Court Opinion

ID: 9473921
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 04:43:44.209326+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:43:49.257756
License: Public Domain

CUDAHY, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
I cannot agree that Pullman and PSI were not joint employers of Grider. The National Joint Adjustment Board denied Grider’s grievance against Pullman on the theory that PSI and not Pullman denied access to Grider.1 Although the majority declines to examine the merits of this decision, it seems to me eminently realistic. *1077And I have difficulty with the majority’s somewhat metaphysical surmise that PSI acted as a property owner and not as an employer when it denied Grider access to his job site.2 Whether PSI dismissed Grider for security reasons or whether Pullman dismissed him for abusing a security guard is six of one and a half a dozen of the other. In the circumstances of this case, PSI certainly controlled the working conditions at Marble Hill.
The law governing labor relations has generally been characterized by a willingness to look through form to substance. In addition, there has been a reluctance to allow persons acting as employers to contract away their responsibilities. The majority is certainly correct in opining that PSI should not be expected to accept labor relations responsibility for the employees of all its numerous contractors, but in the circumstances of this case there is no good reason it should not be charged with joint responsibility. To hold otherwise is to deny Grider the elementary protections of a grievance procedure.
I therefore respectfully dissent.

. The November 28, 1983, decision of the adjust1 ment board read as follows:
After consideration of the presentations, the panelistfs] agree that Pullman Sheet Metal Works, Inc., is not in violation of the Agreement and that John Grider was not discriminated against and wrongfully discharged by Pullman. Pullman would not have terminated Grider had PSI not denied him access to the site.
The joint effect of the board decision and today's result is effectively to deny Grider the remedy guaranteed him in the grievance procedures.

. In the Teamsters case, cited by the majority, PSI terminated the services of a contractor, and as a result the contractor’s employees were thrown out of work. It is something of a leap to conclude that because PSI was not acting as an employer in those circumstances it was not acting as an employer in these.