise at the mine, an earnest effort shall be made to settle such differences at the earliest practicable time. .

Paragraph 10 of plaintiff’s original complaint, filed March 2, 1972, asserts:

The local, however, has breached the agreement between the parties in that beginning in November 1971, and on a number of occasions to the present time, one or more and, upon occasions, all of its members, have failed and refused to follow the grievance procedure aforesaid, including the duty to continue to work during the settlement of disputes as provided by the agreement.

Plaintiff sought and obtained a temporary restraining order, on March 3, 1972, against defendant, its officers, representatives and members, restraining them from continuance of a work stoppage then existing and from picketing or in any manner interfering with orderly resumption of work and orderly operations at the Buckeye mine. The restraining order was extended but was later vacated on March 20, 1972, upon a showing that the grievance causing the work stoppage had been settled through procedures of the National Bituminous Coal Wage Agreement of 1971.

The complaint further asked for a preliminary and permanent injunction enjoining “defendant Local 6869, its officers, representatives, and members, and all persons acting in concert with them or on their behalf” from continuing work stoppages and interference with operations at plaintiff’s Buckeye mine and requiring them to utilize the settlement of disputes procedures written into the 1971 labor agreement for the resolution of grievances, differences, or local trouble at the mine.

Among interim developments, plaintiff filed an amended complaint, a motion for a preliminary injunction, a motion for a permanent injunction, and a motion for partial summary judgment. The motion for partial summary judgment, later amended, was for an adjudication of defendant’s liability for monetary losses and damages sustained by plaintiff due to the mine work stoppages claimed to be in violation of the 1971 agreement. The motion contemplated a later hearing on the issue of damages due to plaintiff on account of each breach of the agreement. The claim for damages in the motion is consistent with the prayer for compensatory damages in plaintiff’s complaint.

Following Court hearings, commencing on February 20, 1973, on the pending motions for injunction and for partial summary judgment, the action was submitted to the Court for decision on the record, including the testimony and exhibits presented at the hearings, and upon briefs and memoranda submitted by counsel.

The Court’s jurisdiction of the action is based on 29 U.S.C. § 185(a). Boys *1076 Markets, Inc. v. Retail Clerk’s Union, Local 770, 398 U.S. 235, 90 S.Ct. 1583, 26 L.Ed.2d 199 (1970).

Upon the record, including the evidence and in consideration of the briefs and memoranda of counsel, four primary and determinative issues emerge:

1. Is the defendant, Local Union No. 6869, bound by the terms of the National Bituminous Coal Wage Agreement of 1971?

2. Does the 1971 agreement include implied no-strike provisions ?

3. Is plaintiff’s motion for a preliminary or permanent injunction tenable in the absence of a present dispute ?

4. Is defendant legally liable for work stoppages in violation of the 1971 agreement ?

LOCAL UNION PROPER PARTY DEFENDANT

The local union is a labor organization under provisions of 29 U.S.C. § 185. Parks v. International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, 314 F.2d 886, 917 (4th Cir. 1963). The constitution of International Union of United Mine Workers of America, introduced as Plaintiff’s Exhibit No. 9, in Section 2 of Article III, provides in part:

All Districts, Sub-Districts and Local Unions must be chartered by, and shall be under the jurisdiction of and subject to the law of the International Union and rulings of the International Executive Board.

Article VI of the constitution provides for establishment of local unions. See Monborne v. United Mine Workers of America, 342 F.Supp. 718, 722 (W.D.Pa.1972). While Local Union No. 6869 was not itself a signatory to the 1971 agreement, the applicable law cannot be construed so as to insulate the local union from liability and obligations thereunder. As stated by Chief Judge Bernard T. Moynahan, Jr., in his opinion in United States Steel Corporation v. United Mine Workers of America, reported in 77 L.R.R.M. 3134, at 3135 (E.D.Ky.1971):

In Atkinson v. Sinclair Refining Co., 370 U.S. 238, [82 S.Ct. 1318, 8 L.Ed.2d 462] 50 LRRM 2433 (1962) and in United States Steel Corp. v. United Mine Workers of America, 320 F.Supp. 743, 77 LRRM 2308 (W.D.Pa.1970), the latter case involving the same collective bargaining agreement as involved herein, the Courts held that an. action may be maintained against a local union under 29 U.S.C. 185 although arising from a collective bargaining agreement executed only by the parent union. Obviously it would be totally anomalous to ordinary equity jurisprudence to allow the members of a local union to reap the benefits of an agreement and yet to hold the local union to be beyond an action brought for enforcement of the agreement.

The 1971 agreement was executed by “the International Union, United Mine Workers of America ...

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362 F. Supp. 1073, 84 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2091, 1973 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12338, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/consolidation-coal-co-v-united-mine-workers-local-union-no-6869-wvsd-1973.