Sims v. Sheet Metal Workers International Ass'n, Local Union No. 65

353 F. Supp. 22, 5 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 557, 1972 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10790, 5 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 8081
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Ohio
DecidedDecember 8, 1972
DocketC 71-100, C 71-1108
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 353 F. Supp. 22 (Sims v. Sheet Metal Workers International Ass'n, Local Union No. 65) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Ohio primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Sims v. Sheet Metal Workers International Ass'n, Local Union No. 65, 353 F. Supp. 22, 5 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 557, 1972 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10790, 5 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 8081 (N.D. Ohio 1972).

Opinion

ORDER

KRUPANSKY, District Judge.

This is a class action initiated by the plaintiffs for declaratory judgment, injunctive relief, and damages to redress the deprivation of rights secured to the plaintiffs, and members of the class, by the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution, by 42 U.S.C. §§ 1981 and 1983, and by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq.).

United States of America v. Sheet Metal Workers International Association, Local Union No. 65, et al., C711108, was on March 3, 1972, ordered consolidated for trial with these proceedings.

Jurisdiction of this Court is properly invoked pursuant to 28 U.S.C. §§ 2201 and 2202, 28 U.S.C. § 1343(3) (4) relating to action under 42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq.

Briefly summarized, plaintiffs’ Complaint charges that the defendants, prior to July 2, 1965, the effective date of Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, maintained and perpetuated a referral system and an admission policy to journeyman and apprenticeship status which discriminated against them individually and collectively on the basis of race, col- or and national origin. Plaintiffs further assert that the past discrimination has continued into the present. The specific discriminatory admission requirements include an age limitation, a residence requirement, a formal education, non-job oriented written examinations, limited membership, limited written qualifying examinations and limited apprenticeship training programs.

The criteria of Rule 23(a) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure having been satisfied, plaintiffs’ Motion to Proceed as a Class Action is granted. It Is Therefore Ordered, pursuant to Rule 23(c)(3), that the plaintiffs herein may maintain this action as individuals and as a Class Action on behalf of all minorities similarly situated.

Plaintiff Sims is a thirty-year old black with some related sheet metal employment primarily as a welder who applied for full journeyman status with Local No. 65 during May of 1968, and took its written examination but did not receive a qualifying score, and was thereafter refused admission to the Union. Since failing the examination, he has not applied for or taken a re-examination.

Plaintiffs Joseph Foster, a semiskilled black sheet metal worker, and Joseph Young, a black, unskilled in the sheet metal trade, applied for and took the apprenticeship examination during July of 1970. Both individuals received qualifying grades and placed 21st and 26th respectively among a group of 130 participants. Plaintiffs Foster and Young had not, at the commencement of these proceedings, been indentured to *24 permit completion of the apprenticeship program requisite to qualifying for journeyman status.

Prevailing national and local economic conditions affecting the construction trades permitted the indenturing of the first 18 applicants in order of their respective grade achievement on the examination administered immediately preceding the commencement of this action.

On July 7, 1972, the Court Ordered all parties to the action to preserve the status quo pending final disposition of this ease.

Defendant Sheet Metal Workers International Association, Local Union No. 65 organized in 1903 (hereinafter referred to as Local 65) is an unincorporated association within the meaning of Ohio Rev.Code § 1745.01. It is a labor organization with a membership of approximately 1,000 journeymen construction sheet metal workers, and 128 additional production line and limited members. It is the sole bargaining agent for its membership as to the conditions of employment, labor disputes, wages, hourly rates of pay, grievances, and all related matters. Local 65 also participates in the administration and implementation of the sheet metal apprenticeship program operated by the Joint Sheet Metal Apprenticeship Committee.

Defendant Joint Sheet Metal Apprenticeship Committee (hereinafter referred to as JAC) is an unincorporated association within the meaning of Ohio Rev.Code § 1745.01. It is composed of representatives from Local 65, the Sheet Metal and Air Conditioning Contractors National Association, and the Cleveland and Cuyahoga County Sheet Metal Contractors Association, Inc. Its offices are situated in the same building as those of Local 65. JAC administers and implements the apprenticeship program. It has the responsibility of establishing standards prerequisite to qualifying for application to take examinations including but not limited to age and residence requirements, education and experience requirements; it determines the frequency of administering written examinations, oral interviews; the size of apprenticeship classes; the indenturing procedures; the scope and substance of written examinations; the grading procedures, and related matters. The apprenticeship program as initiated by Local 65 in 1920, provides vocational education, based upon related classroom instructions, and upon planned, supervised, progressive on-the-job training.

Defendant Sheet Metal and Air Conditioning Contractors National Association —Cleveland (formerly known as the Sheet Metal Employers Association and hereinafter referred to as Employers Association) is a nonprofit organization organized under the laws of the State of Ohio. The Employers Association is a party to the collective bargaining agreement executed with defendant Local 65.

Defendant Cuyahoga County Sheet Metal Contractors Association, Inc. (hereinafter referred to as Contractors Association) is a nonprofit corporation organized under the laws of the State of Ohio. It also is a party to the collective bargaining agreement executed with Local 65, and is also represented on the JAC.

Apparent from the record, prior to the summer of 1963, Local 65 and the JAC pursued a historical pattern of racial discrimination in membership admission policies.

Born of confrontation and controversy surrounding the Cleveland Mall Construction Project, the testing procedures here in issue emerged as the produet of exhaustive negotiations among a coalition of civil rights groups including the Urban League, NAACP, Job Seekers, Freedom Fighters collectively known as the United Freedom Movement, the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce, the Cleveland Community Relations Board, the Mayor of the City of Cleveland, and officers of Local 65 and JAC.

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353 F. Supp. 22, 5 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 557, 1972 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10790, 5 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 8081, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sims-v-sheet-metal-workers-international-assn-local-union-no-65-ohnd-1972.