Opinion ID: 309634
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Actions of the Local

Text: 7 The Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act provides that a labor organization shall impose a trusteeship over a subordinate body for certain specified purposes, including restoring democratic procedures. 7 The International claims that the Local abrogated democratic procedures by three specific courses of action.
8 The International first claims that the notice to fifty-eight supervisory employees stating that the Local had been informed of their ineligibility for membership was an illegal expulsion. 8 The letter's language and the surrounding circumstances, however, suggest that no members were expelled by this or any other act of the Local prior to imposition of the trusteeship. There is evidence that the supervisory employees were not in fact taken off the membership rolls of the Local. 9 In addition, they were given an opportunity to appeal their classification; this suggested that no final action had been taken. 10 9 The International protests that requirements under 29 U.S.C. Sec. 411(a)(5) of specific charges, time to prepare a defense, and full and fair hearing were not met. The section relied upon, however, is entitled Safeguards against improper disciplinary action and provides that no member . . . may be . . . expelled, or otherwise disciplined 11 without the enumerated safeguards. Even assuming the Local had taken final action to expel the supervisors, that action was not disciplinary in nature. The supervisory personnel were not being removed in order to punish them but rather to comply with a decision of the NLRB Examiner. The Local was not obligated to conform to the specific provisions of Sec. 411(a)(5). 10 Strictly speaking, the Local may not have been obligated to expel the supervisors since such individuals may be non-voting members of unions. 12 The Local could have simply amended its bylaws to provide for this special non-voting status. As noted, however, the supervisors were not actually expelled by the letter. Indeed, they were specifically invited to show why they ought not to be expelled. 13 The supervisors could have raised the possibility of a non-voting membership at that time. The Local's notice, therefore, met the minimum standards required by due process under the circumstances.
11 The tangible and final action which the Local did take with respect to the fifty-eight supervisors was barring them from voting on the disaffiliation resolution. This provides no basis whatever in support of the International's position. First, the NLRB Examiner's decision, as it then stood and as it was later adopted with modifications by the Board, specifically provided that voting by such supervisors was improper. 14 Second, even a unanimous vote by the fifty-eight against the resolution would still not have defeated it. Third, the Local's Death Benefit Fund, in which the supervisors had an interest, was merely separated, not dissolved. No pecuniary interest of the supervisors was threatened by that action; in fact, if the supervisors were not to remain members of the Local, separation of the Fund was desirable to protect the supervisors' financial interest. 12 Thus, the only possible result of permitting the supervisors to vote would have been to invalidate the entire ballot by violating the Examiner's order, and creating a greater potential of disqualification of the Local as bargaining representative of the non-supervisory employees. To accede to the International's claim would have required the Local to maintain union democracy by allowing what the NLRB had found to be an unfair labor practice. The Local's good faith attempt to comply with the law cannot be used by the International as the basis for imposition of a trusteeship.
13 The International claims the meeting following the Hearing Examiner's decision was called with inadequate notice to the farflung membership of the Local. Inasmuch as the posted notice complies precisely with the Local's by-laws, 15 the International has been unable to illustrate what more could be required of the Local. 14 A further claim charges that the resolution contains two separate clauses (disaffiliation from the International and separation of the Death Benefit Fund) but allowed only one yes or no vote. Aside from the International's inability to cite any authority for the proposition that joint resolutions of this type are impermissible, this court finds it difficult to describe a procedure regularly followed in Congress as a breakdown in the democratic process. In any event, if the resolution for disaffiliation had carried, and the supervisors under the NLRB decision were no longer to be members of the Local, it was necessary to separate the Death Benefit Fund from purely Local administration to protect the interests of the non-member supervisors. The possibility of inconsistent votes on the two related questions was wisely not allowed. 15 Finally, the International objects to language within the resolution and accompanying it which can arguably be described as advocacy for passage of the resolution by the Local's leadership. 16 Admittedly the challenged language does not go out of its way to point out that the Trial Examiner's decision on the need to disaffiliate might not be the final NLRB action. Someone had to send out the ballots and characterize the issues, however. Absent an outright distortion of the facts and issues as reasonably perceived, we shall not presume that the Local's characterizations and comments on the issues were improper. 16
17 In short, no valid factual basis existed for the International's conclusion that democratic procedures had been abrogated. The District Court erred in holding that a breakdown in democratic procedures, requisite to establish a valid purpose for the trusteeship, had occurred in this case. What broke down-and for perfectly valid and understandable reasons-was support in the Local for continued affiliation with the International. The real (and invalid) purpose behind the International's imposition of the trusteeship was its desire to retain control of the Local's affairs. This clearly justifies a permanent injunction to prevent the International from interfering further with the affairs of the Local.