Source: https://m.openjurist.org/501/us/190/litton-financial-printing-division-division-of-litton-business-systems-inc-v-national-labor-relation
Timestamp: 2019-05-20 02:45:47
Document Index: 652145549

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 8', '§ 8', '§ 158', '§ 8', '§ 158', '§ 8', '§ 158', '§ 158', '§ 186', '§ 158', '§ 173', '§ 185', '§ 301', '§ 301', '§ 185', '§ 185', '§ 1145', '§ 502', '§ 1132', '§ 301', '§ 151', '§ 13', '§ 163']

501 US 190 Litton Financial Printing Division Division of Litton Business Systems Inc v. National Labor Relations Board | OpenJurist
501 U.S. 190 - Litton Financial Printing Division Division of Litton Business Systems Inc v. National Labor Relations Board
501 US 190 Litton Financial Printing Division Division of Litton Business Systems Inc v. National Labor Relations Board
111 S.Ct. 2215
115 L.Ed.2d 177
LITTON FINANCIAL PRINTING DIVISION, A DIVISION OF LITTON BUSINESS SYSTEMS, INC., Petitioner,
Among other things, the collective-bargaining agreement (Agreement) between petitioner Litton and the Union representing the production employees at Litton's printing plant broadly required that all differences as to contract construction or violations be determined by arbitration, specified that grievances that could not be resolved under a two-step grievance procedure should be submitted for binding arbitration, and provided that, in case of layoffs, length of continuous service would be the determining factor "if other things such as aptitude and ability [were] equal." The Agreement expired in October 1979. A new agreement had not been negotiated when, in August and September 1980 and without any notice to the Union, Litton laid off 10 of the workers at its plant, including 6 of the most senior employees, pursuant to its decision to close down its cold-type printing operation. The Union filed grievances on behalf of the laidoff employees, claiming a violation of the Agreement, but Litton refused to submit to the contractual grievance and arbitration procedure, to negotiate over its layoff decision, or to arbitrate under any circumstances. Based on its precedents dealing with unilateral postexpiration abandonment of contractual grievance procedures and postexpiration arbitrability, the National Labor Relations Board (Board) held that Litton's actions violated § 8(a)(1) and (5) of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). However, although it ordered Litton, inter alia, to process the grievances through the two-step grievance procedure and to bargain with the Union over the layoffs, the Board refused to order arbitration of the particular layoff disputes, ruling that they did not "arise under" the expired contract as required by its decision in Indiana & Michigan Electric Co., 284 N.L.R.B. 53, and its interpretation of this Court's decision in Nolde Bros., Inc. v. Bakery Workers, 430 U.S. 243, 97 S.Ct. 1067, 51 L.Ed.2d 300. The Court of Appeals enforced the Board's order, with the exception of that portion holding the layoff grievance not arbitrable, ruling that the right to lay off in seniority order, if other things such as aptitude and ability were equal, did arise under the Agreement.
(a) The unilateral change doctrine of NLRB v. Katz, 369 U.S. 736, 82 S.Ct. 1107, 8 L.Ed.2d 230 whereby an employer violates the NLRA if, without bargaining to impasse, it effects a unilateral change of an existing term or condition of employment—extends to cases in which an existing agreement has expired and negotiations on a new one have yet to be completed. See, e.g., Laborers Health and Welfare Trust Fund v. Advanced Lightweight Concrete Co., 484 U.S. 539, 544, n. 6, 108 S.Ct. 830, 833, n. 6, 98 L.Ed.2d 936. However, since Hilton-Davis Chemical Co., 185 N.L.R.B. 241, the Board has held that an arbitration clause does not, by operation of the NLRA as interpreted in Katz, continue in effect after expiration of a collective-bargaining agreement. Pp. 198-200.
(f) However, Nolde Bros. does not announce a broad rule that post-expiration grievances concerning terms and conditions of employment remain arbitrable, but applies only where a dispute has its real source in the contract. Absent an explicit agreement that certain benefits continue past expiration, a postexpiration grievance can be said to arise under the contract only where it involves facts and occurrences that arise before expiration, where a postexpiration action infringes a right that accrued or vested under the agreement, or where, under the normal principles of contract interpretation, the disputed contractual right survives expiration of the remainder of the agreement. And, as Nolde Bros. found, structural provisions relating to remedies and dispute resolution—e.g., an arbitration provision—may in some cases survive in order to enforce duties under the contract. It is presumed as a matter of contract interpretation that the parties did not intend a pivotal dispute resolution provision to terminate for all purposes upon the Agreement's expiration. Pp. 205-208.
