§ 2.3.14 The Arbitral Process. The recognition of the arbitral process came with passing the Federal Arbitration Act.68 However, the Arbitration Act did not include labor disputes or collective bargaining agreements. The advent of arbitration in the labor relations area got its impetus from the 1947 amendments to the NLRA with the enactment of Section 301.69 After the Supreme Court's decision in Lincoln Mills, which held that Section 301 furnishes a basis for establishing federal substantive law to enforce collective bargaining agreements, using arbitration and its enforcement in courts assumed a dominant role in labor relations law.
Initially, not all employment disputes arising under a collective bargaining agreement were subject to the agreement's grievance-arbitration provisions. In Alexander v. Gardner-Denver Co.,70 the Supreme Court held that a union member did not waive his statutory rights under Title VII through an arbitration clause. In doing so, the Court set forth that if the employees had statutory claims and the agreement did not specifically waive the statutory rights, then arbitration was not applicable. This rule of law was clarified in Wright v. Universal Maritime Service Corp.71 The Supreme Court confirmed the validity of Gardner-Denver but ruled that unions could waive the statutory rights of the employees they represent by stating in the bargaining agreement that the discrimination claims are subjects of arbitration. Therefore, a waiver of the unit employees' federal statutory rights to court proceedings is available, but only if the waiver is "clear and unmistakable."
However, In 14 Penn Plaza v. Pyett,72 the...
