Long v. City of Saginaw

911 F.2d 1192, 1990 WL 116090
Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit·Decided August 14, 1990·No. No. 89-1022·Published·Cited by 23 cases

Opinion

KRUPANSKY, Circuit Judge.

Plaintiffs-appellants Dennis Long, James Maher, Gary Theunick, and Robert Davey (appellants), former officers of the City of Saginaw, Michigan Police Department, have appealed from a summary judgment entered by the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan for defendants-appellees City of Saginaw (the city), Michigan Law Enforcement Union, Teamsters Local 129, and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers of America (the last two appellees collectively “the union”), dismissing appellants’ action challenging the city’s December 13, 1982 furlough-recall amendment to its 1978 affirmative action plan, which amendment allegedly unilaterally deprived the nonminority appellants of their vested recall and seniority rights without due process or equal protection of the law in violation of the fourteenth amendment to the Constitution. 702 F.Supp. 1313.

The evolution of these proceedings discloses that in April of 1974 the City of Saginaw, Michigan directed its Human Relations Commission to formulate an affirmative action program for the city.

Appellants were duly appointed to the police department in July of 1974 after having qualified as a result of successfully completing a series of written, psychological, and physical tests and a required pro[1194]*1194bationary period of service. Contemporaneously with entering upon their duties, appellants became members of the union where they retained their membership during the time here in controversy.

During the period of concern in issue, Act 78, 1935 Public Act 78, Mich.Comp. Laws § 38.501, et seq., mandated that new hires of reinstatements of all public employees were to be based upon relative merit and fitness as reflected by experience and satisfactory performance during a probationary period of employment without consideration of race, creed, or national origin.

On October 28, 1974, acting upon the report of the Human Relations Commission that minorities were “underutilized” in city government, including the police department, the city enacted an affirmative action plan. The plan created the position of affirmative action officer and, among other provisions, directed an 80% minority hiring goal in the police department to be accomplished by newly implemented employment policies. In 1978, the city reenacted its affirmative action program which redefined minority employment goals for minorities in various city departments. The minority employment objectives for the police department were not disturbed ostensibly because the police department was not “currently hiring.” However, despite its announced economic and budgetary limitations, in 1979, the police department initiated a recruitment program targeting minority and female police officer candidates which effort produced an “inadequate” number of minority applicants. This plan continued in force until the December 13, 1982 agreement between the city and the union which is the gravamen of the instant litigation.

On July 1, 1980, the appellees City of Saginaw and the Michigan Law Enforcement Union, Local 129 entered into a three-year collective bargaining agreement to expire July 1, 1983 that incorporated Articles I, VIII, and XII which were virtually the same as those articles appeared in the 1975 and 1977 collective bargaining agreements between the parties. Articles I, VIII, and XII specifically addressed nondiscrimination, layoff, recall, seniority, and retirement and provided the following:

ARTICLE I
Section 3. Non-Discrimination. No person employed in the City police bargaining unit covered by this Agreement shall be discriminated against because of race, religion, sex, creed, color or national origin. The Employer and the Union ascribe to non-discriminatory practices and will encourage applicants for City employment from all racial, religious and nationality groups. The City shall take steps to assure that employment assignments and promotions are given on an equal non-discriminatory basis. Membership in the Union shall be open to every employee covered by this Agreement on a non-discriminatory basis.
ARTICLE VIII
Section 1. In the event Act 78 is no longer applicable to the bargaining unit, layoffs and recalls shall be made in accordance with the provisions contained herein.
Section 2. In the event of layoffs, employees will be laid off according to departmental seniority with the least senior employee being laid off first.
Section 3. Probationary employees will be laid off first.
Section A Employees on layoff shall have rights to recall, such employees will be called back in inverse order of layoff, notice of recall shall be sent to the employee’s last known address by registered or certified mail....
ARTICLE XII
SENIORITY
Seniority of a new officer shall be commenced after the officer has completed his probation period and shall be retroactive from date of his employment. Reemployment shall be covered by Civil Services rules.
* * * * * *
[1195]*1195A. Seniority shall not be affected by the race, color, creed, age, sex, marital status, or dependents of the employee....

In 1975, confronted by an economic crisis, the city had placed a moratorium on police department employment and no new employees were hired thereafter. On June 10, 1980, the police department furloughed seventeen police officers including the appellants herein. At the time of the furloughs and thereafter, appellants’ seniority and recall rights were vested and protected by Act 78, 1935 Public Act 78, Mich.Comp. Laws § 38.501 et seq. and Articles I, VII, and XII of the collective bargaining agreement between the City and the Union under the terms of which the police department would have been required to offer recall to all of the furloughed officers in order of their seniority before recruiting and employing additional police officers.

In 1981, the Michigan Supreme Court, in Local 1383, International Association of Firefighters v. City of Warren, 411 Mich. 642, 311 N.W.2d 702 (1981), decided that the provisions of Act 78 could be modified by a collective bargaining agreement between a political subdivision of government and a union. Shortly after that decision, it appears that, despite the economic crises confronting it, the city undertook action to change its obligation to recall furloughed police officers according to seniority by initiating negotiations with Local 129 to amend the existing collective bargaining agreement which would not expire until July 1, 1983. On December 13, 1982, Local 129 entered into an agreement with the city that permitted the police department to employ one minority applicant from an affirmative action list for every recalled furloughed officer.1 The appellants initially filed this action against the defendants in the state court alleging infringement of the fourteenth amendment, 42 U.S.C. §§ 1981

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Long v. City of Saginaw, 911 F.2d 1192, 1990 WL 116090 (6th Cir. 1990).

911 F.2d 1192 (Long v. City of Saginaw) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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