Teamsters GCC Court Case

[Sasquatch16]

By Jessica Mach · 2023-03-15 22:26:15 -0400 ·
A court order banning the Teamsters from ending their merger agreement with a publishing union before arbitrating the merger's dissolution is "specific and narrow," the Teamsters told a federal court Wednesday, arguing that the publishing union is trying to improperly expand the court order's scope.

A D.C. federal court issued a preliminary injunction against the Teamsters in December, prohibiting "a single, specific action — the [International Brotherhood of Teamsters'] intended termination of the merger agreement at any time prior to arbitration," the Teamsters said in a court filing.

On Feb. 17, the Graphic Communications Conference asked the court to hold the Teamsters in contempt, saying the Teamsters had violated the injunction by withholding dues and recruiting defectors from the GCC before arbitration had taken place.

But when the GCC first filed its complaint and preliminary injunction request, it never asked the court for "a generalized status quo injunction preventing the IBT or the GCC locals from honoring the terms of the merger agreement," the Teamsters said.

Now, however, the GCC is "asking this court to both rewrite the merger agreement by prohibiting direct affiliations and to significantly expand upon the court's order by ordering the IBT not to accept any affiliations," the Teamsters argued.

The Teamsters denied it solicited GCC locals to directly affiliate with the Teamsters instead, claiming that at least one of these locals made its decision before the December injunction, while the leadership at another local pointed to a "substantial and sustained decrease in GCC's membership" as a motivating factor for the move.

The union added that the merger agreement "expressly provides for the right of GCC locals and district councils to directly affiliate with the IBT."

The Teamsters additionally countered GCC's argument that it is "stonewalling efforts to proceed to arbitration," pointing to how the parties have already worked through preliminary procedural issues and have successfully scheduled several hearing dates in May.

In addition to denying the GCC's motion to hold the Teamsters in contempt, the court should respond to the publishing union's "spurious, bad faith attempt to expand upon the court's narrow and specific order" by awarding the Teamsters attorney fees, the Teamsters said.

The GCC filed its complaint against the Teamsters in November. According to the publishing union, the parties had had a merger agreement in place since 2005, which required disputes to be processed through arbitration.

After the parties met multiple times in 2022 to negotiate a termination of the merger and failed to reach an agreement, the Teamsters told the publishing union in June that the merger agreement would end at the end of the year.

Representative for the unions declined to comment.

GCC is represented by Steven Benz and Mark Hirschboeck of Kellogg Hansen Todd Figel & Frederick PLLC.

The Teamsters are represented by Michael Feinberg and Gabriel Dumont Jr. of Feinberg Dumont & Brennan.

The case is Graphic Communications Conference of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters v. International Brotherhood of Teamsters, case number 1:22-cv-03484, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

--Additional reporting by Tim Ryan. Editing by Nick Petruncio.

[Faust]

Where is the link to the article?

[Sasquatch16]

Law360.com

[Nights]

Maybe an explanation of why we're kicking 30k members out of the Union is in order. Assuming there's a valid reason.