The Sequoias - San Francisco v. Seiu, United Healthcare Worker

MEMORANDUM

The Sequoias, a continuing care retirement community, seeks review of the district court’s affirmance of the arbitrator’s decision. The arbitrator concluded that the request for arbitration by the Service Employees International Union (“Union”), regarding the termination of an employee, was timely under the parties’ collective bargaining agreement (“CBA”). For the reasons that follow, we affirm the judgment of the district court.

A district court’s grant of summary judgment confirming an arbitration award is reviewed de novo. Sheet Metal Workers’ Int’l Ass’n Local Union No. 359 v. Madison Indus., Inc., 84 F.3d 1186, 1190 (9th Cir.1996). Our review of an arbitration award “is both limited and highly deferential.” Id. We must uphold an arbitrator’s award if “it draws its essence from the collective bargaining agreement.” United Steelworkers of Am. v. Enter. Wheel & Car Corp., 363 U.S. 593, 597 , 80 S.Ct. 1358 , 4 L.Ed.2d 1424 (1960). “Arbitration awards are upheld so long as they represent a plausible interpretation of the contract. A reviewing court is bound— under all except the most limited circumstances — to defer to the decision of [the arbitrator], even if ...…