Source: https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/363/574/
Timestamp: 2018-01-22 02:40:16
Document Index: 206739985

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 301', '§ 301', '§ 301', '§ 301', '§ 185', '§ 185', '§ 8', '§ 158']

UNITED STEELWORKERS OF AMERICA, Petitioner, v. WARRIOR AND GULF NAVIGATION COMPANY. | LII / Legal Information Institute
363 U.S. 574 (80 S.Ct. 1347, 4 L.Ed.2d 1409)
Settlement of this grievance was not had and respondent refused arbitration. This suit was then commenced by the union to compel it. 1
We held in Textile Workers v. Lincoln Mills, 353 U.S. 448, 77 S.Ct. 912, 923, 1 L.Ed.2d 972, that a grievance arbitration provision in a collective agreement could be enforced by reason of § 301(a) of the Labor Management Relations Act 2 and that the policy to be applied in enforcing this type of arbitration was that reflected in our national labor laws. Id., 353 U.S. at pages 456457, 77 S.Ct. at page 917918. The present federal policy is to promote industrial stabilization through the collective bargaining agreement. 3 Id., 353 U.S. at pages 453454, 77 S.Ct. at page 916. A major factor in achieving industrial peace is the inclusion of a provision for arbitration of grievances in the collective bargaining agreement. 4
The collective bargaining agreement states the rights and duties of the parties. It is more than a contract; it is a generalized code to govern a myriad of cases which the draftsmen cannot wholly anticipate. See Shulman, Reason, Contract, and Law in Labor Relations, 68 Harv.L. Rev. 999, 10041005. The collective agreement covers the whole employment relationship. 5 It calls into being a new common lawthe common law of a particular industry or of a particular plant. As one observer has put it: 6
The labor arbitrator's source of law is not confined to the express provisions of the contract, as the industrial common lawthe practices of the industry and the shopis equally a part of the collective bargaining agreement although not expressed in it. The labor arbitrator is usually chosen because of the parties' confidence in his knowledge of the common law of the shop and their trust in his personal judgment to bring to bear considerations which are not expressed in the contract as criteria for judgment. The parties expect that his judgment of a particular grievance will reflect not only what the contract says but, insofar as the collective bargaining agreement permits, such factors as the effect upon productivity of a particular result, its consequence to the morale of the shop, his judgment whether tensions will be heightened or diminished. For the parties' objective in using the arbitration process is primarily to further their common goal of uninterrupted production under the agreement, to make the agreement serve their specialized needs. 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.
The Congress, however, has by § 301 of the Labor Management Relations Act, assigned the courts the duty of determining whether the reluctant party has breached his promise to arbitrate. For 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. Yet, to be consistent with congressional policy in favor of settlement of disputes by the parties through the machinery of arbitration, the judicial inquiry under § 301 must be strictly confined to the question whether the reluctant party did agree to arbitrate the grievance or did agree to give the arbitrator power to make the award he made. An 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. Doubts should be resolved in favor of coverage. 7
Accordingly, 'strictly a function of management' must be interpreted as referring only to that over which the contract gives management complete control and unfettered discretion. Respondent claims that the contracting out of work falls within this category. Contracting out work is the basis of many grievances; and that type of claim is grist in the mills of the arbitrators. 8 A specific collective bargaining agreement may exclude contracting out from the grievance procedure. Or a written collateral agreement may make clear that contracting out was not a matter for arbitration. In such a case a grievance based solely on contracting out would not be arbitrable. Here, however, there is no such provision. Nor is there any showing that the parties designed the phrase 'strictly a function of management' to encompass any and all forms of contracting out. In the absence of any express provision excluding a particular grievance from arbitration, we think only the most forceful evidence of a purpose to exclude the claim from arbitration can prevail, particularly where, as here, the exclusion clause is vague and the arbitration clause quite broad. Since any attempt by a court to infer such a purpose necessarily comprehends the merits, the court should view with suspicion an attempt to persuade it to become entangled in the construction of the substantive provisions of a labor agreement, even through the back door of interpreting the arbitration clause, when the alternative is to utilize the services of an arbitrator.