(g) Application of the foregoing principles reveals that the layoff dispute at issue does not arise under the Agreement. Since the layoffs took place almost one year after the Agreement expired, the grievances are arbitrable only if they involve rights which accrued or vested under the Agreement or carried over after its expiration. The layoff provision here does not satisfy these requirements and, unlike the severance pay provision at issue in Nolde Bros., cannot be construed as a grant of deferred compensation for time already worked. The order of layoffs under the Agreement was to be determined primarily with reference to "other [factors] such as aptitude and ability," which do not remain constant, but either improve or atrophy over time, and which vary in importance with the requirements of the employer's business at any given moment. Thus, any arbitration proceeding would of necessity focus upon whether such factors were equal as of the date of the layoff decision and the decision to close down the cold-type operation, and an intent to freeze any particular order of layoff or vest any contractual right as of the Agreement's expiration cannot be inferred. Pp. 208-210.
This case requires us to determine whether a dispute over layoffs which occurred well after expiration of a collective-bargaining agreement must be said to arise under the agreement despite its expiration. The question arises in the context of charges brought by the National Labor Relations Board (Board) alleging an unfair labor practice in violation of §§ 8(a)(1) and (5) of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), 49 Stat. 449, as amended, 29 U.S.C. §§ 158(a)(1) and (5). We interpret our earlier decision in Nolde Bros., Inc. v. Bakery Workers. 430 U.S. 243, 97 S.Ct. 1067, 51 L.Ed.2d 300 (1977).
On November 24, 1980, the General Counsel for the Board issued a complaint alleging that Litton's refusal to process the grievances amounted to an unfair labor practice within the meaning of §§ 8(a)(1) and (5) of the NLRA, 29 U.S.C. §§ 158(a)(1) and (5). App. 15. On September 4, 1981, an Administrative Law Judge found that Litton had violated the NLRA by failing to process the grievances. App. 114-115. Relying upon the Board's decision in American Sink Top & Cabinet Co., 242 N.L.R.B. 408 (1979), the Administrative Law Judge went on to state that if the grievances remained unresolved at the conclusion of the grievance process, Litton could not refuse to submit them to arbitration. App. 115-118. The Administrative Law Judge held also that Litton violated §§ 8(a)(1) and (5) when it bypassed the Union and paid severance wages directly to the 10 laid off employees, and Litton did not contest that determination in further proceedings.
"language sufficient to overcome the presumption that the obligation to arbitrate imposed by the contract extended to disputes arising under the contract and occurring after the contract had expired. Thus, [Litton] remained 'subject to a potentially viable contractual commitment to arbitrate even after the [Agreement] expired.' " 286 N.L.R.B., at 818 (citation omitted).
"The conduct that triggered the grievances . . . occurred after the contract had expired. The right to layoff by seniority if other factors such as ability and experience are equal is not 'a right worked for or accumulated over time.' Indiana & Michigan, supra at 61. And, as in Indiana & Michigan Electric, there is no indication here that 'the parties contemplated that such rights could ripen or remain enforceable even after the contract expired.' Id. (citation omitted). Therefore, [Litton] had no contractual obligation to arbitrate the grievances." 286 N.L.R.B., at 821-822.
Litton petitioned for a writ of certiorari. Because of substantial disagreement as to the proper application of our decision in Nolde Bros.,1 we granted review limited to the question of arbitrability of the layoff grievances. --- U.S. ----, 111 S.Ct. 426, 112 L.Ed.2d 410.
Sections 8(a)(5) and 8(d) of the NLRA, 29 U.S.C. §§ 158(a)(5) and (d), require an employer to bargain "in good faith with respect to wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment." The Board has taken the position that it is difficult to bargain if, during negotiations, an employer is free to alter the very terms and conditions that are the subject of those negotiations. The Board has determined, with our acceptance, that an employer commits an unfair labor practice if, without bargaining to impasse, it effects a unilateral change of an existing term or condition of employment. See NLRB v. Katz, 369 U.S. 736, 82 S.Ct. 1107, 8 L.Ed.2d 230 (1962). In Katz the union was newly certified and the parties had yet to reach an initial agreement. The Katz doctrine has been extended as well to cases where, as here, an existing agreement has expired and negotiations on a new one have yet to be completed. See, e.g., Laborers Health and Welfare Trust Fund v. Advanced Lightweight Concrete Co., 484 U.S. 539, 544, n. 6, 108 S.Ct. 830, 833, n. 6, 98 L.Ed.2d 936 (1988).
