Publishers' Association of New York City (On Behalf of Its Member, the New York Times Company) v. New York Mailers' Union Number Six

317 F.2d 624, 53 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2253, 1963 U.S. App. LEXIS 5246
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Second Circuit
DecidedMay 20, 1963
Docket347, Docket 27992
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 317 F.2d 624 (Publishers' Association of New York City (On Behalf of Its Member, the New York Times Company) v. New York Mailers' Union Number Six) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Publishers' Association of New York City (On Behalf of Its Member, the New York Times Company) v. New York Mailers' Union Number Six, 317 F.2d 624, 53 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2253, 1963 U.S. App. LEXIS 5246 (2d Cir. 1963).

Opinion

HAYS, Circuit Judge.

The district court granted plaintiff’s motion to compel arbitration of an alleged violation by the Union of a collective agreement and for a stay of the Union’s action pending such arbitration. We affirm the order compelling arbitration but reverse the order granting the stay because of failure to1 comply with the requirements of the Norris-LaGuardia Act, 29 U.S.C. § lOlff.

The Publishers’ Association and the Mailers’ Union were parties to a collective agreement. As is common in the printing and publishing trades the collective agreement required that foremen in the shops of the members of the Publishers’ Association be members of the Union. Section 20-C of the collective agreement provided:

“the Union shall not discipline the Foreman for carrying out the instructions of the Publisher or his representative.”

The agreement contained a broad arbitration clause providing for the submission to arbitration of “all disputes (except discharge cases) arising out of the operation of this agreement, all disputes regarding the interpretation of any portion of this agreement and any and all disputes (except discharge cases) arising out of, relating to, or affecting the operation of this contract.”

Rowan, a foreman at the Times, which is a member of the Association, gave an employee named Kelly, a fellow union member, a disciplinary lay-off of one week as a penalty for certain conduct in the shop. Kelly filed charges against Rowan with the Union, alleging that Rowan had violated the Union’s constitution by the action which he took against Kelly. The Union membership voted to consider the charges and an investigating committee was appointed. The Association submitted a grievance against the Union charging that the Union’s action on Kelly’s complaint constituted a violation of Section 20-C, supra.

The Union refused to arbitrate the Association’s grievance and the Association commenced the present action to compel arbitration and to stay any further action by the Union in processing Kelly’s charges.

We hold that the district court correctly ordered the Union to proceed to arbitration. The dispute, in the words of the arbitration clause, supra, is one “arising out of, relating to, or affecting the operation of” the collective agreement. The only reservation of any dispute from the applicability of the arbitration process which might be thought of as raising any doubt of the arbitrability of the Association grievance is a clause providing that “local union laws not affecting wages, hours, or working conditions and the General Laws of the International Typographical Union shall not be subject to arbitration.” We would have to resolve such a doubt, if one existed, in favor of arbitrability.

“An order to arbitrate the particular grievance should not be denied unless it may be said with positive assurance that the arbitration clause is not susceptible of an interpretation that covers the asserted dispute. Doubts should be resolved in favor of coverage.” United States Steelworkers v. Warrior & Gulf Nav. Co., 363 U.S. 574, 582-583, 80 S.Ct. 1347, 4 L.Ed.2d 1409 (1960).

It would seem reasonable that if the court could properly compel arbitration it could stay, pending arbitration, the acts which are alleged to violate the collective agreement and are the sub *626 ject of the arbitration procedure. But wherever a question of the availability of an injunction arises in a labor context we are called upon to consider the effect of the Norris-LaGuardia Act. That Act limits severely the power of a federal court to issue an injunction in a case involving or growing out of a labor dispute. It is quite clear that the union’s action on the Kelly charges both involves and grows out of a labor dispute.

Absent Section 301 of the Labor-Management Relations Act (29 U.S.C. § 185), there could hardly be any question that the power of the court to enjoin a violation of a collective agreement would be limited by the Norris-LaGuardia Act. If the court has power to enjoin the alleged violation in the present case it has that power only by virtue of the power to compel arbitration which is conferred by Section 301. But we are then faced with exactly the situation with which the Supreme Court dealt in Sinclair Refining Co. v. Atkinson, 370 U.S. 195, 82 S.Ct. 1328, 8 L.Ed.2d 440 (1962). There the Court was called upon to enjoin strikes or work stoppages which were alleged to be violative of a collective agreement providing for arbitration. The Court, holding that the Norris-LaGuardia Act prevented the issuance of such an injunction, stated that there was “no conflict” between an employer’s right to compel arbitration and his inability to secure an injunction against the alleged violation which was the subject of the arbitration.

“The plain fact is that § 301, as passed by Congress, presents no conflict at all with the anti-injunction provisions of the Norris-LaGuardia Act. Obedience to the congressional commands of the Norris-LaGuardia Act does not directly affect the ‘congressional policy in favor of the enforcement of agreements to arbitrate grievance disputes’ * at all for it does not impair the right of an employer to obtain an order compelling arbitration of any dispute that may have been made arbitrable by the provisions of an effective collective bargaining agreement. At the most, what is involved is the question of whether the employer is to be allowed to enjoy the benefits of an injunction along with the right which Congress gave him in § 301 to sue for breach of a collective agreement. And as we have already pointed out, Congress was not willing to insure that enjoyment to an employer at the cost of putting the federal courts back into the business of enjoining strikes and other related peaceful union activities.”

370 U.S. at 213-214, 82 S.Ct. at 1338.

It is true that in the Sinclair case the Court was dealing with alleged contract violations which involved activities removed from federal jurisdiction by Section 4 of the Norris-LaGuardia Act, while in the present case the Union must be held to have failed to establish that the activities which have been enjoined are included in any of the categories of Section 4. However, Section 7 of the Act 1 covers activities which are not covered by Section 4. Section 4 withdraws *627 power to issue an injunction against certain activities. Section 7 applies to injunctions in any cases involving or growing out of a labor dispute and prohibits the issuance of injunctions in all such cases, without regard to the nature of the activities against which the injunction is sought, unless certain procedural requirements are met and unless the court issuing the injunction makes certain findings. Not only have these requirements not been met in the present case but it would clearly be impossible for the court to make the required findings.

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317 F.2d 624, 53 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2253, 1963 U.S. App. LEXIS 5246, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/publishers-association-of-new-york-city-on-behalf-of-its-member-the-new-ca2-1963.