George H. VOILAS; John Trippa; Walt Wenski; Marietta
Berenato; Johnny M. Dollson; Augusta Budd, Individually
and on Behalf of All Other Persons Similarly Situated;
Lottie Ferguson; John Mellodge; Silvia Albarran; Robert
L. Aldridge; Carmen C. Alicea; Beatrice P. Amison; Gerald
P. Amison; Shirley Anderson; Joseph R. Andrews, Jr.; Mary
Lou Arcamone; Mary B. Austin; Samuel A. Badessa; James
Bailey; Raymond Bayzath; Jose Beauchamps; Mary L.
Benjamin; George R. Beres; Jozefa Bielski; Leon R. Boyer;
Richard M. Bracy; William F. Brady, Jr.; Richard Briggs;
Freddie L. Brimley; Herbert Brooker; James Brophy; James
Browne; Victoria Brown; Hector G. Burgos; John E. Burres;
Adelyn Burroughs; Robert C. Case; Margaret Chambuc;
Patricia F. Charyak; Elmont Cheesman; Vincent J. Chesney;
Matteo Cipriano; Benjamin Cole; Thomas J. Coleman; Gloria
M. Collazo; Fred M. Como; David M. Cope, Sr.; Maria T.
Cowell; William R. Craft; Patricia Crammer; Joann Crea;
Luz M. Cruz; Edward R. Culver; Mary L. Czap; Sophie
Dardzinski; Dolores M. DeGennaro; Myrtle Delbaugh;
Barbara Derry; Margaree Dillard; Edward Doroba; Anthony
Doto; Anatol Dowbnia; Thomas Dow; David Downing, Jr.;
Charles P. Dragos; Mary F. Ealy; Kurt Eder; Betty Eddy;
Custodia Feijo; Sylvia Ferguson; Helen Figg; Ethel M.
Finrock; Juan Flores; Rafael Garcia; Majorie O. Garvin;
George E. Gindhart; Delores R. Glazewski; Lester Glascoe;
Larry G. Goodman; Richard P. Grimes; Elfrieda Halko;
Murray Halpern; Geraldine B. Hambley; Katherine Hamilton;
Barbara A. Harden; Charlotte Hayden; William S. Hill;
Thomas J. Horan; Richard M. Hutchinson, Jr.; Sarah C.
Innis; Joseph J. Janeczek; William Jefferson; Andrena
Johnson; John D. Jolly; Kathleen E. Jones; Dorothea E.
Kato; Dolores J. Kelley; Dorothy M. Kelly; Margaret M.
Kennedy; Bela H. Kiss; Carl H. Kuhfeldt; Sam M. Lagares;
Ronald Lawrence; Chong Sue Lee; Armand Loretucci, Jr.;
Jacqueline Marinello; Dolores L. Beers (nee Marlin);
Margaret Mason; Thomas Mattei; Juan Medina; Mary R.
Merovich; Fillippi P. Micocci; Eugene Minich; Hector M.
Morales; Minerva Morales; Cornelius Morrow; Mary A.
Murphy; Edward J. Nemeth; Carmela C. Nickels; Stanley J.
Olschewski; Ronald J. Palmieri; Geraldine Parrish; James
Petrucelli; Nicholas Pfann; Gertrude Pinkney; Freya E.
Poliziana; Alfreda Prasak; Rochelle Pritchard; Carmen
Quiles; Frederick Rainer; Evelyn Ramsey; Raymond R. Rawa;
Stanislaw Rembowski; Aston Richardson; Robert Robinson;
Richard J. Rogalinski; Saturnino Roman; Olga Ruth; Andrew
J. Samu; Minnie Sanders; Anthony Scott; Ernest Scott;
Jasper T. Scott; Josephine Seckinger; Joseph B. Serock;
Margaret Shelton; Thomas Sehunuk; Frederick O. Shipp, Sr.;
Janet A. Simpson; Gladys A. Smalley; Elizabeth J. Smith;
Frank Smith; Frank E. Smith; Dolores Stewart; Robert A.
Stocker; Barbara A. Sykes; Ida Taylor; Anthony Testa;
Gilbert J. Tilton; Isaac Toney; Emanuel J. Tramontana;
Evelyn Treibly; Emma M. Twyman; Katherine Vanderbilt;
Elizabeth O. Vandewater; James L. Vandewater; Patricia A.
