Opinion ID: 358135
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The IAM as a party which must be joined if feasible

Text: 27 Standard's second attack on the District Court's subject matter jurisdiction comes in the form of its defense that the IAM is a party which must be joined under Rule 19(a) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. 4 Standard claims that the IAM has a direct, substantial, pecuniary interest in the instant proceedings and that the IAM's ability to protect that interest would be substantially impaired by a decision to enforce the award of Arbitrator Morris. In addition, Standard claims that it would be subject to a very real and substantial risk of incurring inconsistent obligations to the Teamsters and the IAM. The District Judge found the issue of nonjoinder troublesome, but he nevertheless ruled against Standard on this point (although he did dismiss the complaint on other grounds). 28 The IAM, as the sole and exclusive bargaining agent for all the Denison production and maintenance employees certainly has a not insubstantial interest in the maintenance of its contractual right, backed by the imprimatur of the NLRB, to bargain with Standard over wages, hours, and working conditions at the Denison plant. To enforce those rights, the IAM can resort to the filing of unfair labor practice charges with the NLRB, or it may resort to the grievance and arbitration machinery specified in its contract with Standard, just as the Teamsters have done in this case pursuant to their contract with Standard at the Dallas plant. Nevertheless, if this Court should hold that the arbitration award in its entirety must be enforced, the IAM surely will have had its ability to protect its interests impaired or impeded, despite the existence of such channels for processing its grievances. 29 For its part, Standard certainly faces a substantial risk that it will incur inconsistent obligations by reason of a failure to join the IAM. As the arbitrator himself recognized, the NLRB's jurisdiction would likely be invoked if Standard agreed, or was ordered by a court of competent jurisdiction, to abide by the arbitrator's award. Furthermore, the IAM might invoke the arbitration machinery of its contract, with results that are totally unpredictable. Compare Window Glass Cutters League v. American St. Gobain Corp., 3 Cir. 1970, 428 F.2d 353 (action to order arbitration dismissed where refusal to join additional union might leave company subject to conflicting arbitration awards). Despite these serious risks, this Court cannot be blind to the fact that Standard appears to have brought much of this risk upon itself. Standard signed the Teamsters contract granting certain rights to its Dallas employees. It was Standard which erected a new plant 75 miles from Dallas, a plant fully designed and equipped to handle the same type of operations as its Dallas plant. It was Standard which refused repeated Teamsters requests for information on its intentions with respect to its new plant. It was Standard which agreed to submit the dispute concerning transfer rights to binding arbitration. Finally, it was Standard which then decided to close the Dallas plant and announced that intention before the arbitrator had rendered his decision, all the while asserting that it did not intend to transfer its Dallas operations to Denison. With this pattern of activity laid bare upon the record by the arbitrator's findings, to the admission of which Standard did not object and which the District Judge recognized that he was not at liberty to retry . . . , there is something anomalous about Standard's assertion that this entire action must be dismissed because It may be subject to a risk of incurring inconsistent obligations sometime in the future. 30 On the other hand, there is reason to suspect the Teamsters' motivation in refusing to make the IAM a party. We are not unmindful of the jealouses and rivalries which exist between unions, particularly in cases such as this where one union stands to gain members at the expense of the other. Throughout the litigation, the Teamsters have asserted that they do not challenge the IAM's certification by the NLRB and that they only seek to enforce the contractual rights of their members. When this suit began, the Dallas bargaining unit was seemingly larger than the Denison unit, so there was an outside chance that the Teamsters, if they could transfer enough of their members to Denison, might eventually become the bargaining representative. This possibility now seems remote. The Denison work force is now considerably larger than it was at the time the initial election was held, and the IAM has presumably signed a new contract with Standard, since the old contract was to expire on June 11, 1978. 31 As can be seen from the foregoing, this issue of joinder under Rule 19(a) is far from simple, but we think that its resolution is inextricably linked with what we perceive as the central issue in this case whether a federal district court can enforce the remedial provisions of an arbitration award which would require the employer to violate the terms of another collective bargaining agreement. Because of the manner in which we resolve this issue, Infra, we do not reach the Rule 19(a) objection of Standard. 5