Trustees for Michigan Laborers Health Care Fund v. M.M. Vander Veen Construction Co.

736 F. Supp. 138, 1989 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 17030, 1989 WL 205332
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. Michigan
DecidedMarch 15, 1989
DocketL88-51-CA5
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 736 F. Supp. 138 (Trustees for Michigan Laborers Health Care Fund v. M.M. Vander Veen Construction Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. Michigan primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Trustees for Michigan Laborers Health Care Fund v. M.M. Vander Veen Construction Co., 736 F. Supp. 138, 1989 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 17030, 1989 WL 205332 (W.D. Mich. 1989).

Opinion

OPINION

ROBERT HOLMES BELL, District Judge.

Defendant employer moves for summary judgment on plaintiff fund trustees’ claims for contributions for (1) periods after the defendant employer allegedly repudiated a prehire agreement with the union site, and (2) periods after the expiration of controlling collective bargaining agreements.

Defendant employer M.M. Vander Veen Construction Company (Vander Veen) is a construction company. Plaintiffs are trustees for employee benefit funds, established pursuant to 29 U.S.C. §§ 186 and 1001, and a general contractor’s association. Specifically they are: (1) Trustees for Michigan Laborers Health Care Fund, State of Michigan Laborers District Council Pension Fund, State of Michigan Laborers District Council Training and Education Fund (Laborers), (2) Trustees for Michigan Carpenters Council Health Care Fund, Michigan Carpenters Council Pension Fund, Michigan Carpenters Council Apprenticeship & Training Fund (Carpenters), and (3) Michi *140 gan Chapter, Associated General Contractors of America (Contractors).

All three plaintiffs seek contributions from Vander Veen based upon collective bargaining agreements obligating Vander Veen to contribute to the Carpenters and Laborers funds and the Contractor’s Industry Advancement Contributions fund. Plaintiff Laborers also asserts that an Employer Registration form between the Trustees for Michigan Laborers’ Insurance Fund, Michigan Laborers’ Vacation Fund, and State of Michigan Laborers’ District Council Pension Fund and Vander Veen obligates Vander Veen to contribute to the funds.

Defendant Vander Veen has entered into various collective bargaining agreements with plaintiffs dating back to at least 1970. Vander Veen did not enter these collective bargaining agreements as a member of a multi-employer bargaining organization, such as, the Southwestern Michigan Contractors’ Association, Michigan Chapter, Associated General Contractors of America (Contractors). Rather, Vander Veen entered into the collective bargaining agreements under a separate contract as “an employer who is not a member of the signatory group covered” by the collective bargaining agreement between the Contractors and Laborers or Carpenters. On April 9, 1970, Vander Veen signed an employer registration form (Laborers’ Exhibit E) which obligated Vander Veen to contribute to the employee benefit funds as specified in the current and future collective bargaining agreements between the Contractors and Laborers. The registration form also purported to obligate Vander Veen to abide by all terms of the trust plans then in effect or amended. It also contained a year-to-year roll-over provision with a 60 day pre-anniversary notice requirement for termination. Further, the agreement applied to all of Vander Veen’s work within a 23 county area in which the Laborers’ operated. On October 18, 1971, (Plaintiffs’ Exhibit F) March 9, 1979, (Plaintiffs’ Exhibit F) and June 15, 1979, (Plaintiffs’ Exhibit I) Vander Veen similarly obligated itself to the terms and conditions of collective bargaining agreements with the Carpenters. That agreement also contained a roll-over provision obligating Vander Veen under subsequent agreements between the Contractors and Carpenters. Essentially these agreements obligated Vander Veen to comply with the terms of the collective bargaining agreements between the Contractors and the Laborers and Carpenters from term to term for projects in the areas in which the Laborers and Carpenters operated. Other agreements also exist in which handwritten terms limit their scope to commercial as opposed to residential construction (Plaintiffs’ Exhibits H and J) or to a specific project.

During the period relevant to this action Vander Veen appears to have operated throughout southwest Michigan as a project-to-project employer (,See Vander Veen Deposition). One of these projects was construction work in Grand Haven, Michigan, at a Meijers, Inc. facility. (Grand Haven project). On July 13, 1984, Vander Veen notified the Carpenters and the Laborers unions and their affiliated benefit funds, including all plaintiffs in this present action, that Vander Veen was repudiating all prehire agreements relating to the Grand Haven project. Specifically the letters stated:

You are hereby notified that the M.W. Vander Veen Company repudiates such agreement as it relates to the work conducted on the job site of Meijer Store No. 18, Grand Haven, Michigan. From and after this date, M.W. Vander Veen Company will not be bound by any of the terms of such agreement on the above project, and will not be obligated to make fringe benefit contributions called for in the agreement based on such work, (emphasis in original)

In its present motion employer Vander Veen moves for summary judgment on plaintiff fund trustees’ claims for contributions for (1) periods after the defendant employer allegedly repudiated a prehire agreement with the unions as to the Grand Haven project, and (2) periods after the expiration of controlling collective bargaining agreements. The parties dispute the *141 legal effect of both the employment agreements and recent case law on their claims. This Court must decide whether it, as opposed to the National Labor Relation Board (NLRB), has jurisdiction over an action in which significant union representational issues exist. Also, this Court must decide whether to retroactively apply the recent case of John Deklewa & Sons, 282 NLRB 184, aff'd 843 F.2d 770 (3rd Cir.1988), which declared unilateral repudiations of prehire agreements to be ineffective. Further, if Deklewa does not apply retroactively, then this Court must determine whether Vander Veen’s attempted repudiation of the prehire agreement was effective. Additionally, this Court must determine the effect of the attempted repudiation on the employer registration form. Finally this Court is requested to when the collective bargaining agreements expired and whether plaintiffs can enforce the expired collective bargaining agreements.

Jurisdiction

This Court must decide whether it has jurisdiction over this action under Section 301 of the Labor Relation Management Act of 1947, 29 U.S.C. § 185, (Taft-Hartley) and Section 502 of the employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, 29 U.S.C. § 1132, (ERISA) as an action arising out of an alleged past, not current, violation of a collective bargaining agreement. However, plaintiffs’ claims implicate representational issues of the unions’ majority status, which are within the original jurisdiction of the NLRB. National Automatic Sprinkler Industry Pension Fund v. American Automatic Fire Protection, 680 F.Supp. 731 (D.M.D.1988). Even though representation issues are within the primary jurisdiction of the NLRB, Vander Veen has presented no authority holding that the NLRB has exclusive jurisdiction over representational issues.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
736 F. Supp. 138, 1989 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 17030, 1989 WL 205332, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/trustees-for-michigan-laborers-health-care-fund-v-mm-vander-veen-miwd-1989.