United Brick & Clay Workers of America v. A. P. Green Fire Brick Co.

232 F. Supp. 223, 57 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2159, 1964 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7727
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Missouri
DecidedMay 26, 1964
DocketNo. 63 C 425(1)
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 232 F. Supp. 223 (United Brick & Clay Workers of America v. A. P. Green Fire Brick Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United Brick & Clay Workers of America v. A. P. Green Fire Brick Co., 232 F. Supp. 223, 57 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2159, 1964 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7727 (E.D. Mo. 1964).

Opinion

HARPER, Chief Judge.

This is a suit brought by plaintiffs, United Brick and Clay Workers of America and Local 790, United Brick & Clay Workers of America (hereinafter referred to as the Union). Jurisdiction of this court rests upon Section 301 of the Labor Management Relations Act of 1947, as amended, 29 U.S.C.A. 185. The Union represents employees in an industry affecting commerce. Defendant, A. P. Green Firebrick Company (hereinafter referred to as the Company) is a business corporation organized and existing under law.

The Union seeks to compel the Company to process, and if necessary, arbitrate, grievances under a collective bargaining agreement (Plaintiffs’ Exhibit 1). The Company refuses to process the Union’s grievances and refuses to arbitrate the same.

The Union and Company negotiated language for a collective bargaining agreement and signed an “agreement”, dated November 11, 1963. Article V of the agreement sets out the grievance procedure (see Appendix) and states basically that in the event any grievance and dispute shall not have been satisfactorily settled in the grievance procedure, “and if the issue involves the interpretation or application of provisions of this agreement” the issue shall be decided by arbitration. Paragraph 5 of Section 2 of the grievance procedure further provides the arbitrator shall not, however, have the powers to altex-, disregard and/or amend any of the provisions of this agreement. Sections 1, 2 and 3 of Article VI (see Appendix) labeled “Hours of Work”, are interpreted by the Union as requiring the Company to pay overtime rates to Saturday workers, which the Company refuses to do, and further, the Company refuses to px-ocess the grievance or submit the same to arbitration.

The Company admits that it signed the agreement, but denies that the agreement constitutes a valid contract or agreement' between the Company and the Union. The Company requests that the signed agreement be adjudged of no force or effect and that plaintiffs’ prayer for relief be denied.

The facts of this cause are undisputed. The main plant of the Company is in Mexico, Missouri, where the Company was founded over fifty years ago. Prior to 1963 the Company’s employees at its Mexico plant were not represented by any union. On July 24, 1963, subsequent to the Company’s employees electing to be represented by the Union, negotiation of a labor contract was commenced. The negotiations were concluded on November 5, 1963. There were approximately eleven negotiation meetings in total. The matters discussed covered the full range of subjects normally included in a labor contract.

In the negotiations the Company was represented by a committee composed of George Sullivan, Vice-President and Director of Industrial Relations; Ferris Munday, Director of Operations; L. B. Hawthorne, Jr., Personnel Manager; and [225]*225Charles H. Spoehrer, St. Louis attorney and representative of the Company in labor relations. The Union was represented by its negotiating committee, composed of William Power, President of the Local 790; Otis Shelton, Vice-President; William Powell, Financial Secretary ; Donald Shay, Recording Secretary; and Raymond Dollens, Treasurer. These men are long-time employees of the Company. The international union was represented by Messrs. Harold Flegal, Ollie Messer, Ed McKay and Willie Bryant.

The Company had in effect in certain of its departments in its plant at Mexico, Missouri, a six-day work week, Monday through Saturday. Employees in these departments work five of the six days. The work shifts are rotated so that each employee works approximately the same number of Saturdays. This practice has been in effect for more than thirty years. No overtime or premium pay has ever been given for the Saturday work, unless an employee worked in excess of forty hours per week or eight hours per day. The members of the Union negotiating committee were aware of the Company’s practice in this work scheduling and that the Company never gave premium pay for the Saturday work. This practice was never questioned or mentioned by either the Union or the Company throughout the entire period of negotiations.

Discussion took place during the negotiations concerning Sections 1 and 2 of Article VI. Several changes were made to the initial draft first submitted by the Union. First, the sentence providing for the payment of double time for the seventh consecutive day worked in the work week was moved from Section 2 to Section 1. Second, the sentence excepting prospecting employees was added to Section 1. Third, the sentence providing that the definitions of the work week and the work day should not apply to continuous operations was added to Section 2. The court finds that these changes have little or no bearing on the questions before it.

Final agreement on all the terms of the agreement was reached on November 5, 1963; the Company had copies of the agreement, dated November 11, 1963, typed up and copies delivered to the Union. The Union had a meeting on Sunday, November 10, 1963, or Monday, November 11, 1963, where the membership voted to ratify the agreement. However, a question arose at the meeting concerning the interpretation of Article VI. The international union’s representative informed the meeting that Article VI meant that the workers in the departments affected by the Company’s work scheduling practice would be paid time and one-half for work performed on Saturday when it constitutes the fifth day work in the week, even though the total hours worked in the week do not exceed forty. Several local Union men, including William Power, were of the opposite opinion.

On November 11, 1963, subsequent to the Union meeting, Power brought copies of the agreement to George Sullivan, Vice-President and Director of the Company’s industrial relations, which had been executed by the Union. Sullivan signed ten copies of the agreement. Power then asked Sullivan what he thought Sections 1 and 2 of Article VI meant. Power then told Sullivan of the interpretation question discussed at the Union meeting.

Between November 12, 1963, and November 14, 1963, Mr. Spoehrer, the Company’s lawyer, contacted the international union to inquire about their interpretation of Article VI and to express the Company’s disagreement with the Union’s interpretation. On November 14, 1963, the Company sent a telegram (Defendant’s Exhibit A) to the Union’s international representatives which plainly indicated that the Company took the position that the Company and the Union had not reached a meeting of minds and that there was no agreement or contract between them if the Union understood the contract to require premium pay for Saturday work. The Union replied that it deemed the contract to be a valid one and that if the Company had some question [226]*226concerning interpretation of any clause it should be handled through the grievance procedure set forth in Article V of the agreement.

The matter of whether or not premium pay is given for Saturday work is highly important to the Company. If the Company were required to give premium pay for the work done on Saturday, in accordance with the Union’s contention, the additional annual wage costs would be between $100,000.00 and $145,000.00. The Company cannot discontinue the practice of scheduling of production over a six-day week.

Several recent United States Supreme Court cases have involved the enforcement of arbitration provisions in collective bargaining agreements. United Steelworkers of America v. Warrior & Gulf Navig.

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232 F. Supp. 223, 57 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2159, 1964 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7727, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-brick-clay-workers-of-america-v-a-p-green-fire-brick-co-moed-1964.