Velez; Robert F. Walker; Marie A. Walsh; John Walter;
Loretta Washington; John Wells; James B. Wheeler; Gladys
Williams; Margaret M. Williams; Rose Marie Winrow; George
M. Woodward, Jr.; Bonnie L. Wright; Frank Prasak;
Benjamin Isom; Michael Sebasto; Walter Lomax; John Black;
Hugh Daniels; Karl Deibler; James Duncan; Minerva
Montero; Alicea Quinones; Frank Tuccillo; Roscoe Wright;
and Hank Weinman
v.
GENERAL MOTORS CORPORATION; Inland Fisher Guide Plant, a
Division of General Motors Corporation; Local # 731
International Union, United Automobile Aerospace and
Agricultural Implement Workers of America; United
Automobile Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of
America (D.C. Civil No. 95-487).
George Voilas; John Trippa; Walter Wenski; Marietta
Berenato; Johnny M. Dollson; Augusta Budd,
individually and on behalf of all other
persons similarly situated
v.
Local # 731 International Union, United Automobile Aerospace
and Agricultural Implement Workers of America, United
Automobile Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of
America, a labor organization (D.C. Civil No. 95-2960).
General Motors Corporation, Appellant.
No. 98-5057.
United States Court of Appeals,
Third Circuit.
Argued Oct. 29, 1998.
Decided March 3, 1999.
James J. Crowley, Jr. (Argued), Linda B. Celauro, Kathryn A. Korger, Carpenter, Bennett & Morrissey, Newark, NJ, for Appellant.
H. Thomas Hunt, III (Argued), Anthony L. Marchetti, Jr., Hunt & Scaramella, P.C., Cherry Hill, NJ, Jerald R. Cureton, Michael J. Wietrzychowski, Cureton, Caplan & Clark, P.C., Mt. Laurel, NJ, for Appellees.
Before: SLOVITER, GARTH and MAGILL,* Circuit Judges.
OPINION OF THE COURT
SLOVITER, Circuit Judge.
INTRODUCTION
General Motors Corporation (GM) filed this interlocutory appeal, contending that the action brought against it is preempted under the federal labor laws. The action was filed by former GM employees who allege that GM fraudulently induced them to accept early retirement. After the District Court denied GM's motion for summary judgment, GM sought, and received, certification of two issues for interlocutory appeal: (1) whether the plaintiffs' fraud claims are preempted by section 301 of the Labor Management Relations Act (LMRA), and (2) whether the claims are preempted under sections 7 and 8 of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA).
I.
BACKGROUND
The operative facts are, for the most part, undisputed. On December 3, 1992, GM issued a press release announcing that several of its plants were slated for closure by the end of the fourth quarter of 1993. Among those plants was the Inland Fisher Guide Division factory in Trenton, New Jersey. The employees at the Trenton plant were represented by Local # 731 of the United Automobile Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America Union (UAW), and, at all relevant times, were covered by a collective bargaining agreement between GM and the UAW. On December 14, 1992, shortly after GM's announcement of the anticipated plant closures, GM and the UAW reached an agreement, denominated as the Special Acceleration Attrition Agreement (SAAA), under which employees over the age of 50 who had more than 10 years of service with the company could take an early retirement package. The SAAA program was available only until March 1, 1993, a period of slightly more than two months. GM insists that, despite the temporal proximity of the announced plant closings and the agreement establishing the SAAA, the negotiation of the SAAA was unrelated to the announced plant closures, a proposition that plaintiffs do not appear to dispute.
On December 23, 1992, Terry Marquis, the manager of the Trenton plant, issued a newsletter to the plant's employees confirming that the plant would be closed and advising the employees to disregard any rumors to the contrary. The newsletter stated, in relevant part:
Believe me when I say that all talk about potentially keeping Trenton open is false optimism originating right from this plant. No one at our divisional executive level is actively working on a scenario that could possibly keep Trenton open.... I know I'm being blunt, but I know there are many people making difficult decisions regarding retirement. I would not want any rumors influencing those decisions. The worst thing anyone could do would be to turn down one of the best mutual retirement programs available because of a rumor and then later lose what is available when the plant closes.
App. at 1109. A February 9, 1993 newsletter, also authored by Marquis, emphatically reiterated that the plant was going to be closed. In the newsletter, Marquis stated, "Let me leave no doubt--the plant is closing. Many people take the absence of visible movement of jobs, tools, and equipment as a sign that something is up. Not so!" App. at 1203.
