Subcontracting

Do you agree with the arbitrator that the decision to subcontract need not be negotiated in this case? Why do you think the union fought this subcontract with only four union member left with the company?

Job Security and Seniority he als CASE 1 en ce Dovetailing Seniority Lists ad En DL T, y 9 1 submitted to arbitration. Employees worked for an unincorporated division, Division 1, of the company. The company also operated a second incorporated division in another state, Division 2. Each division had a separate collective bargaining agreement (CBA). rathe company announced plans to relocate the Division 2 operations and workers to Division 1. It proposed to "dovetail" (i.e., integrate) the Division 2 seniority list into the Division 1 seniority list. The alternative would have been to "end-tail" the Division 2 workers, Division 1 plant filed a grievance protesting the dovetailing proposal, and the matter was The basic dispute that drove the arbitration was whether Division 1 and Division 2 were separate employers or whether the company should be considered the "employer" of the workers at both divisions. Under both CBAs, the term "employer" was defined as the division, "seniority" as "continuous service with the employer," and the company was not mentioned by name. The company argued that it was the employer for both divisions. It pointed out that Division 1 was not a separate legal entity. It operated out of the same facility as the company until 1987. The two divisions had the same president and the same accounting and administrative staff. Both divisions had substantially the same working conditions and pay rates. And virtually all the work was interchangeable between workers in the two divisions. The employees of Division 1 argued that neither of the CBAs provided for the consolidation of the two divisions and that a "no-modification" clause in both contracts precluded the dovetailing of the seniority lists. Decision The arbitrator found, nonetheless, that the company had the authority to dovetail the two seniority lists. First, the arbitrator determined that the company was the de facto employer of the workers at both divisions based on the history of company's development, the shared administra- live and executive operations of the two divisions, and the fact that "Division 1" was merely an unregistered trade name, not a separate legal entity. preclude it either. Allowing for dovetailing was a permissible interpretation of the agreement And although the two CBAs did not explicitly provide for dovetailing, they did not noted, the "grievance and arbitration procedures are part and parcel of the ongoing process of under the changed circumstances presented by the consolidation of work. As the arbitrator collective bargaining. It is through these processes that the supplementary rules of the plant are established." Source: Adapted from Division 1 w R.W.E. Inc., 144 LRRM 2649 (1993)