Court Opinion

ID: 9475045
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 05:16:02.748922+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:44:29.061352
License: Public Domain

BECKER, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
In this case we are called upon to determine whether the Malias’ claims, which are framed as state common law issues, in fact arise under a collective bargaining agreement. If the claims depend on the collective bargaining agreement, they must be resolved under federal law, pursuant to § 301 of the Labor Management Relations Act, 29 U.S.C. § 185. Allis-Chalmers Corp. v. Lueck, 471 U.S. 202, 105 S.Ct. 1904, 85 L.Ed.2d 206 (1985); Teamsters v. Lucas Flour Co., 369 U.S. 95, 82 S.Ct. 571, 7 L.Ed.2d 593 (1962), and they are time barred. See Del Costello v. Teamsters, 462 U.S. 151, 169-72, 103 S.Ct. 2281, 2293-94, 76 L.Ed.2d 476 (1983).
The majority characterizes the Malias’ claims as allegations of breach of an oral contract that is independent of the collective bargaining agreement, and therefore holds that the claims may properly be brought under state law. Because I believe that the right to reinstatement that the Malias seek to enforce is governed by the collective bargaining agreement, and is therefore preempted by federal labor law, I respectfully dissent.
Mr. Malia left his position as a laborer for RCA, in which he was a member of a collective bargaining unit, to accept a position as inventory coordinator. Mr. Malia’s new job was a managerial position not within the bargaining unit, and Mr. Malia alleges that he accepted it on the strength *914of several oral promises made to him by plant manager Harlon May. These promises included increased overtime, better pay, advancement with the company, less job-related stress, and the option to return to his former position if the new situation did not prove satisfactory.
After only a short time at his new position, Mr. Malia found that the job of inventory coordinator was not to his liking and requested reinstatement to the bargaining unit. When this request was denied, Mr. Malia brought suit under several common law theories, seeking to enforce his oral contract with Mr. May.
At issue here is whether a claim for reinstatement to the bargaining unit is covered by the terms of the collective bargaining agreement. Section 56.04 of the collective bargaining agreement sets forth the seniority privileges of persons who return to the bargaining unit after leaving it. According to the majority, this section does not govern the right to be reinstated to the bargaining unit, but only the right of seniority if an employee is reinstated. Under this interpretation, the right to reinstatement is not covered by the collective bargaining agreement, and hence Mr. Malia was free to enter into an independent contract for reinstatement and to sue for enforcement of that contract at common law.
I do not agree with the majority’s reading of § 56.04. The last clause of the portion of § 56.04 that is quoted by the majority indicates that the right to be reinstated is indeed governed by that section of the collective bargaining agreement. Section 56.04 provides that an employee who returns to the bargaining unit:
shall be deemed to have retained but not accumulated seniority privileges within the Bargaining Unit in accordance with Article 56, provided that the privilege of returning to the Bargaining Unit shall be extended to all employees so affected.
Supplementary Local Agreement between RCA and Local 178 at p. 56.04, reprinted in Joint Appendix at 58 (emphasis added). I read the emphasized clause as establishing a right to reinstatement for all employees who have left the bargaining unit. I recognize that the purport of the clause upon which I rely is not immediately clear. However, I believe that my interpretation is the most reasonable reading; indeed, it appears to be the only way to make sense of the clause.1
Moreover, any close question about the scope of the coverage of the collective bargaining agreement should be resolved in favor of a broad reading because strong federal policy interests support such coverage. If an issue is covered by a collective bargaining agreement, it not only falls within federal jurisdiction, but, assuming the agreement contains an arbitration provision, it is resolved in the first instance by an arbitrator. Thus, a conclusion that an issue is governed by the collective bargaining agreement furthers “interpretive uniformity and predictability,” Allis-Chal-mers, 105 S.Ct. at 1911, and the preservation of the central role of arbitration in our system of industrial self-government. Id. at 1915.
The majority characterizes the oral contract between Mr. Malia and Mr. May as one that related solely to the terms and conditions of the managerial position of inventory supervisor. It points out that the oral contract is therefore not “preempted by the rule prohibiting members of a collective bargaining unit from negotiating inconsistent individual contracts,” for “[njothing in the LMRA prevents an indi*915vidual ... from negotiating an employment contract for a management position.” Majority Opinion, typescript at 8. However, although the oral contract did, for the most part, pertain to the position of inventory supervisor, the single term that Mr. Malia is seeking to enforce — reinstatement to his former position — is one that not only impinges upon the bargaining unit, but is provided for in the collective bargaining agreement. Were Mr. Malia attempting to enforce the other terms of the oral contract, such as the promise of more overtime as an inventory coordinator, this would be a different case.2
I would affirm the judgment of the district court.

. The district court apparently assumed that by merely addressing the issue of seniority upon reinstatement, the collective bargaining agreement preempted the entire area of reinstatement. The district court did not determine whether § 56.04 provided for a right to reinstatement, but found that the Malias’ claims were preempted by federal law because they were "dependent upon an interpretation of whether paragraph 56.04 of said local agreement confers an unabridged right to reinstatement in the collective bargaining unit upon any union employee who takes a managerial position and then wishes to resume his former status." Joint Appendix at 81-82. Under this approach, it appears that even if the federal court found that § 56.04 conferred no such right, it would not then decide the issue under state common law. I need not go so far as this approach because I find that § 56.04 does confer a right to reinstatement in the bargaining unit upon any employee who wishes to return.

. The majority states that "[i]t would be illogical to preempt an employment contract merely because the employee had formerly been a member of a collective bargaining unit." Majority opinion, at 913, n. 4. This is certainly true. However, it does not follow that "[o]nly where the former unit member relies on the collective bargaining agreement would such a rule be consistent with the Supreme Court’s reasoning in Allis-Chalmers." Id. (emphasis added). The rule is that no employee may contract independently for a condition of employment that is covered by the collective bargaining agreement. Reinstatement to the bargaining unit is such a condition. Mr. Malia cannot enforce an oral contract concerning reinstatement because that area of employment relations has been preempted by the collective bargaining agreement. Therefore, it does not matter that he is not relying on the collective bargaining agreement, but rather on an oral contract.