Opinion ID: 413331
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Effect of the Postal Reorganization Statute

Text: 16 Leach asserts that Mitchell is inapplicable because his claim against the United States Postal Service is not of the 'hybrid type' claim pursuant to Sec. 301(a), LMRA, but is predicated upon an independent jurisdictional statute, 39 U.S.C. Sec. 409(b), which is in fact subject to an existing limitation period contained in 28 U.S.C. (Appellant's Brief at 16). The time limitation which Leach suggests should be applied pursuant to 39 U.S.C. Sec. 409(b), a provision of the Postal Reorganization Act adopted in 1970, is the general six year statute of limitations set forth in 28 U.S.C. Sec. 2401(a) governing civil actions brought against the United States. Leach bases this argument on the fact that his claim is a contract claim asserted independently against the federal government. (Appellant's Brief at 18). 17 This argument is incorrect. Section 2401(a) is not the applicable limitations statute. The grievance-arbitration process in the Postal Service came into the law in the Postal Reorganization Act of 1970. In passing the Act, Congress created an independent establishment of the executive branch of the government of the United States, 39 U.S.C. Sec. 201, whose labor relations are patterned after the private sector and to which the National Labor Relations Act applies, 39 U.S.C. Sec. 1209. The national labor policy in favor of arbitration expressed in section 203(d) of the Labor Management Relations Act, 29 U.S.C. Sec. 173(d), is included in the Postal Reorganization Act. It authorized the collective bargaining parties to include procedures culminating in binding third-party arbitration, 39 U.S.C. Sec. 1206(b). To enforce the provisions of the collective bargaining agreement, Congress enacted 39 U.S.C. Sec. 1208(b). 18 This Circuit and our sister circuits have uniformly held that 39 U.S.C. Sec. 1208(b) is an analogue of Section 301(a) of the Labor Management Relations Act of 1957 3 and have consistently applied Sec. 301 law to suits brought pursuant to 39 U.S.C. Sec. 1208(b). Malone v. United States Postal Service, 526 F.2d 1099, 1103-1104 (6th Cir.1975) (legislative intent of Postal Reorganization Act was to bring postal labor relations within the same structure that exists for nationwide enterprise in the private sector). Accord, National Association of Letter Carriers, AFL-CIO v. United States Postal Service, 590 F.2d 1171 (D.C.Cir.1978); Melendy v. United States Postal Service, 589 F.2d 256 (7th Cir.1978); Winston v. United States Postal Service, 585 F.2d 198 (7th Cir.1978); National Association of Letter Carriers v. Sombrotto, 449 F.2d 915, 919 (2nd Cir.1971). 19 Thus, since the courts have applied Sec. 301 case law to Postal Service labor relations cases arising under 39 U.S.C. Sec. 1208(b) and since it is from the Sec. 301 case law that Mitchell, supra, arose, Mitchell is clearly applicable to Leach's action against the Postal Service. 20