Opinion ID: 563200
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Frustration of Arbitration

Text: 48 In our view, the district court's conclusion that Oxychem's action frustrates the arbitration process is in error. We do not believe that the arbitrator is so unable to grant effective relief as to render the arbitral process a hollow formality, if drug testing proceeds pending arbitration. First, the arbitrator may order reinstatement and backpay for an employee who is discharged or disciplined as a result of a false positive test result. While there may be interim damage to the reputation of such an employee, it is no different that that sustained by an employee who has been discharged in violation of any provision of a collective bargaining contract and is later reinstated. Such harm, although real, is generally insufficient to enjoin the employer from discharging the employee who, say, is accused of breaking work rules, embezzling, or being incompetent, pending arbitration of those charges. See Ingalls Shipbuilding, 906 F.2d at 153; accord Utility Workers of Am., Local No. 246 v. Southern Calif. Edison Co., 852 F.2d 1083, 1088 (9th Cir.1988), cert. denied, 489 U.S. 1078, 109 S.Ct. 1530, 103 L.Ed.2d 835 (1989). 49 We also disagree with the Union that the process of drug testing itself, that is, the production of the urine sample and its testing, irreparably harms employees by invading their privacy. The Union argues that all employees tested under the program will suffer this loss, not simply those who falsely test positive, and that an arbitrator cannot effectively redress this loss of privacy after the fact. 50 We are not unsympathetic to the possibility that employees may be humiliated or stigmatized by having to produce urine and allow it to be tested. Cf. Skinner v. Railway Labor Executives Ass'n, 489 U.S. 602, 617, 109 S.Ct. 1402, 1413, 103 L.Ed.2d 639 (1989) (finding privacy interests where government regulations require urine testing). Nonetheless, this possibility of harm does not so disable the arbitrator from rendering relief as to justify a status quo injunction. First, the protocols used in the random drug testing program, including the methods of monitoring the urine sample's production and testing, have already been accepted by the Union for use in the reasonable suspicion program. This undermines the Union's claim here that the random drug testing program is a grievous invasion of privacy. Second, the Union conceded at oral argument that the production of urine samples is not monitored, either visually or aurally, unless there is reason to believe that a previous urine sample has been tampered with. Based on the undisputed record, we decline to conclude, as a matter of law, that the likelihood of invasion of privacy of the employees is so great as to render the arbitral process meaningless. Accord Ingalls Shipbuilding, 906 F.2d at 153. 51 In so ruling, we are in disagreement with the Tenth Circuit's holding in Amoco Oil. That court affirmed the issuance of a preliminary injunction against the unilateral implementation of a drug testing program. In finding the invasion of privacy sufficient to warrant the injunction, the court used a wide focus in assessing the nature of the threatened injury. 885 F.2d at 709. We agree with the dissent that such a wide focus is inappropriate in the context of preserving the arbitral process. Because we conclude that Oxychem's interim implementation of the drug testing program does not frustrate the arbitral process or render it futile, it does not justify a Boys Markets/Buffalo Forge injunction.