The Board has ruled that most mandatory subjects of bargaining are within the Katz prohibition on unilateral changes. The Board has identified some terms and conditions of employment, however, which do not survive expiration of an agreement for purposes of this statutory policy. For instance, it is the Board's view that union security and dues check-off provisions are excluded from the unilateral change doctrine because of statutory provisions which permit these obligations only when specified by the express terms of a collective-bargaining agreement. See 29 U.S.C. § 158(a)(3) (union security conditioned upon agreement of the parties); 29 U.S.C. § 186(c)(4) (dues check-off valid only until termination date of agreement); Indiana & Michigan, 284 N.L.R.B., at 55 (quoting Bethlehem Steel, 136 N.L.R.B., at 1502). Also, in recognition of the statutory right to strike, no-strike clauses are excluded from the unilateral change doctrine, except to the extent other dispute resolution methods survive expiration of the agreement. See 29 U.S.C. §§ 158(d)(4), 163 (union's statutory right to strike); Southwestern Steel & Supply, Inc. v. NLRB, 257 U.S.App.D.C. 19, 23, 806 F.2d 1111, 1114 (1986).
In Hilton-Davis Chemical Co., 185 N.L.R.B. 241 (1970), the Board determined that arbitration clauses are excluded from the prohibition on unilateral changes, reasoning that the commitment to arbitrate is a "voluntary surrender of the right of final decision which Congress . . . reserved to [the] parties. . . . [A]rbitration is, at bottom, a consensual surrender of the economic power which the parties are otherwise free to utilize." Id., at 242. The Board further relied upon our statements acknowledging the basic federal labor policy that "arbitration is a matter of contract and a party cannot be required to submit to arbitration any dispute which he has not agreed so to submit." United Steelworkers of America v. Warrior & Gulf Navigation Co., 363 U.S. 574, 582, 80 S.Ct. 1347, 1353, 4 L.Ed.2d 1409 (1960). See also 29 U.S.C. § 173(d) (phrased in terms of parties' agreed upon method of dispute resolution under an existing bargaining agreement). Since Hilton-Davis the Board has adhered to the view that an arbitration clause does not, by operation of the NLRA as interpreted in Katz, continue in effect after expiration of a collective-bargaining agreement.
The Union argues that we should reject the Board's decision in Hilton-Davis Chemical Co., and instead hold that arbitration provisions are within Katz' prohibition on unilateral changes. The unilateral change doctrine, and the exclusion of arbitration from the scope of that doctrine, represent the Board's interpretation of the NLRA requirement that parties bargain in good faith. And "[i]f the Board adopts a rule that is rational and consistent with the Act . . . then the rule is entitled to deference from the courts." Fall River Dyeing & Finishing Corp. v. NLRB, 482 U.S. 27, 42, 107 S.Ct. 2225, 2235, 96 L.Ed.2d 22 (1987); see, e.g., NLRB v. Curtin Matheson Scientific, Inc., 494 U.S. ----, ----, 110 S.Ct. 1542, ----, 108 L.Ed.2d 801 (1990).
We think the Board's decision in Hilton-Davis Chemical Co. is both rational and consistent with the Act. The rule is grounded in the strong statutory principle, found in both the language of the NLRA and its drafting history, of consensual rather than compulsory arbitration. See Indiana & Michigan, supra, at 57-58; Hilton-Davis Chemical Co., supra. The rule conforms with our statement that "[n]o obligation to arbitrate a labor dispute arises solely by operation of law. The law compels a party to submit his grievance to arbitration only if he has contracted to do so." Gateway Coal Co. v. Mine Workers, 414 U.S. 368, 374, 94 S.Ct. 629, 635, 38 L.Ed.2d 583 (1974). We reaffirm today that under the NLRA arbitration is a matter of consent, and that it will not be imposed upon parties beyond the scope of their agreement.
