09-2453 & 09-2517 Prate Installations, Inc., v. Chicago Regional Council of Carpenters

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Labor
Arbitration

A subsequent collective bargaining agreement may prohibit an arbitrator from extending remedies beyond the expiration of the earlier agreement.

"Prate also contends that the Union's violations continued into the period governed by the 2005 CBA and that the arbitrator properly determined a remedy based on those continuing violations. Arbitrator Martin explained, in his recitation of Prate's position: 'When the 2005 negotiations concluded with an agreement effective on September 2005, the instant grievance had been filed and procedurally and substantively controlled the claim of Prate going forward. The violation charged was a continuing one, with the remedy requested also continuing.' The arbitrator's apparent invocation of the 'continuing violation' theory does not save the award. While we have determined that an arbitrator did not exceed his authority by characterizing a grievance as a series of ongoing, related violations rather than a single incident, see Monee, 348 F.3d at 676-77, we have not approved of the use of a 'continuing violation' theory to allow the arbitrator to expand the scope of his jurisdiction to contracts under which he has no authority. Cf. 348 F.3d at 676- 77 (finding no reason to disturb the arbitrator's remedy for a continuing violation during the term of the CBA). While the D.C. Circuit, in National Postal Mail Handlers, may have upheld the arbitrator's use of the 'continuing violation' theory to remedy grievances that should not have fallen within the scope of the relevant CBA, the arbitrator in that case was in fact interpreting the relevant CBA. Arbitrator Martin, in awarding damages for periods after the expiration of the 2001 CBA was not, and he had no authority to do so. Cf. Nat'l Postal Mail Handlers, 589 F.3d at 442-44. The district court permissibly reduced the damages award that extended past the expiration of the 2001 CBA. See Trs. of Chi. Painters & Decorators Pension v. Royal Int'l Drywall & Decorating, Inc., 493 F.3d 782, 789-90 (7th Cir. 2007)."

Affirmed.

09-2453 & 09-2517 Prate Installations, Inc., v. Chicago Regional Council of Carpenters

Appeals from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, St. Eve, J., Cudahy, J.

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