Cuna Mutual Insur v. Int'l Union 39

CourtCourt of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
DecidedMarch 16, 2006
Docket05-1021
StatusPublished

This text of Cuna Mutual Insur v. Int'l Union 39 (Cuna Mutual Insur v. Int'l Union 39) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cuna Mutual Insur v. Int'l Union 39, (7th Cir. 2006).

Opinion

In the United States Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit ____________

Nos. 05-1021 & 05-1226 CUNA MUTUAL INSURANCE SOCIETY, Plaintiff-Appellant, v.

OFFICE AND PROFESSIONAL EMPLOYEES INTERNATIONAL UNION, LOCAL 39, Defendant-Appellee. ____________ Appeals from the United States District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin. No. 04 C 0138—Barbara B. Crabb, Chief Judge. ____________ ARGUED SEPTEMBER 20, 2005—DECIDED MARCH 16, 2006 ____________

Before CUDAHY, KANNE, and ROVNER, Circuit Judges. CUDAHY, Circuit Judge. The appellant CUNA Mutual Insurance Society (CUNA) brought an action in the dis- trict court to vacate part of an arbitration award in which the arbitrator determined that CUNA had violated its collective bargaining agreement (CBA) with the appellee Office and Professional Employees International Union, Local 39 (Local 39). The parties agreed to have the mat- ter decided on cross-motions for summary judgment. After the parties filed their cross-motions and responses, Local 39 filed a motion for Rule 11 sanctions against CUNA. The district court denied CUNA’s motion for summary judg- 2 Nos. 05-1021 & 05-1226

ment, granted Local 39’s motion for summary judgment and granted Local 39’s motion for sanctions under Rule 11. CUNA now appeals only the portion of the district court’s award that granted Local 39’s motion for Rule 11 sanctions. For the following reasons, we affirm the judgment of the district court.

I. Background The plaintiff CUNA and the defendant Local 39 were parties to a CBA covering roughly 1400 CUNA employees, including about 150 who worked in a support services division providing housekeeping, cafeteria services and other maintenance services. The present case arose under this CBA, which became effective April 1, 2001 and expired on March 31, 2004. The plaintiff CUNA underwrites, markets and administers insurance and financial products for credit unions and their members. The defendant Local 39, a labor union, represents roughly 1,430 people employed by the plaintiff in Madison, Wisconsin. Article XIX of the governing CBA details a procedure for grievance resolution. According to Article XIX, all griev- ances had to be put in writing and had to articulate the nature of the dispute, the relief sought and the specific article and section of the agreement alleged to be vio- lated. The procedure required several steps to be taken to resolve the grievance before it went to arbitration. If the attempts at resolution were unsuccessful, either party could appeal the grievance to arbitration. Article XIX, Section 4 of the CBA states, “[t]he suggested relief and the article and section cited shall be considered a formal framing of the issue or remedy if the issue is arbitrated.” The procedure for selecting an arbitrator is set out in Article XIX, Section 5 of the CBA. This Section states that the “decision of the arbitrator shall be final and binding upon the Employer, the Union and the Employee(s) present- Nos. 05-1021 & 05-1226 3

ing the grievance.” Additionally, “the arbitrator shall not change, but shall interpret only, the terms of this Agreement.”

A. Grievance Filing On July 18, 2002, CUNA advised Local 39 of its intent to outsource twenty-two housekeeping jobs and three other positions as a cost-saving measure. Local 39 proposed alternative methods of cost saving that did not involve outsourcing work, but these were rejected. On August 20, 2002, Local 39 filed a grievance regarding layoffs that were impending. The grievance read, in relevant part: The Employer is implementing a layoff resulting in a reduction of the bargaining unit of up to 25 em- ployees without showing such reduction is ‘necessary’ in accordance with Article XX, Section 1. . . . This griev- ance is also subject to any other contract violations determined after the investigation or grievance process begins. The grievance did not mention any article or section of the agreement other than Sections 1 and 2 of Article XX. On August 30, CUNA issued layoff notices to roughly twenty-two housekeeping or janitorial employees working in the support services department. CUNA cited the partial outsourcing of certain housekeeping or janitorial operations to independent contractors as the reason for the layoffs.

B. Arbitration Local 39 appealed the grievance to arbitration and a hearing was held on October 28, 2003. The arbitrator conducted a one-day hearing and subsequently issued a written decision on February 26, 2004. The arbitrator identified two main issues for resolution based on the 4 Nos. 05-1021 & 05-1226

arguments of the parties: “(1) Whether the issue of the propriety of the Company’s outsourcing of certain bargain- ing unit work in September 2002 is arbitrable”; and “(2) Whether, if the issue is arbitrable, the Company vio- lated the parties’ collective bargaining agreement when it outsourced that bargaining unit work and, if so, what is the appropriate remedy.” CUNA argued that the arbitrator did not have jurisdiction to address any outsourcing challenge because: “(1) the agreement required that a written grievance refer to the specific article and section allegedly violated; (2) the grievance in this dispute referred to Sections 1 and 2 of Article XX, which dealt exclusively with layoffs; and (3) Article XX did not prohibit outsourcing and was not con- cerned with the underlying causes of layoffs.” CUNA further argued that the agreement was silent regarding the plaintiff’s ability to outsource work. CUNA participated in the remainder of the arbitration, but did not waive its position that the arbitrator lacked the authority to rule on whether its outsourcing violated labor contract provisions not cited in the written grievance. On February 26, 2004, Arbitrator Cohen issued a writ- ten decision on the issues. He first found that the case was properly before him. He noted that Article XX re- quires that any “lesser reduction” (i.e. less than fifty employees) of the bargaining unit be “necessary.” To interpret “necessary,” he found that the plaintiff had to show that there was a legitimate reason to justify the layoffs. He determined that the question whether outsourcing constituted a legitimate reason to justify the layoffs is necessarily encompassed in the grievance, and thus he had authority to rule on the outsourcing issue. He then ruled on the other issues. He found that CUNA’s layoffs violated the layoff procedure, and also that the underlying outsourcing violated several provisions of the CBA. Nos. 05-1021 & 05-1226 5

Arbitrator Cohen ultimately sustained the grievance and directed, as a remedy, that the work be restored to the bargaining unit. He also directed the parties to attempt to resolve, themselves, whether employees suffered lost wages and benefits, and if so, whether and how much they should be compensated. He retained jurisdiction of this issue so that he could step in “to resolve any controversy” regarding implementation of the award. Of note is an earlier arbitration award of November 23, 2002. In that case, Arbitrator Herbert Berman issued an arbitration award involving the same parties, in which he interpreted Article XIX, Section 5, of the contract as prohibiting the resolution of an issue not expressly raised in the grievance. This decision was never brought to Arbitrator Cohen’s attention.

C. District Court Action In March 2004, CUNA brought an action in the Western District of Wisconsin to vacate the arbitration award in part. CUNA’s lawsuit sought to vacate the portion of the award that held that the Company’s outsourcing vio- lates provisions of the CBA. It also sought to vacate the arbitration award’s remedial provisions which advised the parties to privately resolve the issue of damages for affected employees. CUNA did not challenge the Arbitrator’s ruling that the layoffs implemented by CUNA violated layoff procedures.

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