Nearly 200 of the employees at the Trenton plant accepted the SAAA early retirement package before the March 1, 1993 deadline. On March 3, 1993, GM announced plans to pursue the sale of the plant as a going concern as a possible alternative to closure. In the course of the following year, GM negotiated with several companies, but no agreement was reached. In May 1994, GM approved a plan--drafted by a joint labor-management committee--to keep the Trenton plant open.
Six of the GM Trenton employees who accepted the SAAA package filed this suit against GM on January 31, 1995 in federal district court. Plaintiffs asserted three state-law claims: fraud, negligent misrepresentation, and age discrimination. Plaintiffs also filed an action in the same court on June 21, 1995 against Local # 731 and against the UAW (collectively "the Union"), alleging breach of the duty of fair representation. Both suits were filed by plaintiffs on behalf of themselves and a putative class of former Trenton workers. The District Court consolidated the two actions, later dismissed the age discrimination claim against GM, and thereafter denied plaintiffs' motion for class certification in the GM action. However, the court permitted amendments adding 185 individual plaintiffs.
Plaintiffs then filed an amended two-count complaint. Count one is directed at GM and alleges fraud; count two is against the Union and alleges a breach of the duty of fair representation. The complaint alleges that from December 3, 1992 to March 2, 1993--the period during which the early retirement option was available--GM falsely represented to the Trenton employees that the plant would close and that no efforts were being made to keep the plant open, when in fact the company was actively seeking to sell the factory as a going concern. GM knowingly made these false representations, the complaint alleges, to induce the employees to take the early retirement package (thereby presumably making the plant more attractive to potential buyers). The complaint alleges that the 191 plaintiffs relied on GM's representations to their detriment by giving up their jobs for a retirement package that they would not have accepted if they had known that there was a possibility of the plant's staying open. GM and the Union defendants moved for summary judgment.
The District Court granted summary judgment in favor of the Union, and that issue is not before us. At the same time, it denied GM's motion for summary judgment, ruling that the fraud claim was not preempted by either the LMRA or the NLRA and that, on the basis of the record evidence, a reasonable jury could conclude that the plaintiffs satisfied the elements of common-law fraud under New Jersey law.
At GM's request, the court certified and we accepted two issues for interlocutory appeal under 28 U.S.C. § 1292(b): whether plaintiffs' fraud claim against GM is preempted by (1) section 301 of the LMRA, or (2) sections 7 and 8 of the NLRA under the principles of so-called "Garmon preemption." Our standard of review is plenary. See Travitz v. Northeast Dep't. ILGWU Health and Welfare Fund,
II.
DISCUSSION
The District Court's certification order accurately frames the issues:
(1) whether plaintiffs' fraud claim is preempted by § 301 of the Labor-Management Relations Act ("LMRA"), 29 U.S.C. § 185, because resolution of this claim is substantially dependent upon analysis of the terms of the GM-UAW collective bargaining agreements; [and]
(2) whether plaintiffs' fraud claim is preempted by §§ 7 and 8 of the National Labor Relations Act ("NLRA"), particularly the Garmon preemption doctrine[.]
Voilas v. General Motors Corp., Nos. 95-487, 95-2960, slip op. at 2 (D.N.J. Sept. 2, 1997). We address these issues in turn.
A.
Section 301 Preemption
GM argues that plaintiffs' fraud claim runs afoul of the preemption doctrine that has developed around section 301 of the LMRA, 29 U.S.C. § 185. This is so, argues GM, because resolution of plaintiffs' fraud claims would require analysis and interpretation of collective bargaining agreements between the UAW and GM, an undertaking not permitted by the LMRA preemption doctrine.
Section 301(a) of the LMRA states, in relevant part:
Suits for violation of contracts between an employer and a labor organization representing employees in an industry affecting commerce as defined in this chapter, or between any such labor organizations, may be brought in any district court of the United States having jurisdiction of the parties, without respect to the amount in controversy or without regard to the citizenship of the parties.
29 U.S.C. § 185(a).
The Supreme Court, in Textile Workers Union of America v. Lincoln Mills,
The possibility that individual contract terms might have different meanings under state and federal law would inevitably exert a disruptive influence upon both the negotiation and administration of collective agreements. Because neither party could be certain of the rights which it had obtained or conceded, the process of negotiating an agreement would be made immeasurably more difficult by the necessity of trying to formulate contract provisions in such a way as to contain the same meaning under two or more systems of law which might someday be invoked in enforcing the contract.
