INTERN. BROTH. OF TEAMSTERS v. PAN AM. W. AIRWAYS

716 F. Supp. 726

INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF TEAMSTERS, CHAUFFEURS, WAREHOUSEMEN AND HELPERS OF AMERICA AFL/CIO (AIRLINE DIVISION) and Local 732, Airline and Aerospace Employees, affiliated with International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Plaintiffs, v. PAN AMERICAN WORLD AIRWAYS, INC., Defendant.

No. CV-89-0490.

United States District Court, E.D. New York.

June 27, 1989.

Roland P. Wilder, Jr., George Wiszynski, Baptiste & Wilder, P.C., Washington, D.C., Herbert K. Lippman, New York City, for plaintiffs.

Joseph R. Knock, New York City, for defendant.

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

WEINSTEIN, District Judge:

This labor dispute arises under the Railway Labor Act (RLA). 45 U.S.C. §§ 151 et seq. Plaintiffs, a labor union and its affiliated local, allege that the defendant airline has violated mandatory provisions of the RLA in failing to: 1) print and distribute copies of the labor agreements now in force between the parties and 2) produce information about employee compensation that would be useful in negotiations for a new contract. They seek a declaratory judgment and injunction.

The parties cross move for summary judgment and other relief. For the reasons stated below, the complaint is dismissed.

The result should not suggest approval of either side's position in the real world outside the courtroom. The parties appear to be spoiling for a fight. What should have been resolved in a healthy relationship of respect and forbearance between management and labor where each sought amicably to resolve non-vital procedural differences has been transformed into a sullen battle over minor legal rights. The court lacks power to order the parties to act sensibly. The public pays the price for this kind of intransigence.

I. Facts

The Airline Division of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (Union) is the collective bargaining representative certified under the RLA to represent three crafts, or classes, of workers employed by defendant Pan American World Airways (Pan Am). These classes—totaling some 5,000 Pan Am employees—are clerical employees, service employees and nurses. Local 732 is an affiliate of the Union and represents Pan Am's East Coast employees on the Union's behalf.

In 1978 the Union and Pan Am entered into collective bargaining agreements (the Basic Agreements) covering clerical, service and nursing employees. A separate Basic Agreement was entered into on behalf of each employment class. The Basic Agreements established grievance procedures and, as required by the RLA, also established boards of adjustment with jurisdiction over disputes regarding the interpretation or application of the collective bargaining agreements. 45 U.S.C. § 184.

In 1980, 1981 and 1983 the Basic Agreements were modified in various respects by mutual agreement of the parties. Following a final 30 day "cooling off" period required by section 5 of the RLA, in February 1988, as permitted under the Act, Pan Am unilaterally implemented changes in rates of pay, rules and working conditions. 45 U.S.C. § 155. As a result of the successive modifications, the employment relationship currently governing Pan Am and its clerical, service and nursing employees is comprised of the 1978 Basic Agreements as modified by the 1980, 1981 and 1983 amendments and the 1988 terms.

The 1978 Basic Agreements contained provisions obligating Pan Am to print copies of the agreements and distribute them to Union employees. This obligation was not modified. It is a current term of the employment relationship.

At the time it imposed the unilateral modifications, Pan Am sent a letter to the Union describing the changes. It sent copies to all affected employees.

The Union has asked Pan Am to produce, print and distribute integrated documents setting forth the present terms of employment between Pan Am and its clerical, service and nursing employees, reflecting all modifications and amendments to the 1978 Basic Agreements. Without contending that both sides are not fully aware of the present pay, rules and working conditions, the Union insists that the contracts entitle it to new integrated documents to be delivered to all its members.

Pan Am's refusal to produce any integrated documents is the basis of Count I of the complaint. It is asserted that this position constitutes a violation of the RLA's prohibition against changing "the rates of pay, rules, or working conditions" of employees. RLA § 2, Seventh; 45 U.S.C. § 152, Seventh. That section of the Act forbids such changes unless the elaborate procedures contained in section 6 of the Act have first been complied with. See 45 U.S.C. § 156. The provisions obligating Pan Am to print and distribute the agreement were never submitted to these procedures.

To assist it in the collective bargaining negotiations that are currently taking place, the Union has also requested that Pan Am produce information about non-Union employees, including pay and pension contributions. Although the 1978 Basic Agreements contained provisions obligating Pan Am to provide the Union with seniority, dues and payroll data regarding the Union-represented employees, no provisions required—nor do any now require— Pan Am to produce this additional information. Without denying that the data could assist the Union in negotiating new collective bargaining agreements, Pan Am has stood on its claimed legal right to decline production of this information.

