Filed: Aug. 03, 2012
Latest Update: Feb. 12, 2020
Summary: NOT PRECEDENTIAL UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE THIRD CIRCUIT _ No. 11-2536 _ UNITED FOOD AND COMMERCIAL WORKERS LOCAL 23, Appellant v. GIANT EAGLE MARKETS COMPANY, a Pennsylvania Corporation _ On Appeal from the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania (D.C. Civil No. 2:10-cv-01497) District Judge: Honorable William L. Standish _ Submitted Pursuant to Third Circuit LAR 34.1(a) March 8, 2012 Before: McKEE, Chief Judge, SCIRICA and AMBRO, Circuit Judges (Opini
Summary: NOT PRECEDENTIAL UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE THIRD CIRCUIT _ No. 11-2536 _ UNITED FOOD AND COMMERCIAL WORKERS LOCAL 23, Appellant v. GIANT EAGLE MARKETS COMPANY, a Pennsylvania Corporation _ On Appeal from the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania (D.C. Civil No. 2:10-cv-01497) District Judge: Honorable William L. Standish _ Submitted Pursuant to Third Circuit LAR 34.1(a) March 8, 2012 Before: McKEE, Chief Judge, SCIRICA and AMBRO, Circuit Judges (Opinio..
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NOT PRECEDENTIAL
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE THIRD CIRCUIT
_____________
No. 11-2536
_____________
UNITED FOOD AND COMMERCIAL WORKERS LOCAL 23,
Appellant
v.
GIANT EAGLE MARKETS COMPANY, a Pennsylvania Corporation
______________
On Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Western District of Pennsylvania
(D.C. Civil No. 2:10-cv-01497)
District Judge: Honorable William L. Standish
______________
Submitted Pursuant to Third Circuit LAR 34.1(a)
March 8, 2012
Before: McKEE, Chief Judge, SCIRICA and AMBRO, Circuit Judges
(Opinion filed: August 3, 2012)
__________
OPINION
__________
McKEE, Chief Judge.
United Food and Commercial Workers Local 23 (“the Union”) appeals the District
Court’s order granting Giant Eagle Markets Company’s motion to dismiss the Union’s
complaint in this action filed pursuant to section 301 of the Labor Management Relations
Act, 29 U.S.C. § 185. For the reasons that follow, we will affirm.
I.
Since we write primarily for the parties, who are familiar with the background of
this case, we discuss the events leading to this appeal only briefly. Giant Eagle operates
grocery and convenience stores in western Pennsylvania, among other places. Certain
Giant Eagle employees are represented by the Union. Giant Eagle and the Union are
signatories to a collective bargaining agreement (“CBA”) that covers certain Giant Eagle
“Grocery” employees (i.e., employees in Giant Eagle’s Grocery, Bakery, and Produce
departments). The CBA includes grievance and arbitration procedures, which apply
when there are “differences or complaints over the interpretation or application of the
terms of this Agreement.” (App. at 45a.)
In September 2010, the Union filed a grievance, alleging that Giant Eagle had
violated two parts of the CBA — a subsection of the “Recognition and Jurisdiction”
provision, 1 and the “Separate Contracts” provision 2 — by denying Union representatives
1
This subsection, set forth in Article 2.1A of the CBA, states, in pertinent part, that
[t]he Company recognizes the Union as the sole and
exclusive bargaining agent for Grocery, Bakery and Produce
Department employees working in the Company’s stores as
clerks which are operated [or] which may be operated in the
various counties of Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia as
defined by the jurisdiction of Local 23 . . . .
(App. at 26a.)
2
The Separate Contracts provision, set forth in Article 28 of the CBA, provides that
[t]he Company agrees that any future store that
2
access to several recently-acquired non-union grocery stores. Giant Eagle denied the
grievance and took the position that the matter was not arbitrable under the CBA. In
response, the Union filed a complaint in the District Court pursuant to § 185, seeking to
compel Giant Eagle to submit the grievance to arbitration. Shortly thereafter, the Union
filed another grievance, alleging that Giant Eagle’s refusal to allow Union representatives
access to its non-union convenience stores violated the CBA’s Separate Contracts
provision. As before, Giant Eagle took the position that this type of grievance was not
arbitrable under the CBA. The Union then amended its complaint, seeking to compel
Giant Eagle to submit both grievances to arbitration.
The District Court granted Giant Eagle’s motion to dismiss the amended
complaint pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(6), based upon its conclusion that the
grievances at issue were not arbitrable as a matter of law. The Union now appeals.
II.
We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291. We exercise plenary review
over a district court’s decision to grant a motion to dismiss pursuant to Rule 12(b)(6).
Burtch v. Milberg Factors, Inc.,
662 F.3d 212, 220 (3d Cir. 2011).
replaces another Corporate store will be opened as Corporate
and the Company will not use store closing language (Article
9.23) on the closing store. Any other new stores that open
will be opened under separate contracts with separate
seniority. This paragraph does not restrict the Company’s
right to franchise stores, nor does it limit in any way any of
the other provisions in Article 9.23.
(App. at 64a.) None of the stores at issue here “replaced” an existing Corporate store.
3
In support of its motion to dismiss, Giant Eagle relied on our decision in Rite Aid
of Pa., Inc. v. United Food and Commercial Workers Union, Local 1776,
595 F.3d 128
(3d Cir. 2010), which concerned the same type of grievances at issue here. There we
concluded that the union’s grievances were not arbitrable under the governing CBA
because the terms of that CBA were not implicated by those grievances. See
id. at 135-
36. We explained:
In our view, a right of Union access to newly acquired
stores simply cannot be plausibly derived from the
recognition clause. The recognition clause merely establishes
the Union’s position as Rite Aid’s employees’ exclusive
bargaining agent and defines the range of matters subject to
bargaining. It does not describe or purport to include
anything resembling the Union’s claimed right to access
newly-acquired stores.
Id. at 134.
The District Court rejected the Union’s attempts to distinguish Rite Aid, and held
that this dispute was controlled by the majority opinion in Rite Aid. On appeal, the Union
again attempts to distinguish its case from Rite Aid. For substantially the reasons
provided by the District Court, we conclude that this dispute is governed by the holding
in Rite Aid, and we reject the Union’s attempt to draw a meaningful distinction. 3
Accordingly, we will affirm the District Court’s order granting Giant Eagle’s
motion to dismiss.
3
To the extent the Union’s briefing on appeal could be viewed as implicitly challenging
the majority’s analysis in Rite Aid, we note that we are bound by that decision. See
JELD-WEN, Inc. v. Van Brunt (In re Grossman’s Inc.),
607 F.3d 114, 116-17 (3d Cir.
2010) (en banc).
4