GRAND LODGE OF INTERNATIONAL ASS'N OF MACHINISTS v. KING

Certiorari Denied November 23, 1964. See 85 S.Ct. 274.

BROWNING, Circuit Judge.

Plaintiffs brought suit alleging they were summarily discharged as officers of defendant union because they supported an unsuccessful candidate in a union election. They sought reinstatement and damages. The district court denied defendants' motion to dismiss,1 and this interlocutory appeal under 28 U.S.C.A. § 1292 followed.

I

The district court concluded that plaintiffs' allegation of summary dismissal stated a claim under section 101(a) (5) of the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959 (73 Stat. 522, 29 U.S.C.A. § 411(a) (5)), which provides: "No member of any labor organization may be fined, suspended, expelled, or otherwise disciplined * * * unless such member has been (A) served with written specific charges; (B) given a reasonable time to prepare his defense; (C) afforded a full and fair hearing."

We are satisfied, however, that Congress did not intend section 101(a) (5) to preclude summary removal of a member from union office. While the Act was being considered by Congress, objection was raised to section 101(a) (5) on the ground that it would permit wrongdoing union officials to remain in control while the time-consuming "due process" requirements of the section were met.2 As an alternative it was proposed that the union's power of summary discipline be retained, and that notice and hearing be required after, rather than before, disciplinary action.3 This solution was rejected; instead, the objection to section 101(a) (5) was met by including limiting language in the legislative history. The Conference Report on the Act stated that section 101(a) (5) "applies only to suspension of membership in the union; it does not refer to suspension of a member's status as an officer in the union."4 Senator Kennedy, as a Senate conferee, advised the Senate that "this provision does not relate to suspension or removal from a union office. Often this step must be taken summarily to prevent dissipation or misappropriation of funds."5

In deference to the "patent legislative intent"6 it has been held with virtual unanimity7 that section 101(a) (5) does not apply to removal or suspension from union office.8 We think these decisions are correct. Furthermore, we think it makes no difference what the reason for the summary removal may have been. Congress's primary concern was that section 101 (a) (5) should not bar summary removal of union officials suspected of malfeasance, but the means Congress chose to accomplish its purpose was to wholly exclude suspension or removal from union office from the category of union action to which section 101(a) (5) applied.

II

Plaintiffs also sought to state a claim under sections 101(a) (1), 101(a) (2), and 609 of the Act. We think they have succeeded, and are therefore authorized by section 102 of the Act to bring a civil action in the district court for appropriate relief.

Plaintiffs allege they were discharged because they actively supported a particular candidate for union office by meeting with other members and expressing views favorable to that candidate. Defendants concede that the right to engage in such intra-union political activity is guaranteed to members by sections 101 (a) (1)9 and 101(a) (2)10 of the Act, but argue that these and other rights protected by Title I of the Act do not extend to members who are also officers of the union. However, sections 101(a) (1) and (2) apply in terms to "every member," and nothing in the statutory language excludes members who are officers.11 Nor is there any intimation in the legislative history that Congress intended these guarantees of equal political rights and freedom of speech and assembly to be inapplicable to officer-members.12 Indeed, the general purpose of the Act points to the contrary. The guarantees of sections 101(a) (1) and (2) were adopted to strengthen internal union democracy.13 To exclude officer-members from their coverage would deny protection to those best equipped to keep union government vigorously and effectively democratic. We therefore conclude that sections 101(a) (1) and (2) apply to officer-members such as plaintiffs.14

Section 102 (73 Stat. 523, 29 U.S. C.A. § 412) provides that "[a]ny person whose rights secured by the provisions of this title have been infringed by any violation of this title may bring a civil action in a district court of the United States for such relief (including injunctions) as may be appropriate." We think it follows that plaintiffs' complaint for reinstatement and damages was sufficient to withstand dismissal for failure to state a claim upon which relief could be granted.15

In any event, section 609 (73 Stat. 541, 29 U.S.C.A. § 529) "makes doubly secure the protection of the members in the exercise of their rights"16 by making it unlawful for a union "to fine, suspend, expel, or otherwise discipline any of its members for exercising any right to which he is entitled under the provisions of this Act," and by providing explicitly that an action may be brought under section 102 to enforce the specific prohibitions of section 609.17

Defendants argue that the words "otherwise discipline" in section 609 must be read as not including removal from union office, since the same words have that restricted meaning in section 101(a) (5). The argument is a plausible one, for it is natural to suppose that within a single statute the same words will be used with the same meaning.18 But it is also common experience that identical words may be used in the same statute, or even in the same section of a statute, with quite different meanings. And when they are, it is the duty of the courts to give the words "the meaning which the Legislature intended [they] should have in each instance." Atlantic Cleaners & Dyers, Inc. v. United States, 286 U.S. 427, 433, 52 S.Ct. 607, 609, 76 L.Ed. 1204 (1932).19

