Scott v. Pacific Maritime Ass'n

695 F.2d 1199, 1983 U.S. App. LEXIS 27747, 30 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 33,284, 30 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 1517
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedJanuary 7, 1983
DocketNos. 81-4243, 81-4364
StatusPublished
Cited by26 cases

This text of 695 F.2d 1199 (Scott v. Pacific Maritime Ass'n) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Scott v. Pacific Maritime Ass'n, 695 F.2d 1199, 1983 U.S. App. LEXIS 27747, 30 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 33,284, 30 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 1517 (9th Cir. 1983).

Opinion

JAMESON, District Judge:

Plain tiffs-appellants appeal from a judgment holding that they failed to establish a violation of Title VII and 42 U.S.C. § 1981 based on racial discrimination in employment. We affirm.

[1201]*1201I. Background

Plaintiffs-appellants are 20 black and one Asian/Pacific Islander longshoremen who brought this action seeking relief under Title VII (42 U.S.C. § 2000e, et seq.) and 42 U.S.C. § 1981 for discrimination in employment due to race. Defendants-appellees are the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA), International Longshoremen’s and Warehousemen’s Union (ILWU), Local 10 of ILWU, and Local 34 of ILWU. PMA is a collective bargaining agent and association of marine employers consisting of shipping, stevedoring, and terminal companies operating on the Pacific Coast. PMA’s members employ longshoremen, ships clerks, and other dock workers. ILWU is a labor organization representing longshoremen, ships clerks, and other workers in the United States and Canada. Local 10, is an ILWU affiliate which represents longshoremen in the ports of San Francisco and Oakland. Local 34 is an ILWU affiliate which represents ships clerks in San Francisco, Oakland, and other ports in Northern California.

Longshoremen and ships clerks are the two principal job categories associated with the loading and unloading of sea borne cargo. Longshoremen perform the actual loading and unloading of the cargo; the clerks perform the associated record keeping functions and ensure proper positioning of cargo.

All of the defendants are parties to a single collective bargaining agreement - the ILWU - PMA Pacific Longshore and Clerks Agreement - which is in turn embodied in the Pacific Coast Longshore Contract Document and the Pacific Coast Clerks Contract Document. These documents set forth the terms and conditions of employment of longshoremen and clerks. Because of the often unpredictable level and sporadic nature of work in the waterfront industry on the Pacific Coast, workers are classified in three groups, giving priority to certain workers in the assignment to available jobs. This system has been in existence since the 1950’s.

A. Registration System

Class A registered workers have first priority to the type of work (either clerk or longshore) for which they are registered. Only “A” registered clerks are eligible for membership in Local 34 and only “A” registered longshoremen are eligible for membership in Local 10. A pay guaranty plan in the collective bargaining agreement ensures “A” workers a minimum weekly amount so long as they make themselves available for work, whether or not work is available.

Class B registered workers have second, priority to the type of work for which they are registered. “B” workers are covered by the pay guaranty plan at a lower level.

Registration of “B” workers, whether longshoremen or clerks, begins with a decision by the appropriate joint labor-management port committee that work opportunity justifies the addition of new workers to the existing pool of both “A” and “B” workers. Applicants for partial or “B” registration are solicited from the community at large. After successfully completing a screening process they are “B” registered. Class B longshoremen and clerks receive second preference in dispatch and function somewhat as apprentices before being advanced to “A” status and full membership in the Union. Class B workers are advanced in the order of their registration.

“Casual” or “Social Security” workers are not registered in the industry and can receive job assignments only after “A” and “B” workers have been given an opportunity to take available jobs. They are not included in the pay guaranty plan.

B. Tripartite Agreement

In 1972, following a severe curtailment of job opportunities, the defendants entered into a Tripartite Agreement to reduce pay guaranty plan payments to longshoremen.1 [1202]*1202Extra clerk-type work would be given to idle longshoremen by dispatching 35 longshoremen out of the clerk’s hall to clerk jobs.

These 35 “extra clerks” or “longshore clerks" would be dispatched after the class A and B clerks, but would retain their class A status in Local 10. The district court found that it was the understanding of PMA that those assigned to work under the Tripartite Agreement would be disabled longshoremen who, unable to perform the strenuous tasks required of their longshore jobs, would otherwise collect large amounts from the pay guaranty plan. A significant number of longshore clerks, however, are not disabled.

The plaintiffs are all class A longshoremen, members of Local 10, who have been working as longshore clerks2 out of the clerk’s hall pursuant to the Tripartite Agreement. The plaintiffs claim that the failure to give them class A status in Local 34 (clerks) ahead of class B clerks and even more senior class A longshoremen constitutes impermissible racial discrimination.

C. Membership in Local 34

There are two principal ways of acquiring full membership in Local 34: First, Class A longshoremen with five years of full registration may be eligible to apply for transfer to Class A registered clerk status and retain all seniority, pension, welfare, vacation and dispatch preference.3 Due to depression in the waterfront industry, Local 34 (clerks) needed to undergo an attrition in its membership. As a result, the last transfer of Class A longshoremen to Class A clerk status occurred in 1970.4 Second, Class B clerks may be advanced to Class A status. The last Class B list was established in 1969 and was 18% black.5

D. Permissive Rule

The “permissive rule,” which is applicable to all longshore and clerk locals on the Pacific Coast, provides that the son or daughter of a deceased longshoreman or clerk is to be granted Class B registration if he or she is the sole support of the deceased’s widow, is over the age of 18 years, and applies within 30 days of the father’s death or within 30 days after reaching 18. Since the adoption of the rule in 1963 only 18 persons were partially registered as Class B clerks by Local 34 pursuant to this rule.

II. Proceedings Below

Squire Scott filed a charge of racial discrimination with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on July 27, 1978. Similar charges by the other plaintiffs followed. In August, 1979, plaintiffs received a right to sue in federal court, and the original complaint was filed 90 days thereafter. On the day before trial, defendants moved for partial summary judgment on the grounds, among others, that (1) the claims of those plaintiffs who did not timely file or failed to file with the EEOC should be dismissed, and (2) the scope of the action should be limited to those claims based on the operation of the permissive rule. The motions were denied.

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Bluebook (online)
695 F.2d 1199, 1983 U.S. App. LEXIS 27747, 30 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 33,284, 30 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 1517, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/scott-v-pacific-maritime-assn-ca9-1983.