Pan Am's refusal forms the basis of Count II of the complaint. The Union alleges that the additional information is necessary for effective collective bargaining and that Pan Am's failure to produce the information is a violation of the statutory duty imposed by section 2, First, of the RLA "to exert every reasonable effort to make and maintain agreements concerning rates of pay, rules, and working conditions, and to settle all disputes, whether arising out of the application of such agreements or otherwise...." 45 U.S.C. § 152, First.

II. Law Applied to the Facts

A. Count I—Failure to Print and Distribute the Agreements:

Disputes between an airline carrier and its employees concerning terms of employment are governed by the provisions of the Railway Labor Act. See 45 U.S.C. § 184. The RLA provides two separate and distinct dispute resolution schemes. The nature of the dispute determines which of these two schemes is to be followed in a particular case. Because under one scheme jurisdiction to hear disputes rests exclusively with boards of adjustment, a critical threshold issue is which dispute resolution scheme governs Pan Am's failure to print and distribute copies of the present terms of employment.

One of the RLA's dispute resolution schemes applies to "major disputes." See Elgin, Joliet & Eastern R.R. v. Burley, 325 U.S. 711, 723, 65 S.Ct. 1282, 1290, 89 L.Ed. 1886 (1945). "Major disputes are those involving the formation of collective bargaining agreements or changes in the terms of existing agreements. They relate to the `acquisition of rights for the future, not to assertion of rights claimed to have vested in the past.'" Air Cargo, Inc. v. Local Union 851, Int'l Brotherhood of Teamsters, 733 F.2d 241, 245 (2d Cir.1984) (quoting Elgin, Joliet & Eastern R.R. v. Burley, 325 U.S. 711, 723, 65 S.Ct. 1282, 1290, 89 L.Ed. 1886 (1945)). An attempt by a party to a collective bargaining agreement to unilaterally impose changes in the agreement without having first complied with procedures mandated by the RLA gives rise to a major dispute. The Act provides an elaborate mechanism for resolving major disputes; district courts have jurisdiction over these disputes to ensure that the status quo is maintained. Local 553, Transport Workers v. Eastern Air Lines, 695 F.2d 668, 674 (2d Cir.1982) (citing cases).

Another dispute resolution scheme is used for "minor disputes." See Elgin, Joliet & Eastern R.R. v. Burley, 325 U.S. at 723, 65 S.Ct. at 1290. Minor disputes are those "growing out of grievances, or out of the interpretation or application of agreements concerning rates of pay, rules or working conditions." 45 U.S.C. § 184. They "involve the application of particular provisions of an agreement that are not the subject of a proposal for change and relate to rights already accrued rather than to proposals for future rights." Air Cargo, Inc. v. Local Union 851. Int'l Brotherhood of Teamsters, 733 F.2d at 245. Under the RLA, the exclusive remedy for resolving minor disputes lies with the boards of adjustment established under the Act. See 45 U.S.C. § 184. Except in unusual circumstances, a district court has no jurisdiction over minor disputes. Slocum v. Delaware, L & W.R. Co., 339 U.S. 239, 70 S.Ct. 577, 94 L.Ed. 795 (1950); Baylis v. Marriott Corp., 843 F.2d 658, 662-63 (2d Cir.1988).

For minor disputes there is generally no requirement that the status quo be maintained. A party is free to act in accordance with its own interpretation of the disputed contractual provision pending resolution of the dispute by the board of adjustment. See CSX Transp., Inc. v. United Transp. Union, 879 F.2d 990, 997 (2d Cir.1989) (citing cases).

The disposition of Count I of the plaintiffs' complaint thus turns on whether plaintiffs' claim is a major dispute or a minor one. If it is a major dispute, this court may weigh the merits of the claim and, if warranted to preserve the status quo between the parties, require Pan Am to produce the integrated documents sought by plaintiffs. If, however, the dispute is a minor one, this court as a general matter has no jurisdiction to consider the merits of the dispute and plaintiffs' sole remedy lies with the boards of adjustment.

The claim for integrated documents bears all the indicia of a minor dispute. Because the provisions to print and distribute the labor agreements were contained in the Basic Agreements entered into in 1978 and it is these provisions upon which plaintiffs rely, the plaintiffs are here "asserting rights which they contend have vested in the...