Opinion ID: 490009
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Exhaustion of Contractual Remedies

Text: 17 The district court was also correct in determining that Roman was required to attempt to exhaust his contractual remedies. The requirement of exhaustion of contractual remedies under Sec. 301 of the Labor-Management Relations Act (LMRA), 29 U.S.C. Sec. 185(a), applies to suits brought pursuant to the PRA. See McNair, 768 F.2d at 735. The central purpose in enacting the PRA's labor management provisions was to bring postal labor relations within the same structure that exists for nationwide enterprises within the private sector. House Report at 13, 1970 U.S.Code Cong. & Ad.News 3649, 3662. Under Sec. 301(a) of the LMRA, employees must at least attempt to exhaust the grievance and arbitration procedures established by the collective bargaining agreement before seeking judicial enforcement of their rights under the contract. Vaca v. Sipes, 386 U.S. 171, 184-85, 87 S.Ct. 903, 913-14, 17 L.Ed.2d 842 (1967); Huffman v. Westinghouse Electric Corp., 752 F.2d 1221, 1223 (7th Cir.1985). In this case, since Roman's claim was essentially based upon a breach of the collective bargaining agreement, he was bound by the terms of that agreement which govern the manner in which contract rights may be enforced. 18 Roman argues that he was not obligated to pursue his contractual remedies because the collective bargaining agreement only provided an employee with procedures for resolving grievances. Since he had already resigned when he learned of his grievance, he claims that he was no longer an employee within the scope of the agreement and therefore was not required to exhaust his remedies under it. Roman analogizes his situation to that of a retired employee. He relies upon Anderson v. Alpha Portland Industries, 752 F.2d 1293 (8th Cir.) (en banc), cert. denied, 471 U.S. 1102, 105 S.Ct. 2329, 85 L.Ed.2d 846 (1985). In Anderson, the Eighth Circuit held that retired employees are not required to exhaust contractual remedies before bringing an action against their employer to recover insurance benefits under the collective bargaining agreement in effect when they retired. In Anderson the court noted that it would be unfair to require retirees to exhaust remedies controlled by the Union because the Union does not owe them a duty of fair representation. Id. at 1298 n. 11. The Anderson court relied upon Allied Chemical & Alkali Workers of America v. Pittsburgh Plate Glass Co., 404 U.S. 157, 172, 92 S.Ct. 383, 393, 30 L.Ed.2d 341 (1971), in which the Supreme Court held that retirees are not employees within the meaning of the National Labor Relations Act, 29 U.S.C. Secs. 151-168, and cannot properly be joined with active employees in a collective bargaining unit. In Allied Chemical, the Supreme Court distinguished retirees who have completely and finally severed their employment relationship, from individuals who, while not presently employees for some reason, were members of the active work force available for hire. Id. at 168, 92 S.Ct. at 392 (distinguishing individuals who have quit or whose employers have gone out of business). The Allied Chemical Court pointed out that retirees and active employees lack the necessary mutuality or community of interests necessary to assure the coherence among employees necessary for efficient collective bargaining and at the same time prevent a functionally distinct minority group of employees from being submerged. Id. at 172-73, 92 S.Ct. at 393-94. 19 Roman's situation is quite distinguishable from that of the retirees in Anderson. Unlike the retirees, Roman's claim concerns events which occurred while he was an employee and a member of the collective bargaining unit to whom the Union owed a duty of fair representation. In addition, Roman did not completely and finally sever his employment relationship with the Postal Service; he anticipated being rehired. Roman contends that he was not a member of the active work force available for hire because the Postal Service did not intend to rehire him as they had promised. But Roman's claim is no different from that of any other employee who has quit or been fired. Those employees are limited to the collective bargaining agreement and are required to attempt to exhaust their contractual remedies. Likewise, Roman's involuntary resignation claim connotes employer-labor relations which are governed by the collective bargaining agreement and therefore he was required to attempt to exhaust his contractual remedies. 