Opinion ID: 181299
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Negotiation of the Disputed Language

Text: Again focusing on the scope of the underlying dispute, the Company claims the parties never negotiated the relevant provisions. According to the Company, the disputed provisions are those in § 5.03 of the Pension Plan that require an employee to reach age and seniority requirements before his date of termination of employment in order to receive the Thirty and Out benefit. The Company argues that this lack of negotiation is most forceful evidence of the parties' intent not to arbitrate the dispute. We have addressed above the Company's argument that the only issue disputed in the grievance is the definition of termination in the Pension Plan. Yet for the sake of thoroughness, we discuss the further reasons that the Company's argument regarding negotiated language does not show most forceful evidence of an intent to exclude the Union's grievance from arbitration. This court has held that non-negotiation of the disputed language sometimes constitutes most forceful evidence of an intent not to arbitrate. See Printing Specialties and Paper Products Union Local 680 v. Nabisco Brands, Inc., 833 F.2d 102, 105 (7th Cir.1987); Int'l Assn. of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, Dist. No. 10 v. Waukesha Engine Div., Dresser Indus., Inc., 17 F.3d 196, 199 (7th Cir.1994) (refusing to order arbitration because no disputed term appeared in the parties' CBA, but not specifying that the absence of a disputed term constituted most forceful evidence of an intent not to arbitrate). In Nabisco, the court found forceful evidence the parties did not intend to arbitrate a dispute over pension benefits because the parties' CBA did not incorporate the pension plan, the pension plan contained a separate plan for administering grievances, and the parties did not negotiate any terms of the pension plan into the CBA. Nabisco, 833 F.2d at 105. While the Company correctly asserts the absence of any disputed provision from a negotiated agreement may constitute most forceful evidence of the parties' intent to exclude the dispute from arbitration, the Company incorrectly claims the CBA here includes no disputed provision. In Nabisco, the CBA's only reference to the pension plan was a provision that the company would keep the Pension Plan in full force and effect. Nabisco, 833 F.2d at 105 (describing this provision as a passing reference to and mere mention[] of the pension plan). The agreement in Waukesha made a similarly limited reference to the plan that contained the disputed terms. See Waukesha, 17 F.3d at 198 (noting the only relevant language in the CBA to be: The Company will continue to provide the present employee insurance coverage ... as specified in the Summary Plan Booklet). In contrast, the CBA here provides a specific right to Union members, namely the right to receive the Thirty and Out benefit upon reaching the requirements of § 13.01. So the Union's allegation that the Company has denied employees their right to the Thirty and Out benefit depends on the terms of § 13.01 of the CBA. See United Steelworkers of Am. v. Rohm & Haas Co., 522 F.3d 324, 332-35 (3d Cir.2008) (refusing to order arbitration of a grievance about disability benefits where the CBA contained no specific language addressing the employees' rights to disability benefits, and [t]he employees' right to receive disability benefits instead derive[d] from the Plan). Unlike the parties in Waukesha and Nabisco, the parties here negotiated the provision of the Thirty and Out benefit into the CBA, thereby showing an intent to arbitrate grievances alleging the Company's denial of the benefit, not an intent to exclude such grievances from arbitration.