Opinion ID: 1032005
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Consistency with Other Law

Text: The Awards are interpretations of the Agreement and treated as part of the Agreement itself. See Cole, 105 F.3d at 1475 (“In the absence of fraud or an overreaching of authority on the part of the arbitrator, he is speaking for the parties, and his award is their contract.” (quotation marks omitted)). As with any contract, “an arbitration award that is in explicit conflict with other laws and legal precedents[] is unenforceable.” Am. Postal Workers Union v. U.S. Postal Serv., 550 F.3d 27, 32 (D.C. Cir. 2008) (quotation marks and citations omitted); see also United Paperworkers Int’l Union v. Misco, Inc., 484 U.S. 29, 42 (1987) (“A court’s refusal to enforce an arbitrator’s award under a collective-bargaining agreement because it is contrary to public policy is a specific application of the more general doctrine, rooted in the common law, that a court may refuse to enforce contracts that violate law or public policy.”). “[T]he question of public policy is ultimately one for resolution by the courts. Such a public policy, however, must be well defined and dominant, and is to be ascertained ‘by reference to the laws and legal precedents and not from general considerations of supposed public interests.’ ” W.R. Grace & Co. v. Local Union 759, Int’l Union of United Rubber, Linoleum & Plastic Workers, 461 U.S. 757, 766 (1983) (quoting Muschany v. United States, 324 U.S. 49, 66 (1945)). (1997). Moreover, the Supreme Court rejected the Board’s previous approach that made representation certifications nearly dispositive. See Plasterers’ Local, 404 U.S. at 130–31. 29 The Carpenters argue that the Awards are invalid because they run counter to a sister circuit’s decision as well as a Board order arising from a series of disputes between Local 200 and the SWRCC. The history of these disputes is laid out in detail by the Ninth Circuit in Small v. Operative Plasterers’ & Cement Masons’ International Association, Local 200, 611 F.3d 483 (9th Cir. 2010), to which we refer only as necessary to reject the Carpenters’ argument. In Small, the district court enjoined Local 200 from prosecuting two state-court lawsuits against the SWRCC while the Board determined whether that litigation constituted an unfair labor practice. Id. at 489. The Ninth Circuit affirmed, reasoning that because the law suits would undermine two previous Board section 10(k) determinations, see Standard Drywall II, 348 N.L.R.B. at 1252; Standard Drywall I, 346 N.L.R.B. at 478, the Board was likely to conclude that the suits violated section 8(b)(4)(D) of the NLRA, 29 U.S.C. § 158(b)(4)(D). Id. at 493–94. The Board subsequently ruled that the lawsuits enjoined in Small, as well as several arbitration awards obtained by Local 200, in fact constituted unfair labor practices under section 8(b)(4)(D) because they conflicted with the Board’s earlier section 10(k) determinations of several jurisdictional disputes decided in the SWRCC’s favor. Operative Plasterers’ & Cement Masons’ Int’l Ass’n, Local 200, 357 N.L.R.B. No. 160, slip op. at 4–7 (Dec. 30, 2011) (Standard Drywall III). The Board ordered Local 200 to [c]ease and desist from . . . [t]hreatening, coercing, or restraining SDI, or any other person or employer engaged in commerce or in an industry affecting commerce, where an object of their actions is to force or require the employer to assign plastering work to Local 200’s members, rather than to its own employees who are not members of Local 200. 30 Operative Plasterers’ & Cement Masons’ Int’l Ass’n, Local 200, 357 N.L.R.B. No. 179, slip op. at 6 (Dec. 31, 2011) (Standard Drywall IV). This language closely tracks that of section 8(b)(4)(D) and is plainly intended to enjoin Local 200 from violating that provision. We begin with the proposition that seeking arbitration “is not coercive for the purposes of § 8(b)(4)(D).” Ga.