Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. Local 638 ... Local 28 of Sheet Metal Workers' International Ass'n

532 F.2d 821, 1976 U.S. App. LEXIS 12490, 11 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 10,757, 12 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 755
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Second Circuit
DecidedMarch 8, 1976
DocketNos. 464, 465, Dockets 75-6079, 75-6093
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 532 F.2d 821 (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. Local 638 ... Local 28 of Sheet Metal Workers' International Ass'n) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. Local 638 ... Local 28 of Sheet Metal Workers' International Ass'n, 532 F.2d 821, 1976 U.S. App. LEXIS 12490, 11 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 10,757, 12 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 755 (2d Cir. 1976).

Opinions

J. JOSEPH SMITH, Circuit Judge:

This appeal requires this court to confront, again, one of the most important and difficult questions currently facing the federal judiciary: the nature and scope of permissible remedies under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq.

Local 28 of the Sheet Metal Workers’ International Association (hereinafter Local 28) is a union, based in New York City, with [824]*824about 3,500 members. Of this number, approximately three percent are persons of minority descent.1 The sheet metal workers who belong to Local 28 fabricate and install ducts and other equipment for ventilating, air-conditioning and heating systems. Local 28 maintains jurisdiction over all five of the City’s boroughs and exercises complete control over entry into the sheet metal trade in New York City.

The Sheet Metal and Air-Conditioning Contractors’ Association of New York City, Inc. (hereinafter the Contractors’ Association) is a trade organization of builders who do sheet metal construction work. The Contractors’ Association has a collective bargaining agreement with Local 28 and the firms which compose the Association normally employ 70-80 percent of the members of Local 28.

The Joint Apprenticeship Committee (hereinafter the JAC) is a body of three representatives from Local 28 and the Contractors’ Association which oversees a training program for apprentice sheet metal workers. This program involves four years of classroom and on-the-job training at the end of which time the apprentices normally graduate to journeyman status and full membership in Local 28.

This appeal has its origins in a broad-reaching action initiated by the Justice De-partment2 against several New York City construction unions under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. That action charged the defendant unions and their respective apprenticeship programs with instituting and maintaining discriminatory membership policies in violation of federal law. However, the various unions were granted separate trials and, thus, the only defendants-appellants in this appeal are Local 28, the JAC, and the sheet metal Contractors’ Association.3

In the proceeding below in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, Local 28 and the JAC were found to have violated Title VII’s ban on discriminatory employment and membership practices. The court, Henry F. Werker, Judge, thereupon ordered a variety of remedial actions, including, inter alia, the institution of a court-appointed administrator to oversee Local 28 and the JAC, the payment of back pay to certain victims of past discrimination, the imposition of a remedial racial membership goal upon Local 28 and the replacement of one of the present JAC representatives with a new representative of minority descent.

Local 28 and the JAC appeal from Judge Werker’s factual findings as to past discriminatory practices. They also contest the nature of the remedy ordered below. The EEOC and the City of New York seek to uphold the factual findings and the remedial order of the district court except that they seek modification of Judge Werker’s back-pay order so as to expand the class of persons eligible for a back-pay award.

For the reasons outlined below, we modify the district court’s order and, as modified, affirm.

I. FACTUAL BACKGROUND

Local 28 and the JAC are no strangers to the courts. In 1964, the New York State Commission for Human Rights, after an administrative hearing, found that Local 28 and the JAC had maintained discriminatory hiring practices in violation of New York law. That finding was specifically affirmed, upon review, by ihe Supreme Court of New York. State Commission for [825]*825Human Rights v. Farrell, 43 Misc.2d 958, 252 N.Y.S.2d 649, 652 (Sup.Ct, N.Y. County, 1964). As a result of that judgment, Local 28 and the JAC have been subject to a state judicial decree mandating certain procedures to insure nondiscriminatory recruitment and membership practices.

In April and July of 1974, Judge Murray I. Gurfein, sitting in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, issued interim orders against Local 28 and the JAC, requiring that certain minority applicants be accepted into the sheet metal apprenticeship program. Finally, Judge Henry F. Werker, after a three-week trial beginning in January of 1975, found that Local 28 and the JAC had violated Title VII. It is the findings and remedies of this last proceeding which are presently on appeal.

Local 28 and the JAC argue here that there was insufficient evidence to support Judge Werker’s findings. We disagree.

The provisions of Title VII relevant here make it unlawful for a labor union, such as Local 28/ “to discriminate against, any individual because of his race ... or national origin,” to refuse “applicants for membership . . . because of such individual’s race ... or national origin,” and to “cause an employer,” such as the members of the Contractors’ Association, “to discriminate against an individual” on account of race or national origin. 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2(c). In addition, Title VII forbids a labor union or apprenticeship committee, such as the JAC, from discriminating “against any individual because of his race ... or national origin.” 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2(d).

In the record before Judge Werker, there was ample evidence to find that Local 28 and the JAC had violated these statutory provisions.

There are four means by which an individual can be admitted to membership in Local 28. The majority of Local 28 members are admitted upon graduation from the apprenticeship program administered by the JAC. In addition, persons in allied, “sister” unions in the construction industry may be allowed to transfer directly into Local 28, without prior training in the apprenticeship program. There is a third route onto the Local 28 membership rolls by which an individual may take a battery of journeyman-level tests, without formal apprentice training or membership in an allied union, and upon passage of these examinations, the individual is certified as a journeyman and admitted to Local 28. Finally, sheet metal workers in nonunion shops become members of Local 28 if Local 28 subsequently organizes their shop, and if their employer certifies that his workers perform at journeyman standards. Local 28 also issues temporary work permits to individuals who are not permanent members of the union of sheet metal workers.

There is ample evidence that all the routes into Local 28 have been blocked to minority group members as a result of discriminatory practices by Local 28 and the JAC. The trial record in this case is voluminous and the facts before the district court were more than adequate to sustain its findings. We describe some of these facts briefly to indicate the consideration behind our decision that, as Judge Werker found, Local 28 and the JAC have consistently and egregiously violated Title VII.

Entrance into the apprenticeship program is gained by passing certain written and manual' tests and by possession of a high school diploma.

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532 F.2d 821, 1976 U.S. App. LEXIS 12490, 11 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 10,757, 12 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 755, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/equal-employment-opportunity-commission-v-local-638-local-28-of-sheet-ca2-1976.