Id. at 103,
The jurisprudence of preemption of state-law claims under section 301 thereafter evolved in a series of Supreme Court cases decided from 1985 to 1994. The standard for determining when a state claim is preempted was first articulated in Allis-Chalmers Corp. v. Lueck,
The Allis-Chalmers Court articulated the standard for preemption as follows: "[W]hen resolution of a state-law claim is substantially dependent upon analysis of the terms of an agreement made between the parties in a labor contract, that claim must either be treated as a § 301 claim or dismissed as pre-empted...." Id. at 220,
The Court reiterated this standard two years later in Caterpillar, Inc. v. Williams,
Respondents allege that Caterpillar has entered into and breached individual employment contracts with them. Section 301 says nothing about the content or validity of individual employment contracts. It is true that respondents, bargaining unit members at the time of the plant closing, possessed substantial rights under the collective agreement, and could have brought suit under § 301. As masters of the complaint, however, they chose not to do so.
Moreover, ... respondents' complaint is not substantially dependent upon interpretation of the collective-bargaining agreement. It does not rely upon the collective agreement indirectly, nor does it address the relationship between the individual contracts and the collective agreement.
Id. at 394-95,
The Court further elaborated the principles governing section 301 analysis in Lingle v. Norge Division of Magic Chef, Inc.,
The Lingle Court distinguished Allis-Chalmers and Lucas Flour on that basis, explaining that it had found the claims in those cases preempted because the state law claims were not "independent" of the collective bargaining agreements. Id. at 407 & n. 7,
The Lingle Court explained that section 301 preemption is premised on a policy of preserving the effectiveness of arbitration by preventing employees from end-running the dispute resolution process: "Today's decision should make clear that interpretation of collective-bargaining agreements remains firmly in the arbitral realm; judges can determine questions of state law involving labor-management relations only if such questions do not require construing collective-bargaining agreements." Id. at 411,
The Court's latest word on this subject came in its 1994 decision in Livadas v. Bradshaw,
The principal issue in the Livadas case was not preemption by section 301 of the LMRA, which is focused on the enforcement of collective bargaining agreements, but by section 7 of the NLRA, which grants employees certain rights, notably "the right to self-organization, to form, join, or assist labor organizations, to bargain collectively ..., and to engage in other concerted activities for the purpose of collective bargaining or other mutual aid or protection." 29 U.S.C. § 157. That is, Livadas argued that the Commissioner's policy of enforcing the penalty with respect to non-union workers while refusing to do so with respect to union workers interfered with the rights granted by section 7. The Court agreed with Livadas that the Commissioner's policy discriminated between union and nonunion workers, interfered with Livadas's rights under section 7 of the NLRA, and was therefore preempted. In reaching this conclusion, however, the Court had to address the Commissioner's contention that section 301 preempted Livadas's late-wage-payment claim and thereby compelled the state policy. Writing for what was again a unanimous Court, Justice Souter offered the following summary of the Court's section 301 doctrine:
[T]he pre-emption rule has been applied only to assure that the purposes animating § 301 will be frustrated neither by state laws purporting to determine "questions relating to what the parties to a labor agreement agreed, and what legal consequences were intended to flow from breaches of that agreement," nor by parties' efforts to renege on their arbitration promises by "relabeling" as tort suits actions simply alleging breaches of duties assumed in collectivebargaining agreements.
In Lueck and in Lingle ..., we underscored the point that § 301 cannot be read broadly to pre-empt nonnegotiable rights conferred on individual employees as a matter of state law, and we stressed that it is the legal character of a claim, as "independent" of rights under the collective-bargaining agreement, ... that decides whether a state cause of action may go forward. Finally, we were clear that when the meaning of contract terms is not the subject of dispute, the bare fact that a collective-bargaining agreement will be consulted in the course of state-law litigation plainly does not require the claim to be extinguished.
