Court Opinion

ID: 9448550
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 23:39:20.773722+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:31:28.662842
License: Public Domain

O’SULLIVAN, Circuit Judge
(concurring).
It is my opinion that plaintiffs, members of the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra, are denied equal rights and are discriminated against by the Union of which they are members. I concur in affirmance, however, because Title 29 U.S.C.A., § 411(a) (1), upon which plaintiffs place their entire reliance for the remedy sought, does not provide such remedy.
Under the Union’s constitution and bylaws, members of the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra have no right to approve or reject whatever collective bargaining agreement may be made for them by the union officials. All members of the Union, including the members of the Symphony Orchestra, have the right to vote upon the terms and conditions of the so-called “Wage Scale and Directory.” This latter writing is a fairly comprehensive document covering not only wages but other terms and conditions of employment for all members of the Union except those employed as members of the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra. When such a union member is engaged to work, the terms of the “Wage Scale and Directory” become, for all practical purposes, a part of the contract between him and his employer. Because of the transient nature of the ordinary musician’s employment, it is impractical for a separate bargaining session between employee and employer to precede each engagement. Under the practice involved, the employer must accept the “Wage Scale and Directory” along with the services of the musician. For all practical purposes, then, the terms of the “Wage Scale and Directory” become a part of the contract between the union musician and his employer. Such arrangement is equivalent, in substance, to a collective bargaining agreement. Accordingly, all union members, other than musicians during their performance in the Symphony Orchestra, have some control of the terms and conditions of their employment. Equivalent control is denied the symphony artists. Inequality and discrimination result.
*234Appellants, however, appear to concede that except for the proscriptions of § 411(a) (1), there would be nothing illegal in their being excluded from the right to ratify or reject a collective bargaining agreement. Their whole reliance is on such section, sometimes referred to as the “Bill of Rights” section of the statute. That section, denominated “Equal Rights,” defines what equal rights are protected, viz., “to nominate candidates, to vote in elections or referendums of the labor organization, to attend membership meetings, and to participate in the deliberations and voting upon the business of such meetings * * *.” Inasmuch as -the making of a collective bargaining contract for the symphony artists is, under the laws of the Union, the exclusive prerogative of the officers, such contracts do not become the subject matter of elections or referendums, nor any part of “the business of such (membership) meetings.”
I concur in affirmance because the deprivation of equal rights and the discrimination visited upon the symphony artists are not outlawed by § 411(a) (1).