Court Opinion

ID: 9460760
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 21:59:38.393659+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:36:46.192096
License: Public Domain

GIBSON, Circuit Judge
(concurring).
I concur in the result reached by the majority. However, I wish to emphasize what I view as the narrow basis for holding that the disputes relative to the Pension, Insurance and Supplemental Unemployment Benefit Plans are arbitrable in this case. I cannot agree with the Union’s contention that the separate plans can be considered as a part of the basic agreement. Nor do I think the decision in this case should rest upon a general presumption of arbitrability of labor disputes.
*220I think it is clear from the language employed by the parties in the basic agreement and upon consideration of the provisions of the separate plans that the plans are in fact independent of and cannot be considered a part of the basic agreement. Further, in my view, the provisions of the arbitration clause in the basic agreement that “[o]nly questions as to interpretation or application of or compliance with the provisions of this Agreement may be submitted to an Arbitrator” would, in an ordinary dispute as to eligibility for benefits under one of the separate plans, bar resort to the arbitration provisions of the basic agreement. The provisions within the separate plans would govern resolution of these types of disputes.
However, the dispute in the present case is one that arises under the basic agreement and not under the separate plans. Its resolution depends upon the affected employees’ status as “layed-off” or “terminated”, a question that can only be answered by interpretation of the basic agreement. Each of the separate plans conditions eligibility upon an employee’s continuous service, and each plan provides that the determination of continuous service is to be in accordance with the provisions of the basic agreement. The dispute here relative to the separate plans concerns only how this continuous service is to be ■ calculated. Since such calculation can only be made with reference to the provisions of the basic agreement, the dispute is one arising under the basic agreement that the company has agreed to arbitrate.
The employees’ rights under any of the separate plans may be easily resolved once their status as “terminated” or “layed-off” is determined. Directing arbitration on all questions should conserve the parties’ energies, reduce costs, and permit a speedy determination of rights, benefits, and liabilities in this industrial dispute.