Home > Law Journals > JDR > Vol. 2008 > Iss. 1 (2008)
Abstract
In Sheet Metal Workers' International Ass'n, Local Union No. 2 v. McElroy's Inc., the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit considered whether an employer was required to submit to interest arbitration with a union under the pre-hire agreement entered into by the parties. The applicability of the statutory standards for pre-hire agreements to bargained-for labor and employment contracts is an essential element of this case. When interpreting federal statutory law, the majority of jurisdictions permit unilateral repudiation upon the expiration of a pre-hire agreement and a small minority of jurisdictions allow for the agreement to be repudiated unilaterally during its term. However, in considering these principles, the courts have not provided as clear a standard as to how interest arbitration clauses can be used contractually to provide for non-reputable pre-hire agreements between employers and unions. Consequently, it is a question that must be resolved to achieve uniformity in federal labor law. In the instant decision, the Tenth Circuit upheld the application of the interest arbitration clause in a pre-hire agreement as consistent with the decisions of other circuit courts that had been presented with similar contract language.2 Unfortunately, the court left open the question of whether a pre-hire agreement that provides for no avenue of repudiation upon the contract's expiration date and rather a duty to negotiate or accept arbitrated terms, is an inappropriate waiver of the rights statutory policy sought to provide in bargaining relationships.
Recommended Citation
Thomas Riske,
Interest Arbitration Clauses in Sec. 8(F) Pre-Hire Agreements: Effective for Achieving Genuine Collective Bargaining or Enabling Parties to Underhandedly Gain Majority Bargaining Power,
2008 J. Disp. Resol.
(2008)
Available at: https://scholarship.law.missouri.edu/jdr/vol2008/iss1/16