20 Moreover, this court has rejected an almost identical argument in Mitchell v. Pepsi-Cola Bottlers, Inc., 772 F.2d 342, 347 (7th Cir.1985), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 106 S.Ct. 1266, 89 L.Ed.2d 575 (1986). In that case, Mitchell, a former employee of Pepsi, alleged that Pepsi had accused him of stealing and threatened him that he would never work again unless he resigned from employment. Mitchell filed a grievance with his Union which was rejected at the first step. After a Union steward told Mitchell that it would be useless to process his grievance further, Mitchell did not pursue his grievance. He then filed suit against Pepsi claiming that it had tortiously terminated his employment contract. The district court dismissed his involuntary resignation claim for failure to exhaust contractual remedies. This court affirmed, holding that Mitchell's state tort law claim was preempted by the LRMA and that Mitchell was required to exhaust contractual remedies. Mitchell asserted that his involuntary resignation claim could not implicate the collective bargaining agreement because Pepsi did not fire him, but sought to avoid the provisions of the collective bargaining agreement by forcing him to resign involuntarily. This court construed Mitchell's involuntary resignation claim as a claim for wrongful constructive discharge and concluded that the Union intended the provisions of the collective bargaining agreement prohibiting discharge without just cause to govern such a dispute. Id. at 346-47 (citing cases where disputes involving involuntary resignations rather than standard discharges have been resolved by grievance and arbitration in accordance with contractual procedures). 21 In his reply brief, Roman attempts to distinguish Mitchell. He asserts that, unlike Mitchell, he was not allowed to file a grievance. This distinction, however, relates only to Roman's argument that the facts of this case justify an exception to the exhaustion requirement. It does not relate at all to the Mitchell holding that an employee who claims that he was forced to involuntarily resign must attempt to exhaust his contractual remedies. Roman also asserts that the Mitchell case is distinguishable because, unlike Mitchell, it was not clear to him that he was being constructively discharged at the time he was forced to resign. By the time he discovered that he would not be rehired, he claims, it was too late to file a grievance. Roman's argument is meritless. The collective bargaining agreement in this case allows an employee to initiate a grievance within fourteen days of the date on which the employee learned of his grievance or should reasonably have been expected to learn of its cause. If Roman did not learn of his grievance until after he had resigned, he still had time to initiate a grievance under the collective bargaining agreement. 22 Roman also seeks to avoid the consequences of the exhaustion requirement by claiming that he falls within an exception to the requirement. The Supreme Court has held that an employee may be excused from exhausting contractual remedies where (1) the conduct of the employer amounts to a repudiation of the contractual remedies so that the employer is estopped by his own conduct to rely upon unexhausted grievance and arbitration procedures as a defense to the employee's cause of action, Vaca, 386 U.S. at 185, 87 S.Ct. at 914; (2) resorting to the grievance procedures provided would be wholly futile, for example, where those who would pass on the claims are the very individuals charged with violating the complaining employee's rights initially, Glover v. St. Louis-San Francisco Rwy, 393 U.S. 324, 331, 89 S.Ct. 548, 552, 21 L.Ed.2d 519 (1969); or (3) the Union has breached its duty of fair representation in that the Union has the sole power under the agreement to invoke the higher stages of the agreement and has prevented the employee from exhausting contractual remedies by wrongfully refusing to process the grievance. Vaca, 386 U.S. at 185, 87 S.Ct. at 914. See also D'Amato, 760 F.2d at 1488-89. Roman does not argue, however, that any of these exceptions apply. Instead, he attempts to create an additional exception based upon the fact that he was told by Union representatives and Shinn that there was nothing they could do for him because he was no longer an employee. Nevertheless, it is clear that Roman is basically arguing the third exception, that the Union's wrongful refusal to process his grievance justifies excusing the exhaustion requirement. Roman's allegations regarding his attempted exhaustion were not considered by the district court in its decision as they were presented only in Roman's affidavit and not in his complaint. Nevertheless, we do not believe these allegations excuse Roman's failure to exhaust his contractual remedies. 23 A Union breaches its duty of fair representation when it acts in discriminatory, dishonest, arbitrary or perfunctory manner. DelCostello v. International Brotherhood of Teamsters, 462 U.S. 151, 164, 103 S.Ct. 2281, 2290, 76 L.Ed.2d 476 (1983). But Roman did not allege in his complaint or affidavit that the Union representatives' statements amounted to a breach of the Union's duty of fair representation. Even after the Postal Service pointed out this deficiency in its motion to dismiss, Roman did not seek leave to amend his complaint to correct it. He therefore cannot protest that requiring him to exhaust [his contractual remedies] would result in unfairness because his union representatives subverted the grievance and arbitration process and thereby breached their duty of fair representation. Mitchell, 772 F.2d at 347. 