Opinion ID: 388327
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Validity of the Intra-Union Exhaustion Requirement

Text: 28 Our recent decision in Pawlak v. Greenawalt, 628 F.2d 826 (3d Cir. 1980), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 101 S.Ct. 869, 66 L.Ed.2d --- (1981), is dispositive of the validity of Subsection 1 of the IBEW constitution, which requires union members to exhaust internal remedies before resorting to a court or administrative agency. In Pawlak, where we examined an identical provision in the constitution of the Teamsters Union, the question was whether § 411(a) (4) of the Landrum-Griffin Act prevented a union from punishing a member for suing the union without first exhausting intra-union procedures. 29 Section 411(a)(4) generally prohibits unions from limiting a member's right to sue. The union in Pawlak contended, and the unions here also argue, that the proviso to that section authorizes unions to adopt intra-union exhaustion clauses. The proviso states: 30 That any such member may be required to exhaust reasonable hearing procedures (but not to exceed a four-month lapse of time) within such organization, before instituting legal or administrative procedures against such organization or any officer thereof ... 31 Examining the purpose of the right to sue in § 411(a)(4), as well as the Supreme Court interpretation of the statute, we concluded in Pawlak that the proviso confers upon courts discretion to require exhaustion before exercising their jurisdiction, but that it extends no such similar power to unions. Thus, we invalidated and enjoined enforcement of the Teamsters' intra-union exhaustion requirement. 32 Subsection 1 of the IBEW Constitution must be declared void and enjoined on the authority of Pawlak. The defendants insist, however, that we should not reverse the district court because the judge did not have the benefit of our decision in Pawlak, and because he properly applied exhaustion standards we had set forth in Semancik, supra. 33 There are two answers to these contentions. First, we are obliged to apply and enforce the law as it exists at the time we decide an appeal. See, e. g., Bradley v. School Board, 416 U.S. 696, 711, 94 S.Ct. 2006, 2016, 40 L.Ed.2d 476 (1973); Thorpe v. Housing Authority, 393 U.S. 268, 281-82, 89 S.Ct. 518, 525-526, 21 L.Ed.2d 474 (1969). Second, it is readily evident that the criteria in Semancik were addressed to courts, rather than unions, and were designed to guide the exercise of judicial discretion. There is nothing in Semancik to indicate that unions have the power to insist on exhaustion. Indeed, in that case we repeated the well-established rule that whether or not a plaintiff will be required to utilize his internal union appeals is a matter within the discretion of the trial judge. 466 F.2d at 150. 34 Pawlak did not effectuate a change in the law. Rather, the opinion there was based on a previous direction from the Supreme Court, and it reached the same conclusion that had been earlier adopted by other courts of appeal. All of these decisions were available, of course, when the district court adjudicated the claims advanced by Mallick and Chadwick. The Supreme Court interpreted § 411(a)(4) in NLRB v. Industrial Union of Marine and Shipbuilding Workers, 391 U.S. 418, 88 S.Ct. 1717, 20 L.Ed.2d 706 (1968), a case in which the union expelled an employee for filing charges with the NLRB before pursuing all available internal procedures. In considering the proviso, the Court held: 35 We conclude that may be required (the words in the proviso) is not a grant of authority to unions more firmly to police their members but a statement of policy that the public tribunals whose aid is invoked may in their discretion stay their hands for four months, while the aggrieved person seeks relief within the union. We read it, in other words, as installing in this labor field a regime comparable to that which prevails in other areas of law before the federal courts, which often stay their hands while a litigant seeks administrative relief before the appropriate agency. 36 Id. at 426, 88 S.Ct. at 1030 (emphasis added). 37 In 1969, the Ninth Circuit applied this holding to overturn a fine imposed by a union on a member who failed to exhaust internal remedies, remarking that 38 Once it is established that the proviso in 29 U.S.C. § 411(a)(4) is a policy guide for the courts and not a grant of authority for the union, and we think that at least that much is established by Marine Workers, supra, then for the purpose of examining the limits of permissible union discipline we are left with these words: no labor organization shall limit the right of any member thereof to institute an action in any court or in any proceeding before any administrative agency.... 39 Operating Engineers Local 3 v. Burroughs, 417 F.2d 370, 372 (9th Cir. 1969), cert. denied, 397 U.S. 916, 90 S.Ct. 921, 25 L.Ed. 97 (1970). In Ross v. I. B. E. W., 544 F.2d 1022 (9th Cir. 1976), the court voided the precise exhaustion provision of the I.B.E.W. Constitution that is before us in the current appeal. 10 40 As these cases have recognized, the prohibition in § 411(a)(4) against a union's limiting recourse by a member to the courts would be an empty one, indeed, if a union could punish a member who does not wait four months before exercising the right to sue. We may not construe the provision in § 411(a)(4) to vitiate the right guaranteed by that section. 41 The conclusion of the district court that Subsection 1 of the IBEW Constitution is valid under federal law must therefore be reversed, and the International and Local 712 will be enjoined from further efforts to enforce this subsection with disciplinary action.