Evans v. Local Union 2127, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers

313 F. Supp. 1354, 14 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 602, 1969 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13466, 2 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 10,172, 2 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 483
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Georgia
DecidedDecember 17, 1969
DocketCiv. A. No. 12861
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 313 F. Supp. 1354 (Evans v. Local Union 2127, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Evans v. Local Union 2127, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, 313 F. Supp. 1354, 14 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 602, 1969 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13466, 2 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 10,172, 2 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 483 (N.D. Ga. 1969).

Opinion

SIDNEY O. SMITH, Jr., Chief Judge.

This is a class action in which plaintiff seeks a declaratory judgment, in junctive relief and damages for alleged racial discrimination in employment practices, and alleged breaches of duty by the defendant union in negotiating collective bargaining agreements which plaintiff asserts are unlawfully discriminatory. Jurisdiction is invoked pursuant to 28 U.S.C.A. § 2201 et seq., 28 U.S.C.A. § 1343, 42 U.S.C.A. § 1981, and 42 U.S.C.A. § 2000e et seq. Defendants have made four motions, which will be considered in the order filed.

CORPORATION’S MOTION TO STRIKE

Defendant I-T-E Imperial Corporation has moved to strike portions of Complaint Paragraph XIII and Complaint Paragraph XV which describe the filing of complaints with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Commission’s notification of the defendant Company that a complaint had been filed, and the Commission’s probable cause letter to the plaintiff. Defendant objects that the allegations are immaterial, impertinent and unduly prejudicial.

In King v. Georgia Power Co., 295 F.Supp. 943 (N.D.Ga.1968), plaintiffs attached a copy of the EEOC decision to the complaint. It was stricken on the ground that the provisions of 42 U.S.C.A. § 2000e-5(a) prohibit the publication or use as evidence of anything said or done during the Commission’s attempts at reconciliation. But the Court held that the language referred not to the EEOC investigation or finding of reasonable cause, but only to the endeavors to eliminate unlawful practices by conference, conciliation or persuasion. Id. at 948. In the instant case, plaintiff has merely alleged that certain Title VII procedures have been followed. Furthermore, in Moreman v. Georgia Power Co., 310 F.Supp. 327 (N.D.Ga. March 13, 1969) (Order on Georgia Power Co.’s Motions), recitation of the procedural steps plaintiff took before the EEOC was held not to be unduly prejudicial. Accordingly, defendant’s motion to strike is denied.

Defendant I-T-E Imperial Corporation has also moved to strike that part of Complaint Paragraph XIII which alleges that at a Company meeting after the Company had been notified that plaintiff filed a complaint with the EEOC, plaintiff and other black employees were admonished and threatened for violating a nonexistent shop rule about using segregated plant restrooms. The Court agrees with the defendant that since plaintiff does not seek relief as to such working conditions, the allegation does not seem directly related to the relief presently sought. However, as plaintiff argues, the allegation does relate to other unlawful Company acts, such as reprisals for filing an unlawful discrimination charge, unlawful pursuant to 42 U.S.C.A. § 2000e-3, or maintenance of unlawfully discriminatory working conditions. It does not therefore seem provident to remove this allegation this early in the case. Accordingly, defendant’s motion to strike is denied. A motion to strike should be denied where there is a reasonable possibility the allegation made will be an issue. 2A Moore’s Federal Practice ¶ 12.21 (2d Ed. 1969).

[1358]*1358UNION’S MOTIONS TO DISMISS AND STRIKE

Defendant Local 2127 has filed a motion to dismiss based on four arguments.

(1) The entire complaint should be dismissed. As a whole it fails to state a claim upon which relief can be granted against the Union, because Count I does not allege that the Union engaged in discrimination, and because the complaint does not allege that charges were filed against and served upon the Union in compliance with 42 U.S.C.A. § 2000e-5.

To the contrary, Count I clearly charges that the Union negotiated the 1966 and 1968 collective bargaining agreements containing the allegedly discriminatory seniority provisions. Compaint Paragraphs VIII and IX. And it appears from the decision of the EEOC that charges were served upon the Union on February 2, 1968. Plaintiff’s Answers to Defendant I-T-E Imperial Corporation’s First Interrogatories, Exhibit B. Accordingly, defendant’s motion cannot be granted on these grounds.

(2) The entire complaint should be dismissed because it shows on its face that plaintiff failed to exhaust grievance and arbitration procedures available under the collective bargaining agreement. This contention has been answered by the Court in King v. Georgia Power Co., 295 F.Supp. 943 (N.D.Ga.1968). There, this Court held that since an action under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 invokes statutory rather than contractual rights, plaintiffs need only follow the procedures set forth under the statute. Id. at 949. Since this suit also invokes statutory rights, the exhaustion doctrine is similarly inapplicable. Accordingly, the Union’s motion is unsupported by these premises.

(3) The whole complaint should be dismissed because in substance it is an action for injunction of a labor dispute, and the Norris-LaGuardia Act, 29 U.S.C. A. § 101 et seq. bars federal courts from granting such relief, except in certain circumstances not present here. A literal reading of 29 U.S.C.A. § 113 (c) probably brings the instant controversy into the Act’s definition of “labor dispute.” See Textile Workers Union of America v. Lincoln Mills, 353 U.S. 448, 458, 77 S.Ct. 912, 1 L.Ed.2d 972 (1957). However, civil actions under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act are specifically exempted from the anti-injunction provisions of the Norris-LaGuardia Act. 42 U.S.C.A. § 2000e-5(h). And even before the enactment of Title VII, the United States Supreme Court had held that the Norris-LaGuardia Act does not deprive federal courts of jurisdiction to compel compliance with positive mandates of the Railway Labor Act enacted for the benefit and protection, within a particular field, of the same groups whose rights are preserved by the Norris-LaGuardia Act. Graham v. Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen & Enginemen, 338 U.S. 232, 70 S.Ct. 14, 94 L.Ed. 22 (1949); Virginian R. Co. v. System Federation No. 40, 300 U.S. 515, 57 S.Ct. 592, 81 L.Ed. 789 (1937).

In Syres v. Oil Workers International Union, Local No. 23, 350 U.S. 892, 76 S.Ct. 152, 100 L.Ed. 785 (1955), where the Union’s alleged duty was governed by the National Labor Relations Act, the Court allowed an injunction prohibiting enforcement of a racially discriminatory collective bargaining agreement, because the decisions in Graham v. Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen & Enginemen, 338 U.S. 232, 70 S.Ct. 14, 94 L.Ed. 22 (1949) and Virginian R. Co. v. System Federation No. 40, 300 U.S. 515, 57 S.Ct. 592, 81 L.Ed. 789 (1937) were not predicated on any peculiarity of the anti-discrimination provisions of the Railway Labor Act. Textile Workers Union of America v. Lincoln Mills, 353 U.S. 448, 77 S.Ct. 912, 1 L.Ed.2d 972 (1957).

The reasoning of Lincoln Mills, Graham and Virginian is persuasive in this action to block racial discrimination.

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Bluebook (online)
313 F. Supp. 1354, 14 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 602, 1969 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13466, 2 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 10,172, 2 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 483, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/evans-v-local-union-2127-international-brotherhood-of-electrical-workers-gand-1969.