Opinion ID: 524333
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Legislative History and Statutory Scheme

Text: 14 As directed by the Supreme Court in Glass Bottle Blowers Ass'n, our construction of section 402(c) requires consideration of the statute's legislative history and the general objectives of Congress. 15 We have not found and the Secretary has not shown us anything in the legislative history which explicitly prohibits the courts from examining a proposed remedy and evaluating its appropriateness in Title IV cases. A reading of the legislative history of the LMRDA indicates that Congress sought to remedy widespread electoral abuses occurring within unions in the 1950's. S.Rep. No. 187, 86th Cong., 1st Sess., reprinted in 1959 U.S.Code Cong. & Admin.News 2318. The legislation was originally conceived as a vehicle for the elimination of racket influences in the organized labor movement,    the undemocratic perpetuation in office of self-serving union officers, [and] the use of coercive and perverted union practices for personal gain. H.R.Rep. No. 741 (Supplementary Views), 86th Cong., 1st Sess., 1959 U.S.Code Cong. & Admin.News at 2424, 2481. To remedy these abuses, Congress established a set of election standards and empower[ed] Federal courts to direct new elections to be conducted under the supervision of the Secretary where it [found that a] union election was improperly conducted. S.Rep. No. 187, 1959 U.S.Code Cong. & Admin.News at 2320; H.R.Rep. No. 741, 1959 U.S.Code Cong. & Admin.News at 2426. Thus, Congress gave the federal courts, and not the Secretary of Labor, the power to impose a new election on union officials. 16 Furthermore, it appears that Congress wished to give the courts some discretion with regard to ordering a new election. The Senate committee that crafted the remedial portion to Title IV rejected the notion of applying destructive sanctions to a union, i.e., to a group of working men and women, for an offense for which the officers are responsible and over which the members have, at best, only indirect control. Still more important, the legislation should provide an administrative or judicial remedy for each specific problem. S.Rep. No. 187, 1959 U.S.Code Cong. & Admin News at 2323. See also Aaron, The Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959, 73 Harv.L.Rev. 851, 905 (1960) (appropriate judicial remedies may include setting aside an invalid election, directing a new election, or directing a vote on the removal of officers). 17 Title IV's function in furthering the overall goals of the LMRDA is to promote free and democratic union elections. S.Rep. No. 187, 1959 U.S.Code Cong. & Admin.News at 2336. As the Supreme Court stated in Wirtz: 18 The legislative history shows that Congress weighed how best to legislate against revealed abuses in union elections without departing needlessly from its long-standing policy against unnecessary governmental intrusion into internal union affairs. The extensive and vigorous debate over Title IV manifested a conflict over the extent to which governmental intervention in this most crucial aspect of internal union affairs was necessary or desirable. In the end there emerged a general congressional policy to allow unions great latitude in resolving their own internal controversies, and where that fails, to utilize the agencies of Government most familiar with union problems to aid in bringing about a settlement through discussion before resort to the courts. 19 389 U.S. at 470-71, 88 S.Ct. at 647-48, citing Calhoon v. Harvey, 379 U.S. 134, 140, 85 S.Ct. 292, 296, 13 L.Ed.2d 190 (1964) (footnote omitted). 20 Only after the complaining union member exhausts his internal remedies, and settlement discussions between the union and the Department of Labor break down may the Secretary sue for a new election. The adoption of an administrative-judicial mechanism for enforcing Title IV rights arose from the need to balance two sets of competing interests: first, the conflict between effective governmental intervention and comprehensive self-governance; and second, the conflict between the individual interests of the union members and the public interest in honest but effective unionism. Note, Union Elections and the LMRDA: Thirteen Years of Use and Abuse, 81 Yale L.J. 407, 473 (1972). 21 Allowing a district court to make an independent evaluation of the need for the remedy proposed by the Secretary does not disturb the balance struck by Congress. First, it prevents the Secretary from infringing the union's right to self-government when an intrusion is unwarranted. Second, it allows the court to fashion a remedy to fit the needs of affected union members in each case. Finally, by recognizing a union's ability to remedy its own mistakes, the court furthers the larger public interest in union democracy. We recognize that the Secretary has been given the role of protectorate of the public interest. But, by requiring the Secretary to plead its case in the courts, Congress has inherently bestowed district courts with the power, albeit equitable, to balance the union's desire for self-government and the need for governmental intrusion.C. Case Law 22 