Opinion ID: 24884
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Preemption of Plaintiff’s State Law Claims

Text: As both parties have agreed, plaintiff’s state law claims for tortious conversion of the punitive award by the Union are preempted by Section 301 of the LMRA. A union’s duty of fair representation is jurisdictionally grounded in Section 301 of the LMRA. See Hines v. Anchor Motor Freight, 424 U.S. 554 (1976). The rule is that when a state law claim is substantially dependent on analysis of a collective bargaining agreement, a plaintiff may not evade the preemptive force of Section 301 of the LMRA by casting the suit as a state law claim. See International Bhd. of Elec. Workers v. Hechler, 481 U.S. 851, 859 (1987).