Milwaukee Typographical Union No. 23 v. Newspapers, Inc.

482 F. Supp. 1238, 1980 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9964
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Wisconsin
DecidedJanuary 31, 1980
DocketCiv. A. No. 79-C-649
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 482 F. Supp. 1238 (Milwaukee Typographical Union No. 23 v. Newspapers, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Wisconsin primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Milwaukee Typographical Union No. 23 v. Newspapers, Inc., 482 F. Supp. 1238, 1980 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9964 (E.D. Wis. 1980).

Opinion

DECISION AND ORDER

REYNOLDS, Chief Judge.

This is an action brought pursuant to § 301 of the Labor Management Relations Act, 29 U.S.C. § 185, for enforcement of an arbitrator’s award made pursuant to the provisions of a collective bargaining agreement in effect between the petitioner Milwaukee Typographical Union No. 23 and the respondent Newspapers, Inc. The respondent has moved the court to dismiss the petition on the ground that the arbitrator’s award exceeded his authority and is unenforceable. For the following reasons, the motion will be denied.

Paragraph five of Section 4 of the collective bargaining agreement provides:

“In the event of the introduction into Composing Room work of any process, machinery or equipment which functions as a substitute for, or evolution of, the typesetting and typecasting processes that were in use at the date this contract became effective, all questions concerned with the method of operation, the complement of men required or the retraining of affected employes shall be determined by [1239]*1239the Joint Standing Committee, which shall give due consideration to priority with regard to any question of retraining presented to it.”

Section 7 of the agreement provides in part:

“ * * * To this [Joint Standing] committee shall be referred all questions that may arise regarding this contract or any alleged violation thereof, which cannot be settled otherwise. * * * If the committee does not reach an agreement within fifteen (15) days of the date of transmission of notice of difference, the questions in dispute shall, on request of either party to the agreement, be submitted to arbitration * * *. * * ”

The petitioner represents employes in respondent’s Composing Room; it does not represent other of respondent’s employes. Sometime in 1976, the respondent introduced certain technological changes into its Editorial Department which had an undisputed impact on the work performed in the Composing Room. Petitioner filed a grievance relating to the impact on the job elements in the Composing Room caused by said change. On March 29, 1979, Arbitrator Carl A. Warns, Jr., issued a decision upholding the respondent’s right to make the technological changes, but concluding:

“2. I find, however, that the introduction of the Hendrix system, a technological change, has sufficient impact on the job elements of the Composing Room as to warrant the imposition of a duty to bargain about such impact.
“3. The parties are directed to bargain in good faith according to the guidelines of Sections 8(a)(5) and 9(b)(3) of the National Labor Relations Act, As Amended. If the parties are unable to reach agreement within 60 days of the receipt of this Award, the matter shall be returned to a mutually selected Arbitrator, or if none can be agreed upon, to this Arbitrator for a specific ruling. This ruling shall be made within 30 days of the close of the hearing.”

The respondent argues that having found no contract violation, the arbitrator was not free to impose a remedy for what he perceived as an inequity in the existing contract where the contract itself did not allow for such remedy. See, e. g., City Electric, Inc. v. Local Union 77, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, 517 F.2d 616 (9th Cir. 1975), cert. denied 423 U.S. 894, 96 S.Ct. 194, 46 L.Ed.2d 127, holding that an arbitrator may deal only with what exists in a contract and may not bring in ad hoc modifications. The respondent also argues that the third paragraph of the award is an interest arbitration provision of the type found to be impermissible in Milwaukee Newspaper & Graphic Communications Union Local No. 23 v. Newspapers, Inc., 586 F.2d 19 (7th Cir. 1978), cert. denied 440 U.S. 971, 99 S.Ct. 1534, 59 L.Ed.2d 787 (1979). Finally, the respondent argues:

“The fatal flaw in Petitioner’s argument is the claim that the ‘new process’ clause [paragraph five of Section 4], which relates only to new technology in the composing room, also applies to technological change introduced into other departments of the Employer. Of equal importance is the fact that the ‘new process’ clause does not relate to the impact on the composing room of technology used in other departments. Instead, this clause -requires arbitration with respect to only three narrowly defined questions: ‘the.method of operation, the complement of men required or the retraining of affected employees’ arising from new composing room technology. Therefore, the ‘new process’ clause cannot be construed to require negotiation or arbitration over the impact on the composing room of technology in other departments of the Employer.” (Emphasis in original.) (Respondent’s reply brief filed December 11, 1979, at p. 3.)

United Steelworkers of America v. Enterprise Wheel & Car Corp., 363 U.S. 593, 599, 80 S.Ct. 1358, 1362, 4 L.Ed.2d 1424 (1960), states:

[1240]*1240“ * * * the question of interpretation of the collective bargaining agreement is a question for the arbitrator. It is the arbitrator’s construction which was bargained for; and so far as the arbitrator’s decision concerns construction of the contract, the courts have no business overruling him because their interpretation of the contract is different from his.”

Arbitrator Warns found that the contract between petitioner and respondent did not prevent the respondent from introducing technological changes into its Editorial Department even if those changes had an impact on the Composing Room. He also found, however, that the correct interpretation of paragraph five of Section 4 of the contract is not the interpretation argued for by the respondent and set forth above but rather:

“ * * * I also agree with the Union that the words ‘Composing Room,’ historically understood, do not necessarily imply that the defined jurisdiction of the Composing Room and the Joint Stánding Committee regarding changes are limited to a prescribed physical area. ‘Function and purpose’ emphasized by the Company, are utilitarian, to be viewed in the context of the practical setting in which they apply. Section 4 is more than a listing of unit classifications — the words ‘in the event of the introduction into Composing Room work of any process, machinery or equipment which functions as a substitute for, or evolution of, the typesetting processes that were in use . ’ delegates to the Joint Standing Committee the responsibility of accommodating Management’s legitimate right and responsibility to keep abreast of new developments in order to survive in the marketplace with the right of the members of the bargaining unit to maintain their productive role in the enterprise and to support their families.” (Arbitrator Warns’ decision at p. 12.)

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Bluebook (online)
482 F. Supp. 1238, 1980 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9964, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/milwaukee-typographical-union-no-23-v-newspapers-inc-wied-1980.