United States Fifth Circuit

In an action seeking a declaratory judgment that certain disputes between an airline pilot union and plaintiff-airline were not arbitrable under the parties' collective bargaining agreement (CBA), summary judgment for defendants is affirmed in part where, because the CBA did not expressly or implicitly exclude the question of whether the airline gave a pilot sufficient time to prepare for a test from the grievance and arbitration mechanism, and this question called for an interpretation and application of the CBA, the pilot and the union could seek redress through the Railway Labor Act's (RLA) arbitral mechanism to resolve this dispute. However, the judgment is reversed in part where the grievance concerning the pilot's discharge was not a dispute growing out of the interpretation or application of the CBA and, therefore, was not a grievance or dispute subject to the RLA's arbitral mechanism.

Appellate Information

• Decided 07/13/2010
• Published 07/14/2010

Judges

• James L. Dennis

Court

• United States Fifth Circuit

Counsel