Opinion ID: 423548
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Conciliation Agreement and the Collective Bargaining Contract

Text: 30 The Union argues that the district court erred in ordering specific performance of the portion of the conciliation agreement which provided for retroactive seniority. Specifically, the Union claims that assignment of a seniority date to the charging parties other than the date on which they were hired 20 violated the seniority provisions contained in the collective bargaining agreement between Safeway and the Union, and thus cannot be enforced in the absence of either the Union's consent or a judicial determination that the underlying charges of discrimination are true. The EEOC contends that the order to grant retroactive seniority was proper, and urges that we affirm the court's finding that the conciliation agreement at issue here did not interfere per se with the collective bargaining system, but rather merely ... afforded [the charging parties] their rightful place as specified in the conciliation agreement. 31 In support of its argument the EEOC relies on several federal court decisions which hold that the award of rightful place seniority is a presumptively proper remedy in Title VII cases, and may only be withheld where it will have some unusually adverse impact on incumbent employees. See Franks v. Bowman Transportation Co., 424 U.S. 747, 771, 779 n. 41, 96 S.Ct. 1251, 1267, 1271 n. 41, 47 L.Ed.2d 444 (1976); International Brotherhood of Teamsters v. United States, 431 U.S. 324, 347, 97 S.Ct. 1843, 1860, 52 L.Ed.2d 396 (1977). The Union does not dispute the firmly established proposition of Franks that an employee who is the victim of unlawful employment discrimination may be made whole by an award of retroactive seniority, even though such relief may violate seniority provisions contained in the collective bargaining agreement between the offending employer and a union. Rather, the Union contends that such relief cannot be ordered, over a union's objection, where the union has had no opportunity to participate in an adjudication that a Title VII violation has occurred. 32 We agree. In each of the cases cited by the EEOC, the unions involved were afforded the opportunity to participate in proceedings to determine the merits of discrimination charges, whether the charging parties were entitled to relief, and whether such relief should include an award which was contrary to the collective bargaining agreement. In those cases the issue of employment discrimination had been judicially resolved with the objecting union having been provided the opportunity to participate in those proceedings. Because of the judicial resolution of the discrimination, Franks and Teamsters permitted awards which departed from the union's collective bargaining agreement. Where, on the other hand, the district court has granted enforcement of an agreement which would infringe upon the rights of parties who did not participate in that agreement, and where there has never been a finding that discriminatory practices have occurred, the presumption in favor of retroactive seniority can no longer be assumed to take precedence over the rights of the non-consenting parties. 33 Two recent decisions of this Court have involved the circumstances under which a court may enforce a settlement or conciliation agreement which undertakes to affect a union's collective bargaining system in the absence of the union's consent. In Southbridge Plastics Division, W.R. Grace & Co. v. Local 759, International Union of United Rubber, Cork, Linoleum and Plastic Workers of America, 565 F.2d 913 (5th Cir.1978), the EEOC and the employer had entered into a conciliation agreement which provided that certain seniority provisions of the collective bargaining system would be superseded by a quota system. The union objected to enforcement of the conciliation agreement and sought arbitration, pursuant to a standard arbitration clause. The employer then brought an action under § 301 of the Labor Management Relations Act, 29 U.S.C. § 185, seeking a declaratory judgment that the conciliation agreement overrode any contrary seniority provision contained in the collective bargaining agreement. The union counterclaimed, seeking arbitration. 34 The district court held that the agreement was binding on the union as well as the employer and that it took precedence over any conflicting provisions of the collective bargaining agreement. On appeal, we reversed. We held that Section 703(h) of Title VII protected the seniority provision of the collective bargaining agreement from attack in the absence of a showing that the union's seniority system was negotiated and maintained with the discriminatory purpose. See United States v. International Brotherhood of Teamsters, supra, 431 U.S. at 328 n. 30, 97 S.Ct. at 1851 n. 30. The Court explained that the terms and conditions of employment, such as seniority, which are agreed to by management and a union, can be overturned on a Title VII challenge only to the limited extent necessary to comply with that statute. 565 F.2d at 916. Where there was no showing of any discriminatory purpose inherent in the seniority system, wholesale destruction of this system, as authorized by the conciliation agreement, cannot be permitted. Id. at 916. The Court further explained that its ruling did not preclude an award of retroactive seniority to employees alleging employment discrimination so long as the employee sought such an adjudication through the traditional Title VII route. Id. at 917. 35 Our other recent decision is United States v. City of Miami, 664 F.2d 435 (5th Cir.1981) (en banc). In that case, the United States and the City of Miami entered into a consent decree that made significant alterations and changes in a collective bargaining agreement which existed between the city and the defendant union. 21 The district court approved the decree over the objections of the union protesting the changes the decree made in its collective bargaining agreement. Sitting en banc, we modified the decree by deleting from it those provisions which conflicted with the union's collective bargaining system. We acknowledged the importance of voluntary settlement to the goal of eliminating employment discrimination, but concluded that a party potentially prejudiced by a decree has a right to a judicial determination of the merits of its objection. The party is prejudiced if the decree would alter its contractual rights.... 