Opinion ID: 185112
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: ALPA's Objection, 1997-Present

Text: 11 In 1997 Northwest notified ALPA that it was terminating a probationary pilot and attached to the notice a copy of the Conditions he had signed. ALPA, which claims that this was the first it had learned of the Conditions, demanded that Northwest cease requiring trainee pilots to agree to them and that it inform each pilot who had signed Conditions that they were null and void. When Northwest refused to do so, ALPA filed suit in district court seeking injunctive and declaratory relief on the ground that Northwest had violated the RLA by unilaterally implementing the Conditions, which ALPA alleged are individual contracts concerning mandatory subjects of bargaining, without first negotiating with the Union as required by the RLA. 12 While the suit was pending before the district court, Northwest, in an attempt to respond to some of ALPA's concerns regarding the 1995 Conditions, deleted three and revised one of the provisions to which the Union objected. In presenting the new version (the 1997 Conditions) to ALPA, Robert Brodin, Northwest's vice president for labor relations, wrote:Northwest has never interpreted or applied the Conditions of Employment to operate in derogation of thecollective bargaining agreement between Northwest and ALPA. Northwest and ALPA both agree that in theevent of overlap or inconsistency, the collective bargain-ing agreement controls. 13 As to the Arbitration Clause in particular, however, Brodin wrote that Northwest continues to believe that it has the right to insist on arbitration of non-contract claims as a condition of employment for new hires. The only significant change Northwest made to the Arbitration Clause was to clarify that it does not apply to claims arising out of the CBA between Northwest and ALPA. 14 Both ALPA and Northwest moved for summary judgment on the validity of the Conditions. The district court first considered whether Northwest's use of Conditions originating before 1995 violated the RLA. The court held that ALPA, by its failure to object to the Conditions for some 30 years, had arguably consented to them, which if true would make use of the Conditions an implied term of the CBA between Northwest and ALPA. Because that dispute related solely to the meaning of the CBA, the court held it could be resolved only by binding arbitration pursuant to RLA 2 Sixth and 3 First, 45 U.S.C. 152 Sixth and 153 First. 15 The court concluded that ALPA had objected in a timely fashion, however, to the Arbitration Clause introduced in 1995, and therefore had not acquiesced in Northwest's use of that term. The district court then held that the Arbitration Clause deals with a mandatory subject of bargaining. Because the Arbitration Clause would have worked a change with respect to a mandatory subject and ALPA had neither agreed to nor acquiesced in that change, the court enjoined Northwest from applying the Arbitration Clause to any pilot represented by ALPA. 16 The district court did not address the question whether other clauses ALPA claimed were newly included in the 1995 Conditions also violated the RLA. ALPA therefore moved to amend the court's order so as to enjoin Northwest from implementing those clauses but the district court denied the motion because of ALPA's failure to comply with local court rules.