Local Union No. 639, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen & Helpers of America, Inc. v. Jacobs Transfer Co.

407 F. Supp. 125, 91 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2379, 1976 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 16904
CourtDistrict Court, District of Columbia
DecidedJanuary 30, 1976
DocketCiv. A. No. 74-1568
StatusPublished

This text of 407 F. Supp. 125 (Local Union No. 639, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen & Helpers of America, Inc. v. Jacobs Transfer Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, District of Columbia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Local Union No. 639, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen & Helpers of America, Inc. v. Jacobs Transfer Co., 407 F. Supp. 125, 91 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2379, 1976 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 16904 (D.D.C. 1976).

Opinion

BRYANT, District Judge.

MEMORANDUM

This action is now before the Court on cross motions for summary judgment and Defendant-Intervenor’s alternative motion to dismiss. The action is brought by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers of America, Local 639, to enforce two arbitration awards pursuant to Section 301 of the Labor Management Relations Act (29 U.S.C. § 185).

SUMMARY OF FACTS

Plaintiff International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen [127]*127and Helpers of America, Local 639 (hereinafter “Local 639”) is the exclusive bargaining representative for all driver employees employed by Defendant Jacobs Transfer Company, Inc. (“the Company”) in the Washington Metropolitan Area. Plaintiff and Defendant are both parties to a collective bargaining agreement known as the National Master Freight Agreement and Maryland-District of Columbia City Pick-Up and Delivery Supplemental Agreement.

Defendant-Intervenor Daniel George is an employee of Defendant Jacobs Transfer and a member of Local 639. As a result of George’s discharge from Jacobs Transfer, Defendant-Intervenor National Labor Relations Board (hereinafter “the Board”) found that the Company had committed an unfair labor practice and ordered that George be reinstated with backpay. It was impossible to reinstate George to his former job since the “Ardmore” terminal where he had worked had subsequently been closed. Consequently the Company offered George reinstatement at its facility in Baltimore.

George maintained that the offer violated his seniority rights, although it was the same offer he would have received had he not been discharged in the first place. George filed a formal grievance maintaining that his seniority rights required that he be offered employment in one of the Company’s facilities in the Washington Metropolitan Area. The Eastern Conference Area Committee1 rejected George’s arguments and upheld the Baltimore reinstatement as proper.

The Board subsequently notified the Company that the transfer offer was not adequate compliance with its order. After negotiations, George and the Company entered into a compliance agreement which provided George with reinstatement in a District of Columbia facility (in direct contradiction to the arbitration decision). George’s reinstatement displaced another employee. The union then filed a grievance on behalf of this “bumped” member and others with seniority rights equal to those of George who had not been given a similar transfer option. The Joint Maryland-District of Columbia Area Committee1 upheld Local 639’s elaim and reaffirmed the earlier arbitration award that found George’s proper place of reinstatement was Baltimore. Local 639 then brought this action to enforce the decisions.

BACKGROUND

Daniel George began working for Jacobs Transfer, Inc. on August 11, 1966 at its Ardmore (Maryland) Terminal. He was employed there continuously until he was discharged for “disloyalty” on September 24, 1971. George’s alleged “disloyalty” consisted principally of his distribution of a pamphlet charging that Local 639’s President, Frank DeBrouse, and the then-vice-president and general manager of Jacobs, James Mills (formerly a Local 639 business agent), had combined in opposition to the interests of the union’s members. In addition, George had organized a Committee of Reform within Local 639, filed grievances against the company for not enforcing seniority and starting time rules as well as other contract provisions, and organized a slate of candidates to challenge incumbent union leadership.

George was discharged from his job without being given the ten-day notice required by the collective bargaining agreement. George filed a grievance and requested neutral arbitration by a disinterested third party. He stated that he would not be bound by a decision of the arbitration board, the Maryland-District of Columbia Joint Area Committee, since he believed that both its labor and management members were united in interest against him. The Committee refused to refer the matter to a neutral arbitrator and upheld the discharge.

George had also filed unfair labor practice charges against both Jacobs and Local 639 with the National Labor Rela[128]*128tions Board. George alleged that he had been discriminatorily terminated from his employment due to his internal union activities and that plaintiff Local 639 had attempted to cause George’s employer to discriminate against him. The Board dropped the charges against the union. On January 11, 1973, in Jacobs Transfer, Inc. 201 N.L.R.B. 210, the Board found that the Company had unlawfully discharged George and ordered Jacobs to offer him “immediate and full reinstatement to his former job, without prejudice to his former rights or privileges, and to make him whole for any loss of earnings suffered as a result of the discrimination against him.”

It was impossible to reinstate George in his “former job” since three months prior to the order Jacobs had permanently closed its terminal in Ardmore, Maryland, where George had worked.

Prior to closing its Ardmore facility, Jacobs Transfer had applied to the Joint Maryland-District of Columbia Area Committee for approval of a “change of operations” in order to transfer work being done at Ardmore to its Baltimore, Maryland terminal. In its statement before the Joint Committee, Jacobs indicated that its work force at the Ardmore facility varied from 8 to 12 employees and that it anticipated that the change of operations would require that three Ardmore employees be transferred to the Baltimore terminal. The transfer was approved by the Committee.

The change-of-operations approval called for offering employment in any new work generated in Baltimore, as a result of the transfer, to former Ardmore employees in the order of their seniority. (Five employees were transferred to the Baltimore facility instead of the anticipated three.) Employees who elected to transfer had their seniority dove-tailed into the seniority list at the Baltimore terminal. Those who elected not to transfer were placed on lay-off status at Ardmore, while others who desired to transfer but who did not have sufficient seniority to obtain an available position in Baltimore were similarly placed on lay-off status in Baltimore. Neither of the groups of laid-off employees were offered transfers to any other facilities of the Company.

In an attempt to comply with the Board’s reinstatement order, Jacobs offered to reinstate Daniel George at its Baltimore terminal. (George had greater seniority than two of the five transferred employees, and therefore would have qualified to transfer to Baltimore had he not been discharged.)

George, by this time a candidate for office in Local 639, refused to accept the transfer, which would have placed him within the jurisdiction of another local union and would have made him ineligible to run for union office in Local 639. George rejected the Baltimore reinstatement offer, arguing that it was not in accord with the collective bargaining agreement between the Company and Local 639. He was then placed on layoff status at Ardmore, Maryland.

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Bluebook (online)
407 F. Supp. 125, 91 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2379, 1976 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 16904, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/local-union-no-639-international-brotherhood-of-teamsters-chauffeurs-dcd-1976.