664 F.2d at 447. We explained, as we had in Southbridge, that the contested relief could be awarded if the United States on remand proved that discrimination, the necessary predicate for relief, had taken place. Id. at 448. 36 A recent decision of the Supreme Court, W.R. Grace & Co. v. Local Union 759, International Union of the United Rubber, Cork, Linoleum and Plastic Workers of America, --- U.S. ----, 103 S.Ct. 2177, 76 L.Ed.2d 298 (1983), further bolsters our reasoning in Southbridge and City of Miami. There the EEOC and employer had entered into a conciliation agreement which nullified the collective bargaining agreement seniority provisions. The union did not join in the conciliation process. The Supreme Court stated that [a]bsent a judicial determination, the Commission, not to mention the Company, cannot alter the collective bargaining agreement without the Union's consent. The Court explained that to allow otherwise would undermine the federal labor policy that parties to a collective bargaining agreement must have reasonable assurance that their contract will be honored. Id. (Citation omitted). 37 The EEOC attempts to distinguish this authority by arguing that the conciliation agreement at issue here does not result in the wholesale destruction of an existing collective bargaining agreement between an employer and its employees as did the agreements in Southbridge and City of Miami. Rather, in the instant case, the seniority system remains entirely intact with the charging parties being afforded merely their rightful place within that system. We must reject this argument. While the effect upon the collective bargaining system here may well be less pronounced than that in the earlier cases, we cannot agree that a difference in the degree of conflict with the collective bargaining structure, beyond de minimus, can affect our ultimate decision. Were we to accept the Commission's argument, we would in essence adopt a rule which recognized gradations in the rights of a party to due process. Where a third party's rights are affected a lot, he would have a right to a judicial determination of the merits of his objections. But where a third party's rights are lesser affected, terms of an agreement between two other parties could be imposed upon him in spite of his objections and in the absence of an opportunity to state those objections in court. 38 We cannot countenance such a result. There is no question that awarding the charging parties a seniority date which is other than the date on which they began work displaces others on the seniority roster and constitutes a violation of the collective bargaining contract. Section Five of that contract clearly states that employees are assigned as their seniority dates the dates on which their employment in the classification commenced. As such, it cannot be imposed upon the employees of the company over the Union's protest without a trial on the merits. 22 39 Nor is our opinion made doubtful by the EEOC's emphasis on the primacy of conciliation to the resolution of employment discrimination claims. We agree that conciliation is the preferred method of resolving Title VII claims. In fact, our analysis in Section I is predicated upon that recognition. And we are aware of the Commission's argument that a consequence of our holding today will be that a union has a veto over any portion of a conciliation agreement which violates its collective bargaining contract with an employer, potentially undermining the role of these voluntary agreements. If requiring that the EEOC and an employer must obtain a union's consent before agreeing to terms which impinge upon the union's collective bargaining agreement mitigates the Commission's ability to effectuate conciliation agreements, such a restriction upon the Commission's authority is required by law. While Title VII expresses an important national policy, it does not exist in a vacuum. The national labor policy strongly undergirds collective bargaining when the employees want it. National Labor Relations Act, 29 U.S.C. §§ 151 et seq. The terms and conditions of employment are to be shaped by the employer and the exclusive bargaining representatives of its employees when the employees elect to do so. The words of Judge Gee in his concurring opinion in City of Miami are appropriate: 40 And while it is well and very well to extol the virtues of concluding Title VII litigation by consent, as do our brethren--a sentiment in which we concur--we think it quite another to approve ramming a settlement between two consenting parties down the throat of a third and protesting one, leaving it bound without trial to an agreement to which it did not subscribe. If this is permitted, gone is the protester's right to appear in court at a trial on the merits, present evidence, and contend that the decree proposed is generally infirm--as imposing unconstitutional or illegal exactions--so that it should not be entered at all or so as to bind any party or the affected third party. (Emphasis in original) 41 664 F.2d at 451. 42 We find that the district court erred in its conclusion that the award of retroactive seniority in this case had no legally significant impact on the collective bargaining agreement in existence between the company and the Union. 23 The right of the other employees to a position on the company's seniority roster which corresponded to the date they began work was infringed by the court's order, and therefore the Union had a right to a judicial determination of the merits of its objections. If the EEOC seeks a remedy which would infringe upon the rights of a third party, it cannot rely on its agreement with another party to do so. Rather it must demonstrate the propriety of such relief in a judicial proceeding at which the third party is allowed to present its evidence and voice its objection. Conciliation is, by its own terms, a voluntary process. The involved parties are free to agree, and conversely, free not to agree. If they choose to agree, then the goal of voluntary compliance has been achieved. If they choose not to agree, then conciliation cannot alter the terms of a collective agreement. To do so, there must be an adjudication that discrimination has occurred.