Professional Documents
Culture Documents
and
United Food Workers Local 825 and Welch Foods, Inc, 07-1 ARB ¶ 3786 (Arb
2006). However, the arbitrator retained jurisdiction to resolve any issues which
might arise over implementation of the award. Id. @ 8095. An issue indeed has
arisen, which the parties have submitted to the arbitrator for resolution, in a Joint
Statement of Welch Foods, Inc. and UFCW Local 825, submitted May 14, 2007
(“Joint Statement”).
January 16, 2007, which Grievant signed on January 18, 2007. Joint Statement
pertinent part:
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1. Disability leave will be processed following [Grievant]’s return to
work with Welch Foods Inc. ***
7. You will be assigned to the 2nd shift General Utility position. You may
be required to fulfill some training requirements on 2nd shift to get your
qualifications updated for the position. ***
The origin of the issue now before the arbitrator is explained as follows in
At about the same time [as the LCA was executed], the Company posted
a job bid for Stockroom Attendant. The Stockroom Attendant position
involves interaction with outside vendors and running errands outside the
Company facility. Bids were accepted until January 19, 2007. On the day
Grievant executed the Last Chance Agreement, he also signed the bid
sheet for the Stockroom Attendant position. Grievant, with a seniority
date of December 28, 1978, was the senior employee on the bid sheet.
(The documents relevant to the job bid are attached as Exhibits 2(a), 2(b)
and 2(c)).
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However … the Company refused to award the job of Stockroom
Attendant to [Grievant]. The Company’s position was that while Grievant
is the senior employee, the job involves off-site and third party
responsibilities similar to the lead warehouseman position involved in the
discharge case, and that the Company has the right to deny Grievant a
similar position while he is on his Last Chance Agreement, particularly
where the Grievant sought the job on the same day he agreed to the terms
for his reinstatement and the two-year Last Chance Agreement. The
Union’s position was that as the senior employee, Grievant should be
allowed to take the position, despite his Last Chance Agreement and the
reasons for it.
In their Joint Statement, the parties phrase the current issue as follows:
Bakers Union Factory v ITT Continental Baking Co, 749 F2d 350 (6th Cir
(BNA 2nd ed 1987) @ 158-160, the Sixth Circuit ruled that an arbitrator has no
agreement. Thus the arbitrator has no choice except to enforce the LCA
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and his Union agreed that he would “be assigned to the 2nd shift General Utility
position.” To allow him to bid on another position on the very day on which he
agreement, which was admitted into evidence as JX 1 at the October 24, 2006
the outcome of job bidding. Section 1.b of Article VII, “Job Posting and
ability”. Only when the factors “are equal in the case of two or more qualified
employees who have answered the posting” must the position be awarded “on
the basis of seniority”. Thus the job does not always go to the most senior
employee.
Grievant would be placed in the very types of situations with which he had so
much difficulty coping at the warehouse. See Joint Statement Ex 2(a) (“Notify
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outside contractor”, “Run errands”, “Must have excellent interpersonal skills
For all the foregoing reasons, the question presented must be answered in