Until today, I have understood it to be the unquestioned law, as this Court has consistently held, that arbitrators are private judges chosen by the parties to decide particular matters specifically submitted; 1 that the contract under which matters are submitted to arbitrators is at once the source and limit of their authority and power; 2 and that their power to decide issues with finality, thus ousting the normal functions of the courts, must rest upon a clear, definitive agreement of the parties, as such powers can never be implied. United States v. Moorman, 338 U.S. 457, 462, 70 S.Ct. 288, 291, 94 L.Ed. 256; 3 Mercantile Trust Co. v. Hensey, 205 U.S. 298, 309, 27 S.Ct. 535, 539, 51 L.Ed. 811. 4 See also Fernandez & Hnos. v. Rickert Rice Mills, 1 Cir., 119 F.2d 809, 815, 136 A.L.R. 351; 5 Marchant v. Mead-Morrison Mfg. Co., 252 N.Y. 284, 299, 169 N.E. 386, 391; 6 Continental Milling & Feed Co. v. Doughnut Corp., 186 Md. 669, 676, 48 A.2d 447, 450; 7 Jacob v. Weisser, 207 Pa. 484, 489, 56 A. 1065, 1067. 8 I believe that the Court today departs from the established principles announced in these decisions.
Here, the employer operates a shop for the normal maintenance of its barges, but it is not equipped to make major repairs, and accordingly the employer has, from the beginning of its operations more than 19 years ago, contracted out its major repair work. During most, if not all, of this time the union has represented the employees in that unit. The District Court found that '(t) hroughout the successive labor agreements between these parties, including the present one, * * * (the union) has unsuccessfully sought to negotiate changes in the labor contracts, and particularly during the negotiation of the present labor agreement, * * * which would have limited the right of the (employer) to continue the practice of contracting out such work.' 168 F.Supp. 702, 704705.
The labor agreement involved here provides for arbitration of disputes respecting the interpretation and application of the agreement and, arguably, also some other things. But the first paragraph of the arbitration section says: '(M)atters which are strictly a function of management shall not be subject to arbitration under this section.' Although acquiescing for 19 years in the employer's interpretation that contracting out work was 'strictly a function of management,' and having repeatedly tried particularly in the negotiation of the agreement involved herebut unsuccessfully, to induce the employer to agree to a covenant that would prohibit it from contracting out work, the union, after having agreed to and signed the contract involved, presented a 'grievance' on the ground that the employer's contracting out work, at a time when some employees in the unit were laid off for lack of work, constituted a partial 'lockout' of employees in violation of the antilockout provision of the agreement.
Being unable to persuade the employer to agree to cease contracting out work or to agree to arbitrate the 'grievance,' the union brought this action in the District Court, under § 301 of the Labor Management Relations Act, 29 U.S.C. 185, 29 U.S.C.A. § 185, for a decree compelling the employer to submit the 'grievance' to arbitration. The District Court, holding that the contracting out of work was, and over a long course of dealings had been interpreted and understood by the parties to be, 'strictly a function of management,' and was therefore specifically excluded from arbitration by the terms of the contract, denied the relief prayed, 168 F.Supp. 702, 705. The Court of Appeals affirmed, 269 F.2d 633, and we granted certiorari. 361 U.S. 912, 80 S.Ct. 255, 4 L.Ed.2d 183.
Section 301(a) of the Labor Management Relations Act, 1947, 61 Stat. 156, 29 U.S.C. 185(a), 29 U.S.C.A. § 185(a), provides:
In § 8(d) of the National Labor Relations Act, as amended by the 1947 Act, 29 U.S.C. 158(d), 29 U.S.C.A. § 158(d), Congress indeed provided that where there was a collective agreement for a fixed term the duty to bargain did not require either party 'to discuss or agree to any modification of the terms and conditions contained in' the contract. And see National Labor Relations Board v. Sands Mfg. Co., 306 U.S. 332, 59 S.Ct. 508, 83 L.Ed. 682.
Cox, Reflections Upon Labor Arbitration, 72 Harv.L.Rev. 1482, 14981499 (1959).
It is clear that under both the agreement in this case and that involved in American Manufacturing Co., 363 U.S. 564, 80 S.Ct. 1343, the question of arbitrability is for the courts to decide. Cf. Cox, Reflections Upon Labor Arbitration, 72 Harv.L.Rev. 1482, 15081509. Where the assertion by the claimant is that the parties excluded from court determination not merely the decision of the merits of the grievance but also the question of its arbitrability, vesting power to make both decisions in the arbitrator, the claimant must bear the burden of a clear demonstration of that purpose.
'The agreement under which (the arbitrators) were selected was at once the source and limit of their authority, and the award, to be binding, must, in substance and form, conform to the submission.' (Emphasis added.) Continental Ins. Co. v. Garrett, 6 Cir., 125 F. 589, 590Opinion by Judge, later Mr. Justice, Lurton.