In the absence of a binding method for resolution of postexpiration disputes, a party may be relegated to filing unfair labor practice charges with the Board if it believes that its counterpart has implemented a unilateral change in violation of the NLRA. If, as the Union urges, parties who favor labor arbitration during the term of a contract also desire it to resolve postexpiration disputes, the parties can consent to that arrangement by explicit agreement. Further, a collective-bargaining agreement might be drafted so as to eliminate any hiatus between expiration of the old and execution of the new agreement, or to remain in effect until the parties bargain to impasse.2 Unlike the Union's suggestion that we impose arbitration of postexpiration disputes upon parties once they agree to arbitrate disputes arising under a contract, these alternatives would reinforce the statutory policy that arbitration is not compulsory.
Although the Board has occasion to interpret collective-bargaining agreements in the context of unfair labor practice adjudication, see NLRB v. C & C Plywood Corp., 385 U.S. 421, 87 S.Ct. 559, 17 L.Ed.2d 486 (1967), the Board is neither the sole nor the primary source of authority in such matters. "Arbitrators and courts are still the principal sources of contract interpretation." NLRB v. Strong, 393 U.S. 357, 360-361, 89 S.Ct. 541, 544, 21 L.Ed.2d 546 (1969). Section 301 of the Labor Management Relations Act (LMRA), 29 U.S.C. § 185, "authorizes federal courts to fashion a body of federal law for the enforcement of . . . collective bargaining agreements." Textile Workers v. Lincoln Mills of Alabama, 353 U.S. 448, 451, 77 S.Ct. 912, 915, 1 L.Ed.2d 972 (1957) (emphasis added). We would risk the development of conflicting principles were we to defer to the Board in its interpretation of the contract, as distinct from its devising a remedy for the unfair labor practice that follows from a breach of contract. We cannot accord deference in contract interpretation here only to revert to our independent interpretation of collective-bargaining agreements in a case arising under § 301. See Local Union 1395, Int'l Brotherhood of Electrical Workers v. NLRB, 254 U.S.App.D.C. 360, 363-364, 797 F.2d 1027, 1030-1031 (1986).
In Nolde Bros., a union brought suit under § 301 of the Labor Management Relations Act, 29 U.S.C. § 185, to compel arbitration. Four days after termination of a collective-bargaining agreement, the employer decided to cease operations. The employer settled employee wage claims, but refused to pay severance wages called for in the agreement, and declined to arbitrate the resulting dispute. The union argued that these wages
* Litton argues that provisions contained in the Agreement rebut the Nolde Bros. presumption that the duty to arbitrate disputes arising under an agreement outlasts the date of expiration. The Agreement provides that its stipulations "shall be in effect for the time hereinafter specified," App. 22, in other words, until the date of expiration and no longer. The Agreement's no-strike clause, which Litton characterizes as a quid pro quo for arbitration, applies only "during the term of this [a]greement," id., at 34. Finally, the Agreement provides for "interest arbitration" in case the parties are unable to conclude a successor agreement, id., at 53-55, proving that where the parties wished for arbitration other than to resolve disputes as to contract interpretation, they knew how to draft such a clause. These arguments cannot prevail. The Agreement's unlimited arbitration clause, by which the parties agreed to arbitrate all "[d]ifferences that may arise between the parties" regarding the Agreement, violations thereof, or "the construction to be placed on any clause or clauses of the Agreement," id., at 34, places it within the precise rationale of Nolde Bros. It follows that if a dispute arises under the contract here in question, it is subject to arbitration even in the postcontract period.
Any other reading of Nolde Bros. seems to assume that postexpiration terms and conditions of employment which coincide with the contractual terms can be said to arise under an expired contract, merely because the contract would have applied to those matters had it not expired. But that interpretation fails to recognize that an expired contract has by its own terms released all its parties from their respective contractual obligations, except obligations already fixed under the contract but as yet unsatisfied. Although after expiration most terms and conditions of employment are not subject to unilateral change, in order to protect the statutory right to bargain, those terms and conditions no longer have force by virtue of the contract. See Office and Professional Employees Ins. Trust Fund v. Laborers Funds Administrative Office of Northern California, Inc. 783 F.2d 919, 922 (CA9 1986) ("An expired [collective bargaining agreement] . . . is no longer a 'legally enforceable document.' " (citation omitted)); cf. Derrico v. Sheehan Emergency Hosp., 844 F.2d 22, 25-27 (CA2 1988) (Section 301 of the LMRA, 29 U.S.C. § 185, does not provide a federal court jurisdiction where a bargaining agreement has expired, although rights and duties under the expired agreement "retain legal significance because they define the status quo" for purposes of the prohibition on unilateral changes).
