James BANYARD, Petitioner, v. NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, Respondent, McLean Trucking Company, Intervenor. Clay D. FERGUSON, Petitioner, v. NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, Respondent.
Nos. 73-1609, 73-1610.
United States Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit.
Decided Aug. 14, 1974.
Argued June 10, 1974.
Specifying the time at which the separate craft units would cease to exist was a reasonable and natural consequence of the Board‘s earlier conclusion that a new employee unit would arise at the point of full conversion, a conclusion which was necessitated by the Photoengravers’ unfair labor charges. Even assuming that the Board somehow erred in requiring the Newspaper to recognize the Photoengravers only until the point of full conversion, we would not now require the Board to amend its order. The time for full conversion has passed and a different proceeding has determined that a new unit exists for representation purposes. It would be pointless at this time to modify a segment of the Board‘s order which relates to an interim period long since past.
We accordingly affirm the decision and order of the Board.
Judgment accordingly.
Arthur L. Fox, II, Washington, D.C., with whom Alan B. Morrison, Washington, D.C., was on the brief, for petitioners.
Patrick Hardin, Associate Gen. Counsel, National Labor Relations Board, with whom John S. Irving, Deputy Gen. Counsel, and Elliott Moore, Deputy Associate Gen. Counsel, National Labor Relations Board, were on the brief, for respondent.
Melvin R. Manning, Richmond, Va., for intervenor.
Before WRIGHT, MacKINNON and WILKEY, Circuit Judges.
These consolidated petitions1 for review of orders2 of the National Labor Relations Board call into question the Board‘s application of its Spielberg3 and Collyer4 doctrines. Because we find the Board has erroneously applied those doctrines in these cases, we remand for further proceedings.
I.
Banyard‘s Case
James Banyard worked as a truck driver for McLean Trucking Company and its predecessor for 22 years and also served as the Union‘s5 appointed shop steward since 1955. He was fired on 7 October 1969 for refusing to drive a truck admittedly overloaded in violation of Ohio state law.6 At the time of his
On 6 October 1969 Banyard was dispatched to pick up 800 fifty-pound sacks of breading at Specialty Products Company in Cleveland. He was reluctant to haul what he considered an overweight load, but when he expressed his reluctance to a Specialty employee, he was told that he would have to call his dispatcher if he wanted to reduce the size of the load. Banyard telephoned the dispatcher and was told to “load the front end light and the back end heavy, and . . . bring it in.”8 He loaded the truck and again telephoned the terminal. When he refused to “bring it in,” he was instructed to drop the trailer and return to the terminal. He was discharged the following day.
Pursuant to Articles 8, 42, and 43 of the contract, the Union had prosecuted Banyard‘s grievance through two stages of grievance procedure when on 2 January 1970 Banyard filed a charge with the National Labor Relations Board alleging violation by the Company of
Although the Company filed timely exceptions, the Board reached no decision until after the Union‘s claim had been denied at the final stage of the contract grievance procedure.10 On 23 March 1973 the Board dismissed the unfair labor practice complaint, deferring to the decision of the National Grievance Procedure under Spielberg.
Ferguson‘s Case
Clay D. Ferguson worked as an over-the-road driver for Roadway Express, Inc., for nine years.11 He was fired on 24 March 1972 for refusing to drive a truck which he asserted was unsafe. At the time of Ferguson‘s discharge there was in effect between the Company and the Union the National Master Freight Agreement and the Carolina Freight Council Over the Road Supplemental Agreement. Article 16 of the contract provided that employees would not be required to operate vehicles not in safe operating condition.12
On 20 March 1972 Ferguson was assigned a tractor to drive from Nashville, Tennessee, to Columbia, South Carolina. Finding it difficult to hold the road—and therefore believing the truck to be
Pursuant to Articles 43 and 44 of the contract, Ferguson‘s grievance was heard by the Carolina Joint Bi-State Grievance Committee and denied on 11 April 1972. Four days earlier, Ferguson had filed a charge with the National Labor Relations Board alleging violation by Roadway of section 8(a)(1) of the National Labor Relations Act. The opinion of the trial examiner deferring to the Joint Committee award and dismissing the complaint was affirmed by the Board on 25 April 1973.
II.
In Spielberg (post-arbitral) the Board established its policy of dismissing unfair labor practice complaints where the issues involved had been previously resolved by arbitral award. Under Collyer (pre-arbitral) the Board will withhold its processes until the parties first submit to those processes upon which they have privately agreed. If, after the Board has withheld under Collyer, the unfair labor practice issues are resolved by the arbitral tribunal, the Board will apply Spielberg and defer to the arbitral award.