Id. at 122-24,
In a similar analysis shortly thereafter, the Court emphasized the limitations on its Lingle holding in Hawaiian Airlines, Inc. v. Norris,
We had occasion to apply the Court's section 301 jurisprudence with respect to a fraud claim in Trans Penn Wax Corp. v. McCandless,
With these principles in mind, we turn to the case before us. To reiterate, plaintiffs contend that GM committed common-law fraud by intentionally lying to the employees about the status of the Trenton plant in order to induce them to leave voluntarily, thereby reducing the payroll. The New Jersey Supreme Court has stated that "[a] misrepresentation amounting to actual legal fraud consists of a material representation of a presently existing or past fact, made with knowledge of its falsity and with the intention that the other party rely thereon, resulting in reliance by that party to his detriment." Jewish Ctr. of Sussex County v. Whale,
GM first focuses on the intent requirement, contending that resolution of the issue of GM's intent "requires interpretation of the collectively-bargained Special Accelerated Attrition Agreement." Appellant's Br. at 23. GM's intent in entering into the SAAA, however, is not the question put in issue by plaintiffs' complaint. Rather, plaintiffs focus on GM's intent in representing that closure of the plant was imminent. The amended complaint plainly alleges that "GM intentionally misrepresented to Plaintiffs the status of the plant closing." App. at 187. "GM made the misrepresentations, including the omission of information, for the purpose of inducing Plaintiffs to quit their jobs and accept the SAAA." App. at 188. Hence, plaintiffs are not claiming that GM misrepresented the SAAA, but rather they are claiming that GM intentionally lied to them in order to induce them to end their employment with GM and take the SAAA. The resolution of this claim in no way requires an interpretation of the SAAA.
GM's arguments on materiality, reasonable reliance, and detriment are predicated on a single idea--that the representations cannot be material unless there were no options available to the employees other than the SAAA package. Again, GM misapprehends the nature of plaintiffs' claim. The materiality question in this case does not focus on the availability of other options but on whether GM's announcement of the impending closure of the Trenton plant was a representation of a fact (1) that the employees would reasonably consider important in making choices about their employment, or (2) that GM actually or constructively knew would inform the employees' choices.
Under New Jersey law, a fact is material if "a reasonable [person] would attach importance to its existence or nonexistence in determining his [or her] choice of action in the transaction in question," or if "the maker of the representation knows or has reason to know that its recipient regards or is likely to regard the matter as important in determining his [or her] choice of action, although a reasonable [person] would not so regard it." Strawn v. Canuso,
GM further argues that the "reasonable reliance" question requires interpretation of the collective bargaining agreement because one cannot determine whether the plaintiffs acted reasonably without weighing all of the contractual options available to them. We note at the outset that although the parties use the term "reasonable" to describe the level of reliance necessary to support a fraud cause of action, the New Jersey courts have yet to address specifically what kind of reliance is necessary. See B.F. Hirsch v. Enright Ref. Co.,
For present purposes, we need not predict which formulation the New Jersey Supreme Court will adopt, for both of these standards share a common general inquiry--a focus on the credence given the representation by the claimant. That is, the reliance inquiry is not, as GM suggests, an investigation of the wisdom of the particular choice made by the claimant, but instead whether the claimant was acting justifiably or reasonably in giving credence to the alleged misrepresentation. See id. at 70-71,
For similar reasons, we reject GM's contention that resolving whether the employees' reliance was detrimental would require an investigation of the terms of the collective bargaining agreements. To be sure, we anticipate that at trial, principally in determining damages, the question whether the plaintiffs were worse off for having taken early retirement may arise. However, the fact that the parties' agreements may be referred to in the course of deciding this issue is of little moment to the preemption question before us. As the Court emphasized in Livadas, "the bare fact that a collective-bargaining agreement will be consulted in the course of state-law litigation plainly does not require the claim to be extinguished."
A collective-bargaining agreement may, of course, contain information such as rate of pay and other economic benefits that might be helpful in determining the damages to which a worker prevailing in a state-law suit is entitled. Although federal law would govern the interpretation of the agreement to determine the proper damages, the underlying state-law claim, not otherwise pre-empted, would stand. Thus, as a general proposition, a state-law claim may depend for its resolution upon both the interpretation of a collective-bargaining agreement and a separate state-law analysis that does not turn on the agreement. In such a case, federal law would govern the interpretation of the agreement, but the separate state-law analysis would not be thereby pre-empted.