Several circuit courts that have dealt with the legal issue presented in this case have found that proceedings brought by the Secretary under section 402 of the LMRDA are equitable proceedings and are governed by equitable principles. Donovan v. Local 6, Washington Teachers' Union, 747 F.2d 711, 716 n. 2 (D.C.Cir.1984); Marshall v. Local 1010, United Steelworkers, etc., 664 F.2d 144, 149 (7th Cir.1981); Usery v. Int'l Org. of Masters, Mates, and Pilots, 538 F.2d 946, 950 (2d Cir.1976). As the Seventh Circuit noted, the essence of equity jurisdiction has been the power of the courts to mold the remedy to fit the necessities of each case. Marshall, 664 F.2d at 149. Based on this equitable authority, the Second, Seventh, and D.C. Circuits have determined that a trial judge retains limited discretion in enforcing the election provisions of the LMRDA and that the court may fashion a remedy to fit the practicalities of a particular situation. Donovan, 747 F.2d at 716 n. 2; Marshall, 664 F.2d at 149; Usery, 538 F.2d at 950. This holding is consistent with the Supreme Court's statement in Trbovich v. United Mine Workers, 404 U.S. 528, 537 n. 8, 92 S.Ct. 630, 636 n. 8, 30 L.Ed.2d 686 (1972) that the court is not limited to a consideration of remedies proposed by the Secretary, but may fashion a suitable remedial order with the assistance of intervenors. 23 While the Secretary concedes the equitable nature of this proceeding, and concedes that an untainted intervening election may remedy previous section 401 violations, she argues that it is the Secretary's right to determine whether a supervised rerun election is necessary. She asserts that the district court may review the agency's decision under the arbitrary and capricious standard of the Administrative Procedure Act, 5 U.S.C. Sec. 706(2)(A), but may not make an independent decision as to the necessity of an election. 24 Although the practical differences between our approach and that suggested by the Secretary may not be great, we do not believe that the APA applies to the decision of the Secretary to seek a supervised election from a federal court. The APA only applies to [a]gency actions made reviewable by statute and final agency action for which there is no other adequate remedy in a court. 5 U.S.C. Sec. 704. The decision to file this suit is not a final agency action contemplated in section 704 because the district court stands ready to dismiss the suit if it has no factual basis. Congress gave the Secretary the right to ask a court to order a supervised election. The power to order the union to perform a rerun election was given to the federal courts. Thus, at this stage of the proceedings, there is no final agency action, finding or conclusion within the meaning of 5 U.S.C. Sec. 706 for the district court to review. 25 The cases cited by the Secretary to support the arbitrary and capricious standard of review are inapplicable to this case, as each of those cases involved a final agency decision. See Dunlop v. Bachowski, 421 U.S. 560, 572-73, 95 S.Ct. 1851, 1860, 44 L.Ed.2d 377 (1975) (challenge by union member to Secretary's decision not to file a section 401 lawsuit in federal district court); Usery v. Local 639, Int'l Brotherhood of Teamsters, 543 F.2d 369, 377-78 (D.C.Cir.1976), cert. denied sub nom. Teamsters v. Marshall, 429 U.S. 1123, 97 S.Ct. 1159, 51 L.Ed.2d 573 (1977) (challenge to Secretary's certification of supervised election); Brennan v. Local 551, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Imp. Wkrs. of America, 486 F.2d 6, 7-8 (7th Cir.1973) (challenge to Secretary's decision to set date of supervised election). None of these cases involved a challenge to the Secretary's determination that only a supervised election would remedy the LMRDA violations. As the decision to order an election rests solely in the hands of the federal district court, we believe the court also possesses the equitable authority to accept or reject the Secretary's proposed remedy in Title IV cases and to make an independent decision as to whether that remedy is needed under the circumstances of each case. 26 The Secretary argues that if the district court retains some discretionary power under section 402(c), that discretion is limited. We agree. When determining whether an untainted intervening election adequately remedied the LMRDA violations of a previous election, the district court should give great weight to a request from the Secretary for a supervised election, must ensure that the goals of the statute are protected, and should consider the practicalities of each situation. A determination that a supervised election is unnecessary must be supported by the facts in the case. See Marshall v. Local 1010, United Steelworkers, etc., 664 F.2d 144, 152 (7th Cir.1981), (new election unwarranted when incumbent union faction lost election after intentionally destroying ballots); Brock v. Local Lodge 107, Int'l Brotherhood of Boilermakers, No. 84-C-1127 (E.D.Wis. Aug. 9, 1985) (unpublished opinion) (rerun election unnecessary when a union member allegedly prevented from running for office in the first election subsequently won the seat in an intervening unsupervised election).