Alaska Employment Law

In a termination grievance under the Alaska North Slope Agreement, Arbitrator John DiFalco has held that a joint labor-management committee had no authority to adopt rules that would bar Step Four arbitration of termination grievances under Article VIII when the Step Three Standing Committee had issued a majority opinion.  

In his Award, DiFalco found that the following language in Article VIII preserved the union’s right to arbitrate a termination grievance even when the grievance had been unanimously rejected by a Standing Committee composed of two union and two management members:

Any dispute not settled within ten (10) days after it is presented in Step Three may be submitted to arbitration within ten (10) days thereafter.

The joint committee had adopted procedural rules for Article X jurisdictional disputes.  Committee members later averred that they intended the rules to also bar appeals from dispositive Article VIII Standing Committee holdings.  DeFalco held that the rules document - which was unsigned - was ineffective to amend the right to arbitrate conferred by the language of Article VIII quoted above, especially given the CBA provision that “the agreement may be amended only by written agreement signed by the parties thereto.”

The merits of the termination grievance now go to arbitration before a different arbitrator.

Norcon, Inc. & General Teamsters Local 959 (DiFalco, J., Arb., Award of June 10, 2008)

Nancy Shaw, Teamsters Local 959 General Counsel, represented the union.  Jim Juliussen from the Anchorage office of Davis Wright Tremaine represented the employer.

Note: Here’s the actual Award.