GM also raises an alternative argument that the fraud claim is founded directly on rights created by the collective bargaining agreement because any duty to disclose on the part of GM could only arise under the contract. In support of this contention, GM cites our decision in Lightning Lube, Inc. v. Witco Corp.,
The first difficulty with this argument is that plaintiffs do not base their fraud claim on GM's silence. The plaintiffs have alleged affirmative misrepresentations to the employees, rather than a failure to disclose simpliciter. As stated by the Appellate Division of the New Jersey Superior Court, "Even where no duty to speak exists, one who elects to speak must tell the truth when it is apparent that another may reasonably rely on the statements made." Strawn v. Canuso,
In sum, the fraud claim in this case is not directly based upon the collective bargaining agreements in force between the parties; nor will the resolution of the elements of common-law fraud require the interpretation of those bargaining agreements. Plaintiffs, in pursuing their fraud claim, are seeking vindication of a "nonnegotiable right[ ] conferred on individual employees as a matter of state law" that is " 'independent' of rights under the collective-bargaining agreement." Livadas,
B.
Garmon Preemption
GM also urges that the plaintiffs' fraud claims are preempted by sections 7 and 8 of the NLRA under the principles of Garmon preemption, a doctrine originating in the Supreme Court's decision in San Diego Building Trades Council v. Garmon,
The Court summarized the nature of Garmon preemption in Belknap, Inc. v. Hale,
[S]tate regulations and causes of action are presumptively preempted if they concern conduct that is actually or arguably either prohibited or protected by the Act. The state regulation or cause of action may, however, be sustained if the behavior to be regulated is behavior that is of only peripheral concern to the federal law or touches interests deeply rooted in local feeling and responsibility.
Id. at 498,
In International Longshoremen's Association v. Davis,
If the word "arguably" is to mean anything, it must mean that the party claiming pre-emption is required to demonstrate that his case is one that the Board could legally decide in [the suing employee's] favor. That is, a party asserting pre-emption must advance an interpretation of the Act that is not plainly contrary to its language and that has not been "authoritatively rejected" by the courts or the Board. The party must then put forth enough evidence to enable the court to find that the Board reasonably could uphold a claim based on such an interpretation.
Id. at 395,
GM urges that the conduct which is the subject of plaintiffs' complaint would constitute a refusal to bargain under section 8(a)(5) of the Act and/or bargaining in bad faith under section 8(d) of the Act. Section 8(a)(5) makes it an unfair labor practice for an employer "to refuse to bargain collectively with the representatives of his employees" and section 8(d) imposes a requirement that such bargaining be done "in good faith." 29 U.S.C. §§ 158(a)(5), (d). However, the duties to bargain and to do so in good faith only attach to the "mandatory subjects of bargaining," which are those set forth in section 8(d), i.e., "wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment." Local Union No. 189, Amalgamated Meat Cutters & Butcher Workmen of N. Am., AFL-CIO v. Jewel Tea Co.,
If an employer imposes a unilateral change with respect to a mandatory subject, it thereby violates the statutory duty to bargain and is subject to the Board's remedial order. See Katz,
It is true, as GM argues, that the employer's duty to bargain in good faith is a continuing one, and that it is not dispositive that formal collective negotiations were not occurring at the time of an alleged breach of sections 8(a)(5) and 8(d). However, the alleged fraud was not committed in connection with any part of the collective bargaining process nor does it touch and concern a mandatory duty on the part of the employer. The plaintiffs do not allege that any bargaining between the Union and GM was in bad faith, or that the retirement benefits that they received were other than provided for them under the relevant agreement.
Because GM has no duty under the NLRA to bargain over its decision regarding the closing of a plant, First Nat'l Maintenance,
Comparison with the very cases cited by GM underscores why the District Court correctly found no preemption here. For example, in Serrano v. Jones & Laughlin Steel Co., LTV,
This distinction holds true for the other cases cited by GM where the employees' claims were preempted. See Parker v. Connors Steel Co.,
Courts considering cases that more closely parallel the situation here have found no preemption. In Wells v. General Motors Corp.,
In short, GM has not met its burden of demonstrating that this case is one that the Board could legally decide in the employees' favor. GM has not shown that its alleged misrepresentation to the employees would be an unfair labor practice. And, as noted previously, plaintiffs' fraud claim does not require interpretation of the collective agreements between the parties such that preemption under LMRA section 301 would be appropriate.
III.
CONCLUSION
For the foregoing reasons, we will affirm the District Court's denial of GM's summary judgment motion.
Notes
The Honorable Frank J. Magill, of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, sitting by designation
It is also worth noting that a recent opinion of the Supreme Court, Textron Lycoming Reciprocating Engine Div., AVCO Corp. v. United Automobile, Aerospace, Agricultural Implement Workers of America, International Union,