Sections 101(a) (5) and 609 have wholly different purposes, and the difference is such as to satisfy us that although Congress did not intend the words "otherwise discipline" to include removal from union office in section 101(a) (5), it did intend the words to include such action in section 609.20

Section 101(a) (5) guarantees to union members, as one of several independent rights conferred upon them by Title I of the Act, that they shall be accorded procedural due process before being subjected to disciplinary action, for whatever reason. Section 609, on the other hand, has no bearing upon the procedures to be followed in disciplining union members. Section 609 appears in Title VI of the Act, a collection of sections having to do with miscellaneous administrative and enforcement matters; section 609 itself is not a source of additional independent rights, but is an enforcement provision, designed, as we have noted, to effectuate rights conferred in other sections of the Act by making it unlawful to punish members who seek to exercise such rights. Punishment for the exercise of these rights is prohibited by section 609 whether inflicted summarily or after a full panoply of procedural protections.

Congress, through the legislative history materials, imposed a limiting gloss upon the words "otherwise discipline" in section 101(a) (5) to preserve union power to summarily remove officer-members suspected of wrongdoing in order to protect unions from continuing depredations while charges are being investigated and resolved. This object is fully accomplished by reading the words "otherwise discipline" in section 101(a) (5) as not including removal from union office. It would not further this purpose in any way to impose the same restriction upon the same words in section 609, since that section has nothing to do with whether or not discipline is summary. There is nothing in the legislative history to indicate that Congress wished to preserve an unrestricted power in the union to discipline officer-members (the subject matter of section 609, when discipline is imposed because of the exercise of rights under the Act), as distinguished from the power to discipline summarily (the subject matter of section 101(a) (5)). Thus, to construe section 609 to exclude from its coverage dismissal from union office would immunize a most effective weapon of reprisal against officer-members for exercising political rights guaranteed by the Act without serving any apparent legislative purpose; and, as we have noted, the members thus exposed to reprisal would be those whose uninhibited exercise of freedom of speech and assembly is most important to effective democracy in union government.21

Plaintiffs are appointed officials, and defendants argue that "elected officials of any private or political organization at any level have both the responsibility and the power of their positions, and * * * the burden of the responsibility carries with it the right to appoint subordinate officials to aid in the discharge of that responsibility who are in full and complete accord with the views of the elected officer."22 Plaintiffs allege they were discharged because they exercised section 101(a) (1) and (2) rights; if defendants dispute this allegation they raise an issue of fact to be resolved at trial. We assume, however, that defendants mean to argue that successful candidates for union office must have the right to discharge appointed union officials who expressed support for their opponents. Realistically, this is simply to argue that members appointed to union office may not actively engage in union political activities while occupying such positions.

Undoubtedly a substantial argument can be made that active, partisan participation by jobholders in intra-organizational politics is a threat to good administration. Congress, in adopting the Hatch Act, endorsed this view with respect to most federal employees.23 Based upon this precedent, it has been suggested "that the internal political activities of full time union member employees may be regulated to prevent their use for either side in election contests * *."24

It may well be that the "reasonable rules and regulations" exception of section 101(a) (1)25 and the similar proviso of section 101(a) (2)26 would permit a union to adopt the principle of "required political neutrality * * * as a sound element for efficiency,"27 and formulate, and apply without discrimination, regulations imposing reasonable limitations upon the political activity of union job-holders. However, the defendant union has made no effort to implement such a program, and arguments in favor of doing so cannot support defendants' contention that they should be free to discharge particular union employees because they are not their political partisans.

Finally, defendants contend that to extend section 609 to dismissal from union employment would create a potential conflict of jurisdiction between the courts and the National Labor Relations Board since plaintiffs allege conduct which might constitute an unfair labor practice by the union-employer under section 8(a) of the National Labor Relations Act (29 U.S.C.A. § 158(a)).28 Congress was aware that the rights conferred by the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959 overlapped those available under state law and other federal legislation, and expressly provided that these rights were to be cumulative.29

The Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has held section 609 applicable to the discharge of a union officer for exercise of section 101(a) (2) rights.30 There are no decisions to the contrary.31 We are satisfied that this is the proper construction of the statute.32

III

Defendants ask us to review the refusal of the district court to grant partial summary judgment with respect to a portion of defendants' claim for money damage.33 The interlocutory order denying such relief is not properly before us.

Affirmed.