In three opinions this year by Judges Wright and Tamm of this court, the Spielberg and Collyer doctrines are analyzed. Recognizing that
submission to grievance and arbitration proceedings of disputes which might involve unfair labor practices would be substantially discouraged if the disputants thought the Board would give de novo consideration to the issue which the arbitrator might resolve[,]17
in Associated Press v. NLRB,18 we approved the application of both Spielberg and Collyer. However, our acceptance of those doctrines was and is founded upon the premise that they are appropriately applied only where the resolution of the contractual issues is congruent with the resolution of the statutory unfair labor practice issues. In Local Union 2188 v. NLRB we held: “This congruence between the contractual dispute and the overlying unfair labor practice charge is significant. If it were not present, the Board‘s abstention might constitute [] not deference,
Banyard
As found by the trial examiner, the Company has engaged in the practice of requiring its employees to haul overloaded trucks in violation of state law.21 Banyard‘s attempts to protest the practice ultimately resulted in his discharge in 1969.22 We agree with the conclusion of the trial examiner:
In the instant case, it is patent that the issue raised by the allegations of the complaint, namely, whether Banyard has been discharged by Respondent because of his concerted or union activity, is not one which falls within the special competence of an arbitrator, but is primarily one for resolution under the provisions of the Act which the Board has been mandated by Congress to enforce.23
With respect to the issue whether the purpose of the Ohio law was for the protection of this driver, or other drivers on the highways, or for the protection of the highways, the Board majority refused to substitute its judgment for that of the Grievance Committee,24 but pointed out that no points were assessed against the license of any driver caught hauling an overload,25 and that during periods of suspension of a driver‘s license the Company agreed to provide employment at equivalent earnings.26 Whatever the primary purpose of the Ohio law (which we need not determine), aside from possible loss of license vel non, there are other valid reasons for refusing to haul overloads in violation of
Our review of the transcript fails to reveal that the Committee considered such important issues as safety. Moreover, the actual Committee award does not indicate that the Committee‘s judgment was exercised at all on the crucial issues regarding violation of the Ohio statute. The award to which the Board deferred states in its entirety:
Please be advised that the National Grievance Committee on December 2, 1971, adopted a motion that based on the transcript, the claim of the Union be denied.
As Judge Tamm pointed out in Local Union 715, supra, “[T]his reasoning appears to contradict the Board‘s own decisions to the effect that deferral is not appropriate with respect to an issue not considered by the arbitration panel.”28 We do not know what was considered in the case at bar.
Regardless of the purpose of the Ohio statute, it remains axiomatic that it was still the law; for this or any other company to require its employees to act in violation thereof can never be upheld by the Board or this court. We concur in the dissenting Board members’ perception of the dispositive issue in this case, viz., “No contract provision or arbitration award can permit an employer to require his employees to violate state laws or to create safety hazards for themselves or others.”29 Left standing, the arbitral award below grants the Company a license to violate state law and as such is void as against public policy and repugnant to the purposes of the National Labor Relations Act.
Congress recognized that neither employers, employees, nor labor organizations have “any right in [their] relations with each other to engage in acts or practices which jeopardize the public health, safety, or interest.”30 Whether Banyard‘s discharge was violative of
Ferguson
We perceive the resolution of the statutory issue here as dependent upon whether, in the Board‘s own language, “the actual working conditions shown to exist by competent evidence might in the circumstances reasonably be considered ‘abnormally dangerous.’ ”35 Rejecting the conclusion of the Third Circuit that “an employee‘s honest belief, no matter how unjustified, in the existence of ‘abnormally dangerous conditions for work’ necessarily invokes the protection of § 502,” the Supreme Court in Gateway Coal Company v. United Mine Workers of America36 recently held that “a union seeking to justify a contractually prohibited work stoppage under § 502 must present ‘ascertainable, objective evidence supporting its conclusion that an abnormally dangerous condition for work exists.’ ”37
Our reluctance in the case sub judice to sanction the Board‘s deferral to the Joint Committee award stems from our uncertainty over whether the standard applied by the Joint Committee to the contractual issue before it is the correct standard to be applied to the statutory issue before the Board. Our concern is that the Joint Committee applied a “safe-in-fact” standard and thereby found that Ferguson was not contractually justified in refusing to drive the tractor.38 Under the more liberal Gateway Coal standard the Board might have concluded that Ferguson‘s belief that the tractor was unsafe was amply supported by “ascertainable, objective evidence.”
Our approval of the Board‘s deferral under Spielberg of statutory issues to arbitral resolution along with contractual issues is conditioned upon the resolution by the arbitral tribunal of congruent statutory and contractual issues. In that situation “the arbitration award becomes the sole remedy for both contractual and statutory violations.”39 If in the present case the Joint Committee applied to the issue before it a standard correct under the contract but not under judicial interpretation of section 502, then it cannot be said that the statutory issue was decided by the Joint Committee. In that event the Board‘s abstention goes beyond deferral and approaches abdication.40
As in Banyard‘s case, the award of the Grievance Committee in this case
Claim of Union denied.
