Teamsters Local 853 v. SFO Transporter, Inc. d/b/a Compass TransportationThe Teamsters Union is seeking to set aside an award of Arbitrator David B. Hart.   Grievant had been employed as a shuttle bus driver, driving for clients and customers of Compass. A client of Compass requested that grievant be removed from its account based on an anonymous complaints from  passengers. Shortly thereafter, Compass terminated grievant’s employment. The cba between Teamsters and Compass provides:Under direction from any client or…

Teacher’s use of N word “under his breath” found insufficient to revoke tenureArbitrator Peter Adomeit rejected tenure charges against a teacher in a New Jersey school district who was alleged to have used the  word while in class. The tenure specification asserted that the teacher “quietly said to himself something to the effect of  ‘I’m done with these n…s’  or ‘I’m not trying to deal with these n…s’ while walking away from certain students who…

Arbitrator Joseph Duffy has sustained grievance filed by Teamsters Locals 117 and 313 alleging that UNFI/Supervalu, Inc breached its cba when it denied bargaining unit employees the opportunity to transfer to a new facility after their current facility was scheduled to be closed. Arbitrator Duffy’s award can be found here. The applicable language of the cba provided: 1.01.2 Movement of Existing Facility: In the event that the Employer moves an existing facility to any location…

Several recent decisions of the District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia address issues involving coal industry arbitration awards as the parties sought to confirm or vacate them.Maintenance or construction Two cases turned on whether the arbitrator correctly determined whether the work that was the subject of the grievance involved construction or maintenance. Generally speaking maintenance work could not be contracted out  while, with certain exceptions, construction work could. In The Harrison County …

Untimeliness of arbitrator’s award doesn’t warrant vacating awardIn First Student, Inc v International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Local 959, the District Court for Alaska denied a request to vacate an award of Arbitrator Elizabeth Ford. The parties had submitted to Arbitrator Ford a dispute concerning the Company’s alleged failure to seek an alternate assignment for a bus driver taken off his route at the client’s request. The cba called for the arbitrator’s award to be…

Several recent filings involve efforts to vacate arbitration awards. Churchill Downs Racetrack, LLC, v. Laborers’ International Union of North America, Local Union No. 576 Churchill Downs Racetrack seeks to set aside an award of Arbitrator Mark C. Travis. Arbitrator Travis sustained a grievance claiming that the Company violated the cba when it subcontracted “all” housekeeping and maintenance work at one of its locations. The Company relied on language in the cba which, it asserted, expressly…

A court has vacated the award of Arbitrator Jane Wilkinson reinstating Seattle police Officer Adley Shepherd. City of Seattle, Seattle Police Department v. Seattle Police Officers’ Guild, Arbitrator Jane Wilkerson and Adley Shepherd  Officer Shepherd was dismissed following the Department’s determination that he had used excessive force when he struck a handcuffed individual while attempting to place her in his patrol car. The interaction was captured by the in-car video.Arbitrator Wilkinson concluded that…