Court Opinion

ID: 8952949
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2022-11-27 09:01:22.683783+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:10:01.137990
License: Public Domain

HENLEY, Senior Circuit Judge,
concurring and dissenting.
Even though the evidence in question is less substantial than one might desire it to be, I can agree with the majority that the jury could have inferred that Clausen knew plaintiffs’ jobs were at risk, refused to negotiate, and then lied about plaintiffs’ precarious situation. I could further agree that the Union had a duty to negotiate and breached it. Even so I would affirm judgment n.o.v. on this aspect of the case because on the record it is clear that there is no causal relationship between failure of the Union to negotiate and any injury to plaintiffs. As the district court found:
The evidence is uncontradicted that the Union must obtain majority approval by its membership of any negotiated contract provision. Similarly, the evidence is uncontradicted that the IBC employees became Metz employees on February 19, 1983. Further, as stated earlier, the IBC employees and the Metz workers possessed antagonistic interests. And, finally, the evidence stands undisputed that the Metz group outnumbered the IBC unit by almost two to one. Thus, the evidence supports only the conclusion that if the Union had negotiated with Metz and obtained full recognition of IBC seniority for all the IBC employees (endtailing the Metz workers) or for some of them (dovetailing with the Metz workers), the tentative proposal could not have been approved unless the members of the majority Metz group voted against their own economic interests. Accordingly, the jury’s verdict cannot stand since it necessarily rests on the irrational inference from the evidence that the majority group would have voted against its own interest. Further, insofar as the Union had a right to rea*765sonably believe that seniority negotiations would be futile or would not result in an agreement favorable to the IBC workers, the evidence cannot support a finding that the Union acted arbitrarily or dishonestly in failing to negotiate with Metz.
This reasoning is most persuasive and I find unacceptable the speculation of the majority that a possible compromise of dovetailing is sufficient to support a finding of liability. Barrett v. Thorofare Markets, Inc., 452 F.Supp. 880, 883-84 (W.D.Penn.1978) (plaintiffs could not prove how local would have voted on pension agreement), cited with approval in Anderson v. United Paperworkers International Union, 641 F.2d 574, 580-81 (8th Cir.1981). If there is no showing of probable injury, failure to negotiate should not call for reversal and remand for determination of a remedy.
With respect to the Union’s failure to introduce into evidence before the arbitrator the Metz-IBC sales agreement, I find at most negligence for which no liability attaches.
In the first place, it is somewhat anomalous to suggest that the Union had a duty to negotiate to protect the IBC employees’ seniority rights, but even though they did not do so, those employees’ rights were protected by the contract nonetheless. If the contract so clearly gave that protection, what purpose would negotiations have served? A second, but related, problem with the jury’s verdict is that the contract is simply too vague on the subject of the IBC employees’ rights upon transfer to Metz to assume, as the court appears to do, that contract introduction would have made any difference at the arbitration. While the agreement provides in two separate provisions that Metz was (1) to assume the IBC collective bargaining agreement, and (2) to enter into a novation with the IBC employees respecting that agreement, it nowhere provides that the IBC employees would be dovetailed with the Metz employees or that they would not be endtailed. Both groups were covered by an industry-wide agreement, which did not provide for either dovetailing or endtailing. The agreement as it applies to Metz and its original employees did not provide for dovetailing should Metz acquire a new company, and Metz could not have added a term to that agreement without the Union’s participation simply by entering into a sales contract with IBC. See, e.g., NLRB v. Katz, 369 U.S. 736, 82 S.Ct. 1107, 8 L.Ed.2d 230 (1962) (employer who changed wage and benefit provisions without consulting union violated duty to bargain collectively under the NLRA). The arbitrator correctly applied the rule that seniority rights can “exist only by virtue of and to the extent provided by a bargaining agreement.” Arbitrator’s Decision and Award at 6 (citing Local 1251, UAW v. Robertshaw Controls Co., 405 F.2d 29, 33 (2d Cir.1968) (en banc)). Thus, with respect to seniority undoubtedly the sales agreement conferred no greater rights than the bargaining agreements, and the arbitrator ruled that those agreements did not dispose of the issue.
Consequently, although we as well as a jury might consider the Union’s actions with regard to the arbitration distasteful, the plaintiffs simply have not shown that the Union’s conduct in fact was a cause of any injury to them, and thus there can be no liability. Hines v. Anchor Motor Freight, Inc., 424 U.S. 554, 568, 96 S.Ct. 1048, 1058, 47 L.Ed.2d 231 (1976) (focus is on “whether there is a substantial reason to believe that a union breach of duty contributed to the erroneous outcome”); Humphrey v. Moore, 375 U.S. 335, 351, 84 S.Ct. 363, 372, 11 L.Ed.2d 370 (1964) (agreeing with trial court it was “idle speculation” for employees to assume result of hearing “would have been different had the matter been differently presented” by the union); Anderson, 641 F.2d at 580-81, 580 n. 8, and cases there cited.
While I agree with the court that we should affirm the denial of a new trial, largely upon the findings and reasoning of the district court, I would affirm the judgment n.o.v. as well. See 8th Cir. R. 14.