Court Opinion

ID: 9488617
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 12:50:24.445039+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:52:59.439845
License: Public Domain

K.K. HALL, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
I respectfully dissent. Arbitration of labor disputes is highly favored, and, where a collective bargaining agreement contains an arbitration clause, arbitration should be ordered “unless it may be said with positive assurance that the arbitration clause is not susceptible of an interpretation that covers the asserted dispute. Doubts should be resolved in favor of coverage.” AT & T Technologies, Inc. v. Communications Workers of America, 475 U.S. 643, 650, 106 S.Ct. 1415, 1419, 89 L.Ed.2d 648 (1986) (quoting Steelworkers v. Warrior & Gulf Navigation Co., 363 U.S. 574, 582-583, 80 S.Ct. 1347, 1352-1353, 4 L.Ed.2d 1409 (1960)). I do not feel positively assured that this grievance is not arbitrable. Accordingly, I would reverse the judgment of the district court and remand with instructions to enter an order compelling arbitration.
The arbitration clause of the contract applies to any dispute “arising out of a claim that a specific provision of this Agreement has been violated, other than those matters which are strictly the prerogatives of management.” The “specific provision” relied on by the union is the non-discrimination clause of Article XII(E):
There shall be no discrimination against any employee because of race, creed, color, age, religion, sex, handicap or status as a disabled veteran or as a veteran of the Vietnam Era in any matter pertaining to wages, hours of work and other conditions of employment.
Ethyl counters, and the majority agrees, that the dispute falls within a specific “prerogative of management” identified in the arbitration article itself:
It is further understood and agreed that the provisions of the Article shall not apply *86to matters affecting wages and rates of pay as set forth in [an exhibit to the agreement].
According to Ethyl, if the employee were to win the grievance, he might end up in a higher pay grade, and therefore his grievance “affects wages and rates of pay.” If the company is right, then any grievance that could result in a back pay award — including the very archetype, the dismissal without just cause — is also excluded. I think that the provision cited by the company just means that an arbitrator cannot alter the wage levels themselves. At the very, very least, one cannot say with “positive assurance” that the provision is not “susceptible” to that interpretation. Moreover, the discrimination provision specifically prohibits the company from discriminating “in any matter pertaining to wages ...,” so it is patently illogical to then say that a discrimination complaint is not arbitrable because it could “affect” the grievant’s wages. This paradox vanishes if one interprets the contract as I do, and as an arbitrator could.
The company also argues that, because the agreement refers to the test specifically, the union cannot now challenge the test as discriminatory. The district court espoused this argument in refusing to compel arbitration.
This argument nonetheless fails, for two reasons. First of all, the union and company agree in the contract that classification of employees can be based on the test, which implies that giving the test is not a prerogative of management. But if the union agreed to the test, how can it now assert that the test is discriminatory? Maybe it cannot. Maybe the grievance is meritless, even frivolous, under the contract. But arbitration cannot be denied on account of our assessment of the merits of the dispute. AT & T Technologies, 475 U.S. at 649-650, 106 S.Ct. at 1418-19. “The processing of even frivolous claims may have therapeutic values of which those who are not a part of the plant environment may be quite unaware.” Steelworkers v. American Manufacturing Co., 363 U.S. 564, 568, 80 S.Ct. 1343, 1346-47, 4 L.Ed.2d 1403 (1960).
I would reverse the judgment of the district court and remand with instructions to enter an order compelling arbitration.