Court Opinion

ID: 9757083
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 22:17:56.688756+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:28:34.673363
License: Public Domain

MANDERINO, Justice,
dissenting.
I agree with the majority that we should uphold the arbitrator’s decision that this grievance filed by the Union was arbitrable. I cannot agree, however, that because this particular collective bargaining agreement contains an integration clause, the arbitrator was in error in determining that a past practice, though not specifically mentioned in the collective bargaining agreement, was implicitly incorporated in that agreement.
A collective bargaining agreement cannot possibly cover every single term and condition of employment. The existence of an integration clause does not alter this fact. Integration clauses such as the one which existed here are boilerplate, and parties to a collective bargaining agreement do not, because an integration clause is present, go to any greater lengths to insure that every term or condition of employment, form the choice of meals to the furnishing of restroom necessities, is contained within the agreement. Under the majority’s reasoning, if the employer has been furnishing toilets and toilet paper but the agreement is silent about such matters, the employer can ignore the past practice and cease furnishing the restroom necessities.
Here, the arbitrator concluded that the parties agreed on certain conditions concerning guards’ lunches, conditions which were present prior to the effective date of the agreement and which the parties felt no need to spell out in the collective bargaining agreement. That conclusion should be upheld in spite of the existence of a “broad” integration clause, otherwise, collective bargaining agreements will have to be written on rolls of paper stretching endlessly. The parties bargained for an arbitrator to interpret their con*47tract and they are bound by his award. As the United States Supreme Court observed:
“[T]he question of interpretation of the collective bargaining agreement is a question for the arbitrator. It is the arbitrator’s construction which was bargained for; and so far as the arbitrator’s decision concerns construction of the contract, the courts have no business overruling him because their interpretation of the contract is different from his.” United Steelworkers of America v. Enterprise Wheel & Car Corp., 363 U.S. 593, 599, 80 S.Ct. 1358, 1362, 4 L.Ed.2d 1424, 1429 (1960).
When parties to a collective bargaining agreement agree to have an arbitrator interpret their contract, we should keep in mind that the “arbitrator’s source of law is not confined to the express provisions of the contract,” rather, “the practices of the industry and the shop — is equally a part of the collective bargaining agreement although not expressed in it.” United Steelworkers of America v. Warrior & Gulf Navigation Co., 363 U.S. 574, 581-82, 80 S.Ct. 1347, 1352, 4 L.Ed.2d 1409, 1417 (1960).
I respectfully dissent.