Our decision in Laborers Health and Welfare Trust Fund v. Advanced Lightweight Concrete Co., Inc., 484 U.S. 539, 108 S.Ct. 830, 98 L.Ed.2d 936 (1988), further demonstrates the distinction between contractual obligations and postexpiration terms imposed by the NLRA. There, a bargaining agreement required employer contributions to a pension fund. We assumed that under Katz the employer's failure to continue contributions after expiration of the agreement could constitute an unfair labor practice, and if so the Board could enforce the obligation. We rejected, however, the contention that such a failure amounted to a violation of the ERISA obligation to make contributions "under the terms of a collectively bargained agreement . . . in accordance with the terms and conditions of . . . such agreement." 29 U.S.C. § 1145. Any postexpiration obligation to contribute was imposed by the NLRA, not by the bargaining agreement, and so the district court lacked jurisdiction under § 502(g)(2) of ERISA, 29 U.S.C. § 1132(g)(2), to enforce the obligation.
Finally, as we found in Nolde Bros., structural provisions relating to remedies and dispute resolution—for example, an arbitration provision—may in some cases survive in order to enforce duties arising under the contract. Nolde Bros.' statement to that effect under § 301 of the LMRA is similar to the rule of contract interpretation which might apply to arbitration provisions of other commercial contracts.3 We presume as a matter of contract interpretation that the parties did not intend a pivotal dispute resolution provision to terminate for all purposes upon the expiration of the agreement.
The Union, and Justice STEVENS' dissent, argue that we err in reaching the merits of the issue whether the post-termination grievances arise under the expired agreement because, it is said, that is an issue of contract interpretation to be submitted to an arbitrator in the first instance. Whether or not a company is bound to arbitrate, as well as what issues it must arbitrate, is a matter to be determined by the court, and a party cannot be forced to "arbitrate the arbitrability issue." AT & T Technologies, Inc. v. Communication Workers of America, 475 U.S. 643, 651, 106 S.Ct. 1415, 1419-20, 89 L.Ed.2d 648. We acknowledge that where an effective bargaining agreement exists between the parties, and the agreement contains a broad arbitration clause, "there is a presumption of arbitrability in the sense that '[a]n order to arbitrate the particular grievance should not be denied unless it may be said with positive assurance that the arbitration clause is not susceptible of an interpretation that covers the asserted dispute.' " Id., at 650, 106 S.Ct., at 1419 (quoting Steelworkers v. Warrior & Gulf Navigation Co., 363 U.S. 564, 582-583, 80 S.Ct. 1343, 1352-1353, 4 L.Ed.2d 1403 (1960)). But we refuse to apply that presumption wholesale in the context of an expired bargaining agreement, for to do so would make limitless the contractual obligation to arbitrate. Although "[d]oubts should be resolved in favor of coverage," AT & T Technologies, supra, 475 U.S., at 650, 106 S.Ct., at 1419, we must determine whether the parties agreed to arbitrate this dispute, and we cannot avoid that duty because it requires us to interpret a provision of a bargaining agreement.
The order of layoffs under the Agreement was to be determined primarily with reference to "other factors such as aptitude and ability." Only where all such factors were equal was the employer required to look to seniority. Here, any arbitration proceeding would of necessity focus upon whether aptitude and ability—and any unenumerated "other factors"—were equal long after the Agreement had expired, as of the date of the decision to lay employees off and in light of Litton's decision to close down its cold-type printing operation.
