Opinion ID: 717910
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Dropping Arbitration of the Registration Issue

Text: 16 Finally, while the Coast Committee on September 3, 1991, directed the Port Committee to register thirty casuals, the actual registration of those casuals did not occur until May 1993. The delay was attributable to a dispute in the hours issue; that is, determining how to select the thirty casuals. However, the union allowed the six month time limit for bringing issues to arbitration to lapse. Appellants claim that this delay establishes a breach of the duty of fair representation. 3 17 If a union exercises its judgment as to how best to handle a grievance, it has not acted arbitrarily and will not be liable for a good faith, non-discriminatory error of judgment. Peterson v. Kennedy, 771 F.2d 1244, 1254 (9th Cir.1985), cert. denied, 475 U.S. 1122 (1986). However, unlike in Peterson, where the plaintiff merely alleged arbitrariness, Appellants have alleged bad faith as the motive for the union's dropping of the registration issue. 18 The evidence that Appellants point to as suggesting bad faith on the part of Appellees are: 19 (1) the ILWU officials stated that they felt they had no obligations to the identified casuals and did not invite casual representatives to discuss registration issues; and 20 (2) the timing of the registration of the thirty casuals--in May 1993, following the filing of the complaint in this case in January 1993--suggests that the appellees followed through only due to the threat of the lawsuit, especially when the union told the casuals that it would seek arbitration of the registration issue, when in fact it failed to seek arbitration. 21 We conclude that this evidence does not directly support a finding of bad faith as to dropping the registration issue. There is no dispute that thirty casuals were to be registered in September 1991, that a dispute as to the calculation of hours arose, and that the matter was not submitted to arbitration, but held in abeyance pending resolution of a related hours dispute by the National Labor Relations Board (the Fenton grievance). That matter was resolved on January 28, 1993--around the same time that the appellants filed the complaint in this case. 22 Thus, Appellants are relying on their interpretations of the facts to support a ruling that there is a material dispute of fact as to whether the union dropped the arbitration issue in bad faith. However, it is not enough for Appellants simply to point to some evidence in the record. They must point to sufficient evidence for a jury to return a verdict in their favor. Moreover, [i]f the evidence is merely colorable ... or is not significantly probative, ... summary judgment may be granted. Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 249-50, 106 S.Ct. 2505 (1986) (citations omitted). 23 Although we find this issue to be close, there is no direct evidence of any bad faith on the part of the ILWU other than the statements by the union officials that they did not feel that they represented Appellants. For a jury to find in favor of Appellants on this issue, it would have to disregard all of the objective evidence submitted by the ILWU. In particular, the ILWU has submitted undisputed evidence that it waited for the resolution of the Fenton grievance to be resolved before it proceeded with registration, because previous experience had indicated that uncertainty about the calculation of hours could lead to a forced deregistration of longshoremen. Had ILWU registered casuals in a manner that ultimately differed from that determined to be proper in the Fenton grievance, there could have been an entirely new registration dispute. 24 This is not a matter of credibility, but rather whether the evidence is so one-sided that a reasonable jury could only return one verdict. Anderson, 477 U.S. at 250 (holding that the standard for summary judgment is similar to that for Rule 50 judgment as a matter of law). Because Appellants' argument relies so heavily on the interpretation of the facts, we find that their evidence fails to rise above a colorable level.