3 See also Vaca, 386 U.S. at 186, 87 S.Ct. at 914 (wrongfully discharged employee may bring action against his employer in the face of a defense based upon the failure to exhaust contractual remedies provided the employee can prove the Union as bargaining agent breached its duty of fair representation in its handling of grievance). 24 In addition, we agree with the Postal Service that Roman did not properly initiate the first step of the grievance procedure. The Postal Service points out that Roman's consultations with Shinn and Union representatives were not proper attempts to exhaust contractual remedies because the collective bargaining agreement requires an employee to initiate a grievance by first discussing it with his immediate supervisor 4 and Roman did not discuss his grievance with his immediate supervisor. 25 An employee attempting to exhaust his contractual remedies is required to use the procedures set out in the collective bargaining agreement. Vaca, 386 U.S. at 184, 87 S.Ct. at 913; Republic Steel Corp. v. Maddox, 379 U.S. 650, 652-53, 85 S.Ct. 614, 616, 13 L.Ed.2d 580 (1965). For example, in Steen v. Local Union No. 163, 373 F.2d 519, 520 (6th Cir.1967), the collective bargaining agreement required that an employee first take up his grievance with the foreman. The plaintiff did not contact the foreman, but instead contacted various Union officials. The Sixth Circuit refused to allow such contacts as a substitute for the requirement that the plaintiff first contact the foreman. Id. The court reasoned that to allow such activity to serve as a substitute for the contractual grievance procedure would ... 'deprive employer and union of the ability to establish a uniform and exclusive method for orderly settlement of employee grievances.'  Id. (quoting Republic Steel, 379 U.S. at 653, 85 S.Ct. at 616). We find this reasoning persuasive. (For similar cases involving a failure to exhaust internal union remedies see Miller v. General Motors Corp., 675 F.2d 146, 149-50 (7th Cir.1982) (Union official withdrew plaintiff's grievance, told plaintiff that it lacked merit, and informed plaintiff that he could appeal withdrawal but that official would withdraw it again if grievance was reinstated; exhaustion of internal union appeals not excused; reliance upon official's statements not reasonable); Baldini v. Local Union No. 1095, 581 F.2d 145, 148 (7th Cir.1978) (no exception to exhaustion of internal union remedies requirement where plaintiff told by Union official that nothing more could be done for him); Newgent v. Modine Manufacturing Co., 495 F.2d 919, 927-28 (7th Cir.1974) (allegations of ignorance and reliance upon misleading statements from Union president that any effort to utilize internal appeals procedures would be fruitless are not sufficient to avoid defense of failure to exhaust internal union remedies; Union member is under a contractual obligation to be familiar with Union's constitution). 26 Roman attempts to distinguish Steen because the Union representatives told him in this case that he could not file a grievance because he was no longer an employee within the scope of the collective bargaining agreement. He argues that there was no point in his contacting his immediate supervisor once he was told he was no longer an employee. We disagree. Roman was responsible for becoming familiar with his collective bargaining agreement. Roman's claim was within the agreement and according to the agreement an employee must first discuss his grievance with his immediate supervisor. The agreement specifically provides that no employee may be disciplined or discharged except for just cause and that any such discipline or discharge shall be subject to the grievance-arbitration procedures. Art. 16 Sec. 1. Since the agreement gave Roman fair notice that his claim was subject to it and Roman did not properly initiate the first step of the grievance procedure and, moreover, allege that the Union breached its duty of fair representation, he cannot complain that the statements made by Shinn and Union representatives prevented or precluded him from proceeding under the collective bargaining agreement. See DelCostello v. International Brotherhood of Teamsters, 462 U.S. 151, 164, 103 S.Ct. 2281, 2290, 76 L.Ed.2d 476 (1983); Mitchell, 772 F.2d at 346. Thus, even viewing the facts in the light most favorable to Roman, he has failed to state a claim. 27 There is no genuine issue of material fact and the Postal Service has demonstrated that it is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Accordingly, for the reasons stated above, we affirm the district court's decision.