-Pac., 892 F.2d at 132; see also Brockton Newspaper Guild, 275 N.L.R.B. 135, 136 (1985). A party violates section 8(b)(4)(D), however, if it subverts a section 10(k) decision by seeking arbitration of a jurisdictional dispute after the Board has determined the dispute pursuant to section 10(k). SeaLand, 884 F.2d at 1413–14; see also N. Cal. Dist. Council of Laborers, 292 N.L.R.B. 1035, 1035 (1989). Although the Carpenters argue that the Board’s certification orders have the same effect as a section 10(k) determination, “a Board certification in a representation proceeding is not a jurisdictional award.” Carey, 375 U.S. at 269 (quotation marks omitted). Because the Board has made no section 10(k) determination that the Awards could subvert, the Awards conflict neither with Small nor with the Board’s Standard Drywall IV order. The Carpenters next argue that, because the Employers are not parties in this litigation, the district court could not order the Employers to subcontract the disputed work to Local 200-staffed subcontractors. We agree, but this issue is of no significance because the district court did not order the Employers to do anything. The Employers’ absence from this litigation is therefore irrelevant. The Carpenters also argue that, because the Awards will likely require the Employers to subcontract the disputed work to firms employing Local 200 members, the Awards violate section 4107 of the California Public Contract Code, which 31 places certain limitations on the ability of prime contractors to substitute subcontractors or permit the reassignment of previously awarded subcontracts. C AL. PUB. CONT . CODE § 4107(a), (b). We need not wade into California public contracting law. The arbitrators determined only that the disputed work belonged to the Plasterers and the district court affirmed their determinations. Nothing in the Awards or the district court orders violates California law because they do not require the Employers to enter into any subcontracts; they leave the question of the nature of the parties’ compliance unanswered. 11 Finally, the Carpenters argue that, because the Plasterers disclaim any intent to represent the Employers’ employees, the Agreement violates section 8(e) of the NLRA, 29 U.S.C. § 158(e). Relevant here, section 8(e) prohibits subcontracting agreements—agreements between an employer and a union in which the employer promises to subcontract work only to unionized employers. See Truck Drivers Local Union No. 413 v. NLRB, 334 F.2d 539, 548 (D.C. Cir. 1964). But section 8(e) also contains a “construction industry proviso” excepting the construction industry from its prohibition on subcontracting agreements as to “contracting or subcontracting work to be done at the site of the construction.” 29 U.S.C. § 158(e); see also Woelke & Romero Framing, Inc. v. NLRB, 456 U.S. 645, 657 (1982); Donald Schriver, Inc. v. NLRB, 635 F.2d 859, 873 & n.21 (D.C. Cir. 1980). The Carpenters do not identify a particular clause of the Agreement that, they claim, violates section 8(e). Instead, 11 And, in any event, the rights protected by section 4107 belong to subcontractors. See S. Cal. Acoustics Co. v. C.V. Holders, Inc., 71 Cal. 2d 719, 727 (1969); R.J. Land & Assocs. Const. Co. v. Kiewit-Shea, 69 Cal. App. 4th 416, 421 (1999). 32 they contend that the Plasterers’ “scheme” violates section 8(e) under the Supreme Court’s decision in Connell Construction Co. v. Plumbers & Steamfitters Local Union No. 100, 421 U.S. 616 (1975) because the Plasterers have no intention of representing the Employers’ employees. But Connell held only that a “stranger” agreement—a subcontracting agreement between a union and contractor where (1) the union does not seek to represent the contractor’s employees and (2) the two parties are not in a collective bargaining relationship—does not fall within the construction industry proviso. Connell, 421 U.S. at 627–28, 636. In contrast, the proviso protects “subcontracting clauses that are sought or negotiated in the context of a collective-bargaining relationship,” Woelke & Romero, 456 U.S. at 648, and Local 200 and the Employers are parties to a section 8(f) multiemployer, multi-union collective bargaining agreement, see Donald Schriver, 635 F.2d at 873, 875 (section 8(f) agreement qualifies as collective bargaining agreement under Connell). The Agreement therefore is not a stranger agreement under Connell. For the foregoing reasons, in No. 11-7155 and No. 117161 we affirm the district court’s grants of summary judgment to the Plasterers, thereby confirming the arbitrators’ Awards in their favor. So ordered.