Court Opinion

ID: 9455290
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 19:17:37.249725+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:34:32.444009
License: Public Domain

KALODNER, Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
I would reverse the judgment of the District Court entered August 29, 1968 in favor of the plaintiffs and against the defendants, entered pursuant to its Order of August 21, 1968 denying the defendants’ motion for summary judgment and granting the plaintiffs’ motion for declaratory judgment.
In its Opinion1 accompanying its Order of August 21, 1968, the District Court made the fact-findings that “Due to work fluctuation brought about by excessive inventories within the plant, the plaintiff employers reduced the work force * * and that “The parties have agreed that there was a work fluctuation. * * *” (emphasis supplied) .
The record fails to disclose any evi-dentiary premise for the District Court’s fact-findings that there was a “work fluctuation” and “The parties have agreed that there was a work fluctuation.” The record, to the contrary, affirmatively establishes that the plaintiff employers pleaded in Paragraph IV of their Complaint that “due to a work fluctuation brought about by an excessive inventory * * * and a lessening or orders, * * * ” they “found it necessary to reduce * * *” their work force, and that the defendants in Paragraph 3 of their Answer to the Complaint denied “the allegation of Paragraph IV as stated” and admitted only that there was a reduction in the work force.” Moreover, the “Stipulation of Facts” entered into by the parties provided only that “plaintiff reduced its work force.” (emphasis supplied)
The sum total of the foregoing is that there was a disputed issue presented as to whether there was a “work fluctua*1196tion”, and that being so the District Court was required to abstain from further consideration of the case and to direct submission of the Union’s grievance to arbitration. . “Steelworkers Triology”. United Steelworkers of America v. American Manufacturing Co., 363 U.S. 564, 80 S.Ct. 1343, 4 L.Ed.2d 1403 (1960); United Steelworkers of America v. Warrior & Gulf Navigation Co., 363 U.S. 574, 80 S.Ct. 1347, 4 L.Ed.2d 1409 (1960); United Steelworkers of America v. Enterprise Wheel & Car Corp., 363 U.S. 593, 80 S.Ct. 1358, 4 L.Ed.2d 1424 (1960).

. The District Court’s Opinion is presently unreported.