The important point is that factors such as aptitude and ability do not remain constant, but change over time. They cannot be said to vest or accrue or be understood as a form of deferred compensation. Specific aptitudes and abilities can either improve or atrophy. And the importance of any particular skill in this equation varies with the requirements of the employer's business at any given time. Aptitude and ability cannot be measured on some universal scale, but only by matching an employee to the requirements of an employer's business at that time. We cannot infer an intent on the part of the contracting parties to freeze any particular order of layoff or vest any contractual right as of the Agreement's expiration.4
* The dispute in Nolde concerned whether employees terminated after the expiration of a collective-bargaining agreement were entitled to severance pay under a severance-pay clause of the expired agreement. See id., at 248-249, 97 S.Ct., at 1070-1071. The Court stated that the severance-pay dispute "hinge[d] on the interpretation [of] the contract clause providing for severance pay" but that "the merits of the underlying claim" were not implicated "in determining the arbitrability of the dispute." Id., at 249, 97 S.Ct., at 1071. To determine whether the dispute was arbitrable, the Court looked solely to the expired agreement's arbitration clause. It found the severance-pay dispute arbitrable because "[t]he parties agreed to resolve all disputes by resort to the mandatory grievance-arbitration machinery" and "nothing in the arbitration clause . . . expressly exclude[d] from its operation a dispute which arises under the contract, but which is based on events that occur after its termination." Id., at 252-253, 97 S.Ct., at 1072-1073.1 Thus, under Nolde, the key questions for determining arbitrability are whether (1) the dispute is "based on . . . differing perceptions of a provision of the expired collective-bargaining agreement" or otherwise "arises under that contract," id., at 249, 97 S.Ct., at 1071 (emphasis omitted), and, if so, (2) whether the "presumptions favoring" arbitrability have been "negated expressly or by clear implication," id., at 255, 97 S.Ct., at 1074.
The majority grossly distorts Nolde's test for arbitrability by transforming the first requirement that posttermination disputes "arise under" the expired contract. The Nolde Court defined "arises under" by reference to the allegations in the grievance. In other words, a dispute "arises under" the agreement where "the resolution of [the Union's] claim hinges on the interpretation ultimately given the contract." Id., at 249, 97 S.Ct., at 1071.
Since the proper question under Nolde is whether the dispute in this case "arises under" the agreement in the sense that it is "based on . . . differing perceptions of a provision in the expired collective bargaining agreement," ibid., I have no difficulty concluding that this test is met here. The Union's grievance "claim[ed] a violation of the Agreement," ante, at 194, by petitioner's layoffs. And, as even the majority concedes, "[t]he Agreement's unlimited arbitration clause" encompasses any dispute that "arises under the contract here in question." Ante, at 205. Thus, the dispute is arbitrable because the "presumptions favoring" arbitrability have not been "negated expressly or by clear implication." 430 U.S., at 255, 97 S.Ct., at 1074.
Consequently, the issue here, as it was in Nolde, is not whether a substantive provision of the expired collective-bargaining agreement (in this case the provision covering layoffs) remains enforceable but whether the expired agreement reflects the parties' intent to arbitrate the Union's contention that this provision remains enforceable. The majority itself acknowledges a general rule of contract construction by which arbitration or other dispute resolution provisions may survive the termination of a contract. Ante, at 208, and n. 3. That is all Nolde stands for.2
In addition to being without legal foundation, the majority's displacement of Nolde's simple, interpretive presumption with a case-by-case test is unsound from a policy standpoint. Ironically, whereas parties that have agreed to a broad arbitration clause have expressed a preference for "a prompt and inexpensive resolution of their disputes by an expert tribunal," Nolde, supra, at 254, 97 S.Ct., at 1073, the majority invites protracted litigation about what rights may "accrue" or "vest" under the contract—litigation aimed solely at determining whether the dispute will be resolved by arbitration. More fundamentally, because the arbitrator is better equipped than are judges to make the often difficult determination of the post-termination effect of an expired contract's substantive provisions, the majority's assignment of this task to courts increases the likelihood of error. See id., at 253, 97 S.Ct., at 1073 (" 'The ablest judge cannot be expected to bring the same experience and competence to bear upon the determination of a grievance, because he cannot be similarly informed,' " quoting Steelworkers v. Warrior & Gulf Nav. Co., 363 U.S. 574, 582, 80 S.Ct. 1347, 1353, 4 L.Ed.2d 1409 (1960)).
The majority's resolution of the merits of the contract dispute here reinforces my conviction that arbitrators should be the preferred resolvers of such questions. The Union based its grievance on the following provision of the contract: "[I]n case of layoffs, lengths of continuous service will be the determining factor if other things such as aptitude and ability are equal." App. 30. The Union's contention that postexpiration layoffs violated this provision rests on the assertion that this contractual provision created rights that survive termination of the contract. The majority rejects this assertion on the ground that "factors such as aptitude and ability do not remain constant, but change over time" and thus "cannot be said to vest or accrue." Ante, at 210. This conclusion strikes me as utterly implausible.
