Court Opinion

ID: 9493835
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 15:20:43.955561+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:56:03.521923
License: Public Domain

PREGERSON, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
The only issue in this ease is whether the arbitrator’s award in favor of UPS is based on a plausible interpretation of the collective bargaining agreement. The parties agree that Harris did not commit one of the seven cardinal infractions listed in Article 28, Section 2(A) of the Western Supplement. They also agree that Harris did not receive a warning notice in the nine-month period preceding his dismissal. Thus, the issue is whether the CBA may be plausibly interpreted as permitting UPS to discharge an employee who has not committed one of the seven specified cardinal infractions (1) if the employee has not received a warning in the preceding nine months and (2) before the discharge has been sustained under the grievance procedure. Because I believe that no plausible interpretation of the CBA permits UPS to do so, I respectfully dissent.
I agree with the majority that our review of labor arbitration awards is extremely deferential. “Courts ... do not sit to hear claims of factual or legal error by an arbitrator as an appellate court does in reviewing decisions of lower courts.” United Paperworkers Int’l Union v. Misco, 484 U.S. 29, 38, 108 S.Ct. 364, 98 L.Ed.2d 286 (1987). At the same time, there are some narrow instances in which an arbitral award is not entitled to deference. For example, we should not confirm an arbitral award when the arbitrator has “dispense[d] his own brand of industrial justice” by making an award that does not “draw[ ] its essence from the collective bargaining agreement.” United Steelworkers of America v. Enterprise Wheel & *1185Car Corp., 363 U.S. 593, 597, 80 S.Ct. 1358, 4 L.Ed.2d 1424 (1960).
In cases such as this one which concern the interpretation of a collective bargaining agreement, “courts have no business overruling [the arbitrator] because their interpretation of the contract is different from his.” Id. at 599, 80 S.Ct. 1358. However, an arbitrator may not “ignore[ ] the plain language of the contract,” Stead Motors of Walnut Creek v. Automotive Machinists Lodge No. 1173, 886 F.2d 1200, 1206 n. 6 (9th Cir.1989) (en banc), by relying on an interpretation that is not “plausible,” United Food & Commercial Workers Union, Local 1119 v. United Markets, Inc., 784 F.2d 1413, 1415 (9th Cir.1986), and “instead follow[ ] his own whims and biases.” Garvey v. Roberts, 203 F.3d 580, 588-89 (9th Cir.2000).1 In such cases, the arbitral award will “fail[ ] to draw its essence from the collective bargaining agreement.” Stead Motors, 886 F.2d at 1206 n. 6 (internal quotations omitted).
Similarly, an arbitrator has no authority to ignore the plain language of a collective bargaining agreement that limits the scope of his authority. As the majority notes, “[a]n arbitrator [ordinarily] is ‘not confined to the express terms of the contract’ but may also consider the ‘industrial common law’ which ‘is equally a part of the collective bargaining agreement although not expressed in it.’ ” SFIC, 103 F.3d at 925 (quoting Federated Dep’t Stores v. United Food & Commercial Workers Union, Local 1442, 901 F.2d 1494, 1497 (9th Cir.1990)). However, the parties may expressly limit the arbitrator’s discretion or delegate to him only a fact-finding role. See Misco, 484 U.S. at 41, 108 S.Ct. 364.
In this case, the arbitrator ruled that Article 28, § 2(A) is not an exclusive list of cardinal infractions for which summary discharge without prior warning may be imposed. The flaw in this interpretation is that it ignores the other relevant CBA provisions. Cf. United States Postal Svc. v. American Postal Workers Union, 204 F.3d 523, 528 (4th Cir.2000) (vacating arbi-tral award in which the arbitrator relied on one provision of the agreement, but ignored another provision which limited his authority).
The National Master Agreement Article 7 and the second clause of Western Supplement Article 28, Section 2 set out categorical and mandatory rules. Article 28, Section 2 states: “No employee(s) shall suffer ... discharge without the employ-eels) having been given a written warning^ notice_” (emphasis added). NMA Article 7 states that “Except in cases involving cardinal infractions under the applicable Supplement ..., an employee to be discharged ... shall be allowed to remain on the job, without loss of pay unless and until the discharge or suspension is sustained under the grievance procedure.” (emphasis added). Section 2(A) carves out exceptions to these categorical restrictions on management prerogative. Read together, these provisions unambiguously prohibit UPS from discharging an employee for a reason that is not one of the seven cardinal infractions unless the employee has received a warning notice and until the discharge has been sustained in arbitration. If an arbitrator were free to find other cardinal infractions based on standards of “just cause,” the rigidly prohibitive language of Article 28 and Article 7 would serve no purpose.
The only plausible reading of the CBA is that, in an arbitration challenging a summary discharge, the arbitrator is limited to deciding the factual questions whether the employee (1) committed an enumerated cardinal infraction; and (2) received a *1186warning in the preceding nine month period. If these predicate facts do not exist, an arbitrator may not uphold a discharge based on principles of “reasonableness” or “just cause.” The arbitrator in this case exceeded the limited fact-finding role that the parties bargained for and set forth in detail in the CBA. Therefore, “the arbitrator’s award represents an invalid exercise of the power the parties have entrusted to him.” Stead, 886 F.2dpat 1206 n. 6.
The majority gives weight to UPS’s ability to point to other arbitration awards interpreting the CBA’s list of cardinal infractions as nonexclusive. However, there is an equally impressive record of arbitration awards interpreting the list as exclusive. The existence of some arbitration awards interpreting Article 28, § 2(A)’s list as nonexclusive should not render plausible an otherwise implausible interpretation of the CBA.
Moreover, under the majority’s reasoning, the presence of conflicting arbitral awards will always insulate any given award from judicial review. While the presence of conflicting arbitral awards should be relevant to whether a given award is based on a plausible interpretation of a collective bargaining agreement, I reject the suggestion implicit in the majority opinion that we adopt a per se rule that a court may never vacate an arbitral award where the arbitrator’s interpretation of the collective bargaining agreement is supported by a prior award.
Because I believe that the arbitrator’s award is not based on a plausible interpretation of the CBA, I respectfully dissent.

. This is a rigorous, but not impossible, standard. See United Markets, 784 F.2d at 1415 (vacating arbitral award because the arbitrator did not attribute usual meaning to the words in the document); Pacific Motor Trucking Co. v. Automotive Machinists Union, 702 F.2d 176, 177 (9th Cir.1983) (vacating arbi-tral award because "[t]he arbitrator disregarded a specific contract provision to correct what he perceived as an injustice”); Federated Employers of Nevada, Inc. v. Teamsters Local No. 631, 600 F.2d 1263, 1264 (9th Cir.1979) (vacating arbitral award that "plainly violated the terms of the arbitration clause”).