General Electric Co. v. International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace & Agricultural Implement Workers

568 F. Supp. 1138, 1983 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14754, 100 Lab. Cas. (CCH) 10,831
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. Ohio
DecidedAugust 10, 1983
DocketNo. C-1-82-402
StatusPublished

This text of 568 F. Supp. 1138 (General Electric Co. v. International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace & Agricultural Implement Workers) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. Ohio primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
General Electric Co. v. International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace & Agricultural Implement Workers, 568 F. Supp. 1138, 1983 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14754, 100 Lab. Cas. (CCH) 10,831 (S.D. Ohio 1983).

Opinion

FINDINGS OF FACT AND CONCLUSIONS OF LAW

SPIEGEL, District Judge:

Plaintiff General Electric Company brought this action for damages pursuant to § 301 of the Labor Management Relations Act, 29 U.S.C. § 185. Plaintiff alleges that defendant Local 647 authorized an illegal strike March 23, 1982 at plaintiff’s factory at Evendale, Ohio. In particular, plaintiff asserts that the cause of the strike was the Blanton incident which involved the alleged choking of a union member by a foreman, an incident which at the time of the strike had not been subject to the complete grievance process. Local 647 maintains that the cause of the strike was a series of unresolved grievances and thus that the strike was legal under the exception to the no-strike clause embodied in the collective bargaining agreement between the parties.

This matter was bifurcated for trial. The question of liability was tried to the bench with the parties agreeing that the sole issue was whether the March, 1982 strike was [1139]*1139called by Local 647 in violation of the collective bargaining agreement.

The Court finds that the cause of the March 1982 strike was unresolved grievances. The strike was thus legal under the terms of the collective bargaining agreement, and accordingly, the claims of General Electric must be dismissed. The following constitutes our Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law.

FINDINGS OF FACT

Background

The following facts were established pri- or to trial by admissions in the pleadings and stipulations of counsel.

Plaintiff General Electric Company (GE) is a New York corporation with a place of business and factory at Evendale, Ohio where it produces aircraft engines. Plaintiff is an employer engaged in an industry affecting commerce within the meanings of §§ 2(2), and (7) and 501 of the Labor Management Relations Act of 1947, 29 U.S.C. § 152(2), (7) and 142.

Defendant Local 647 serves with the International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America as the exclusive bargaining representative for certain GE employees employed at the Evendale factory. Local 647 is a labor organization within the meaning of 29 U.S.C. § 152(5).

GE and Local 647 were parties to a collective bargaining agreement effective from July 16, 1979 until July 11, 1982. Article XXIII of the agreement generally prohibits strikes during the term of the contract. However, subsection two of Article XXIII creates an exception to the general no-strike rule and permits mid-term" strikes “[i]n the event that a grievance which has been processed through all of the respective steps of the grievance procedure as set forth in Article XXI remains unsettled, and the Company thereafter refuses to arbitrate the grievance.” The parties typically refer to a grievance which falls within the classification described by Article XXIII(2) as an “unresolved grievance”.

On the evening of March 23, 1982 Local 647 called a strike. The strike lasted until the morning of March 27, 1982.

Local 647 did not notify GE that it intended to call a strike. Neither did it identify the reason(s) for the strike until some time after the strike began.

Bill Adams, president of Local 647, subsequently identified six grievances as the basis for the strike in a phone call with Robert Young, GE’s Manager of Union Relations. Local 647 requested arbitration of these six grievances in two letters dated October 12, 1981; GE denied arbitration of these grievances by letters dated November 11, 1981.

An additional four grievances were later identified as causes for the March 1982 strike. Local 647 had requested arbitration of these grievances in letters dated October 23, 1981 and November 9, 1981; GE denied arbitration of these grievances by letters dated February 1, 1982. These ten grievances are thus unresolved grievances within the meaning of Article XXIII(2).

The parties had not specifically discussed any of these grievances in the three months preceding the March 1982 strike. These grievances were also not discussed at the third-step grievance meetings between GE representatives and Local 647’s bargaining committee March 22, 1982 and March 23, 1982.

On March 5, 1982 a GE foreman named Blanton allegedly choked a Local 647 member. Blanton was suspended for two weeks, returning to his former position on March 22, 1982, the day before the strike was called. During the week preceding the strike, members of Local 647’s bargaining committee on several occasions raised the Blanton incident with GE management personnel. The Blanton incident was not an unresolved grievance for it had not been presented through the grievance procedure established by the collective bargaining agreement.

Discussion

If the Blanton incident was the cause of the March 1982 strike, then the strike was clearly illegal as that incident was not an [1140]*1140unresolved grievance and thus could not be the basis for a mid-term strike pursuant to Article XXIII(2). On the other hand, if unresolved grievances were the reason for the strike, then the strike was legal under Article XXIII(2), the exception to the no-strike clause.

The reasons for which a strike is called is a factual determination. Ryder Truck Lines, Inc. v. Teamsters Freight Local Union No. 480, 705 F.2d 851, 856-58 (6th Cir.1982). Statements by union officials or by management personnel of the strike employer are not dispositive. Rather the Court is obliged to look at all the circumstances leading up to and surrounding the strike, including statements by and actions of both labor and management.

Strikes may be called for more than one reason. Plaintiff’s position is that if the March 1982 strike was called because of unresolved grievances and the Blanton incident, then the strike was illegal. GE relies upon the decisions of arbitrators interpreting similar collective bargaining agreements in which the arbitrators place the burden on the union to show “clear affinity ... between the proximate cause of the walkout and the exhausted grievance.” General Electric Company (IUE, Local 119-Philadelphia, Pa.), National Docket No. 22,-516 (Cahn, 1970).

We disagree and find this interpretation of Article XXIII(2) inapplicable to a Section 301 suit for damages brought by an employer. In that situation, the burden is clearly on the plaintiff employer to prove that the strike was called for impermissible reasons. If there is more than one reason for a strike, and one of the reasons is impermissible under the terms of the collective bargaining agreement, the proper test is whether the strike would have occurred even in the absence of the impermissible reason.

Our view is that the most appropriate analogy to multiple-cause strikes are the mixed motive discharge cases. In Mount Healthy City Board of Education v. Doyle, 429 U.S. 274, 97 S.Ct.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
568 F. Supp. 1138, 1983 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14754, 100 Lab. Cas. (CCH) 10,831, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/general-electric-co-v-international-union-united-automobile-aerospace-ohsd-1983.