"failure to specify expiration as one of the ways in which seniority rights could be lost indicates that the parties intended that seniority rights remain enforceable after contract termination. Therefore, the grievance over [the employer's] refusal to recall employees by plantwide seniority . . . involves a right worked for and accumulated during the term of the contract and intended by the parties to survive contract expiration." Uppco, Inc., 288 N.L.R.B. 937, 940 (1988).
In the present case, the expired agreement enumerates six specific ways an employee could lose seniority, and these do not include termination of the agreement. See App. 31.3 Thus, the qualified seniority at issue in this case would seem as likely to accrue as did the unconditional seniority in Uppco.
In any event, the conclusion that the contracting parties in this case did not intend qualified seniority rights to vest is sufficiently implausible as to raise serious questions about the majority's assignment of the task of deciding this interpretive issue to itself. Had the majority left this issue to the arbitrator to decide, as Nolde requires, the arbitrator would have had the benefit of an evidentiary hearing on the contractual question and the opportunity to explore petitioner's actual postexpiration seniority practices. The contractual text, alone, may not be the only relevant information in determining the parties' intent. Because arbitrators are better equipped to decide such issues and are more familiar with the " 'common law of the shop,' " Nolde, supra, 430 U.S., at 253, 97 S.Ct., at 1073, quoting Warrior & Gulf Nav. Co., supra, 363 U.S., at 582, 80 S.Ct., at 1352, I would have much more confidence in the majority's construction of the contract were that result reached by an arbitrator. In sum, the majority's problematic reasoning regarding the substance of the layoff grievance only underscores the soundness of the Nolde presumption of arbitrability which the majority today displaces. Accordingly, I dissent.4
In Nolde Bros., Inc. v. Bakery Workers, 430 U.S. 243, 97 S.Ct. 1067, 51 L.Ed.2d 300 (1977), a union brought suit against an employer to compel arbitration of the employer's refusal to give severance pay under an expired collective-bargaining agreement to employees displaced by a plant closing. The expired agreement provided that employees who had worked for the employer for at least three years were entitled to severance pay if permanently displaced from their jobs. The union claimed that the right to such severance pay had "accrued" or "vested" during the life of the contract. The employer disavowed any obligation to arbitrate, arguing that the contract containing its commitment had terminated and the event giving rise to the dispute—the displacement of employees during the plant closing—occurred after the contract had expired.
Like the expired agreement between the Union and Nolde Bros. to arbitrate "all grievances," the terminated agreement between Litton and the Union in this case broadly mandates arbitration of " '[d]ifferences that may arise between the parties hereto regarding this Agreement and any alleged violations of the Agreement, [and] the construction to be placed on any clause or clauses of the Agreement.' " Ante, at 194. Because the Union here alleged that the seniority clause of the expired agreement was on its face violated by the posttermination layoffs, determining whether the union's grievances arise under the contract requires construction of the seniority provision of the contract and determination of whether this provision applies to posttermination events. As the Court itself notes: "[T]he Board's decision not to order arbitration of the layoff grievances rests upon its interpretation of the Agreement." Ante, at 202 (emphasis added).
Although I believe the parties have a contractual duty to arbitrate in this case, I agree with the majority's conclusion that the Board articulated rational grounds for not imposing a statutory duty under the National Labor Relations Act, 29 U.S.C. § 151 et seq., to arbitrate grievances arising after the termination of a collective-bargaining agreement. See Ante, at 200-201. In Indiana and Michigan Electric Co., 284 N.L.R.B. 53 (1987), the Board noted that "an agreement to arbitrate is a product of the parties' mutual consent to relinquish economic weapons, such as strikes or lockouts" and therefore the contractual obligation to arbitrate could be distinguished from other "terms and conditions of employment routinely perpetuated [after termination of a collective-bargaining agreement] by the [statutory] constraints of [the unilateral change doctrine]." Id., at 58. Under § 13 of the Act, 29 U.S.C. § 163, the Act may not be construed to interfere with a union's right to strike. Therefore, the Board rationally concluded that employers should not, as a matter of statutory policy, be compelled to arbitrate and thus forbear from using their economic weapons, when no concomitant statutory obligation can be imposed on a union.