Opinion ID: 3173980
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Terms of Collective Bargaining Agreement

Text: The collective bargaining agreement provided that MTA would fill an open operator position by either asking the union for a referral or recalling a former employee it had hired from the union. (A union member was eligible for re‐ call for 45 days after he was laid off by MTA.) Under the terms of the collective bargaining agreement, a worker ac‐ quired seniority on a machine—meaning that the worker had a right to continue working on that machine while it was in service—after he had worked on it for 3 consecutive days. A worker lost seniority on a machine if it was shut down for a week or longer. Project Superintendent John Todt and Project Manager Dale Helmig (both Massman em‐ ployees) were responsible for all non‐administrative staffing decisions. No. 15‐1411 3 The Missouri Department of Transportation’s contract with MTA contained federally mandated goals for participa‐ tion by minorities (14.7%) and women (6.9%) on the project. Participation MTA was required to make a good faith effort to meet the participation goals by, among other things, maintaining a harassment‐free work environment, keeping a file of the names and contact information of minority and female referrals from the union, and developing on‐the‐job training opportunities that expressly included minorities and women. Because of its agreement with the operators’ union, MTA also had to secure the union’s cooperation “to increase opportunities for minority groups and women within the unions, and to effect referrals by such unions of minority and female employees.” The contract also required MTA to adopt an equal‐employment‐opportunity policy and affirmative‐action plan ensuring that employees would be treated without regard to race in all employment actions, in‐ cluding hiring, upgrading, demoting, laying off, firing, de‐ ciding rate of pay, and training. MTA’s affirmative‐action plan also acknowledged its duty to seek the union’s coopera‐ tion in achieving minority hiring goals.