The trial examiner, whose findings were adopted by the Board in this case, stated that the “Committee in reaching its conclusion to deny the grievance had to conclude that Ferguson‘s refusal to drive the vehicle was unjustified.”41 Yet the failure of the Committee to amplify its decision forced the trial examiner to speculate by what standard the refusal was “unjustified.” Neither the examiner, the Board, nor we are entitled to engage in such speculation.
Accordingly, these petitions are remanded with instructions that deferral not being appropriate, the Board should proceed to a consideration of the unfair labor practice issues in a manner not inconsistent with this opinion.
So ordered.
MacKINNON, Circuit Judge (concurring):
I concur in the majority opinion with respect to Ferguson and concur in the result with respect to Banyard.
As to Banyard, the majority errs in adopting an interpretation of the contract which conflicts with the interpretation by the National Grievance Committee. Banyard‘s position is that his refusal to drive the overloaded vehicle was an attempt to enforce Article 16 of the contract, which provides:
The Employer shall not require employees to take out on the streets or highways any vehicle that is not in safe operating condition or equipped with the safety appliances prescribed by law. . . . Under no circumstances will an employee be required or assigned to engage in any activity involving dangerous conditions of work or danger to person or property or in violation of any applicable statute or court order, or in violation of a government regulation relating to safety of person or equipment. . . . The Employer shall not ask or require any employee to take out equipment that has been reported by any other employee as being in an unsafe operating condition until same has been approved as being safe by the mechanical department. . . . The Employer and the Union together shall create a joint committee of qualified representatives for the purpose of consulting among themselves and with appropriate Government agencies, state and federal, on matters involving highway and equipment safety. (Emphasis added.)
Banyard contends that the reference in the contract to “any applicable statute” is not limited to statutes “relating to safety” because the latter phrase is separated from the former by a comma. The majority opinion seems to adopt this construction of the contract.
The National Grievance Committee, however, adopted a contrary interpretation of the contract. In denying Banyard‘s grievance, the Committee necessarily concluded: (1) that the contractual reference to “any applicable statute” is limited to statutes “relating to safety,” and (2) that the Ohio load-limit statute does not relate to safety. See Page‘s Ohio Rev.Code Anno. Ch. 5577 (1970). The Committee settled the interpretation of the contract for the parties and we are not at liberty to adopt a different interpretation. Since Article 16 is devoted entirely to employee and equipment safety, the Committee was on solid ground in concluding that the isolated phrase “applicable statute” refers only to statutes related to safety. This interpretation of the contract is not repugnant to the federal labor relations policy because Congress has not designated the National Labor Relations Board to be the enforcement agency for the multitude of state and local highway ordinances and other state laws.
However, even accepting the Grievance Committee‘s interpretation of the contract and the statute, the Board erred in assuming that the Grievance Committee decision resolved the federal statutory issue. The National Labor Relations Act protects employees engaged in concerted activity designed to enforce contractual rights.
For this reason, the Grievance Committee‘s adverse ruling on the contract interpretation issue did not foreclose a favorable ruling by the Board on the statutory claim under the National Labor Relations Act. Therefore, I would remand for the Board to determine whether Banyard‘s refusal to drive the overloaded truck was a concerted effort to enforce a reasonable and good faith interpretation of his contract.
TAX ANALYSTS AND ADVOCATES and Thomas F. Field et al. v. INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE et al., Appellants.
No. 73-1978.
United States Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit.
Decided Aug. 19, 1974.
Rehearing Denied Sept. 12, 1974.
Argued April 5, 1974.
Notes
The Employer shall not require employees to take out on the streets or highways any vehicle that is not in safe operating condition or equipped with the safety appliances prescribed by law. It shall not be a violation of this agreement where employees refuse to operate such equipment unless such refusal is unjustified. . . . Under no circumstances will an employee be required or assigned to engage in any activity involving dangerous conditions of work or danger to person or property or in violation of any applicable statute or court order, or in violation of a government regulation relating to safety of person or equipment.
We are not persuaded that the issues are either as simple or dramatic as our colleagues assert, and are thus less anxious than they to rush to substitute our judgment for that of an experienced Committee, composed of experienced union and management representatives, or to accuse that Committee of sanctioning the creation of safety hazards. App. 7.
In the event an employee shall suffer a suspension or revocation of his chauffeur‘s license because of a succession of size and weight penalties, caused by the employee complying with his Employer‘s instructions to him, the Employer shall provide employment for such employee at not less than his regular earnings at the time of his suspension for the entire period thereof, subject however, to the seniority and lay-off provisions applicable to him at the time of such suspension.
[N]or shall the quitting of labor by an employee or employees in good faith because of abnormally dangerous conditions for work at the place of employment of such employee or employees be deemed a strike under this chapter.
