This is an appeal from an order determining the issues in an arbitration pending between the parties.

Alleging an illegal strike or work stoppage, Appellee Employer instituted suit against Appellant Union for breach of contract and damages, pursuant to Section 301 of the Labor Management Relations Act, 29 U.S.C. § 185 . The district court granted appellant’s motion for a stay pending exhaustion of grievance and arbitration procedures required by Article VII of the collective bargaining agreement between the parties.

Appellee Company thereupon filed a grievance pursuant to Article VII, reciting that it recognized that the grievance might reach the Joint Council No. 7 Labor-Management Committee and result in a deadlock, and that should that situation arise, it requested appropriate action by “that committee to submit this grievance to an impartial arbitrator for hearing and the determination of damages” suffered by appellee.

Appellee Company’s grievance came on for hearing before the Joint Council 7 Labor-Management Committee. The Committee formulated the grievance before it in the following motion for resolution:

The Committee deadlocked on that motion.

The Committee, pursuant to Article VII, referred the case to an impartial arbitrator for final and binding decision. At the hearing before the arbitrator, Appellant Union contended that the sole issue before the arbitrator was the alleged illegality of the strike. Appellee Employer contended that the issue of damages was also before the arbitrator.

The arbitrator agreed with appellee. After quoting the deadlocked motion, he said:

Appellant Union thereupon refused to continue with the arbitration. Appellee applied to the district court for an order compelling arbitration, or, in the alternative, for vacation of the court’s stay order. On September 16, 1963, the district court issued its order compelling arbitration on the following issues:

Appellant has appealed from this order. Appellee moved to dismiss the appeal on the ground that the order was neither a final order appealable under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 nor an injunctive order ap-pealable under section 1292. The motion to dismiss was denied without prejudice to its renewal at the hearing of the appeal on the merits.

Appellant contends that by reason of its deadlock on the issue of the illegality of the strike, the Labor-Management Committee did not consider the issue of damages, and the arbitrator may not accordingly award damages without a further hearing before the Committee. Ap-pellee contends that since the Committee could have awarded damages without a further hearing had a majority agreed that the strike was illegal, upon referral to arbitration the same power to award damages was conferred upon the arbitrator.

Subsequent to the filing of briefs the case of John Wiley & Sons v. Livingston was decided by the Supreme Court on March 30, 1964, 376 U.S. 543 , 84 S.Ct. 909 , 11 L.Ed.2d 898 . A reference to this decision was incorporated in a supplemental brief filed by appellee. This case was submitted on the briefs, without oral argument.

Wiley v. Livingston was an action by a union, pursuant to § 301 of the Labor Management Relations Act, to compel arbitration under a collective bargaining agreement. Two questions were presented: “(1) whether a corporate employer must arbitrate with a union under a bargaining agreement between the union and another corporation which has merged with the employer, and, if so, (2) whether the courts or the arbitrator is the appropriate body to decide whether procedural prerequisites which, under the bargaining agreement, condition the duty to arbitrate have been met.”

The first question was answered in the affirmative. With respect to the second question, it was contended that the grievance was not procedurally ripe for arbitration, since arbitration was the third step in the contractual grievance scheme, and the first two steps had not been followed. In holding that the question of “procedural arbitrability” was one to be decided by the arbitrator, the Court said in part:

Here both the arbitrator and the district court concluded that contractual procedures do not require that the issue of damages be referred back to the Labor-Management Committee in the event the arbitrator finds that the strike was illegal, but rather that the issue of damages, as well as the issue of the illegality of the strike, should now be determined by the arbitrator. In our opinion they reached the right conclusion under the provisions of the collective bargaining agreement and the reference to the arbitrator of the motion on which the Labor-Management Committee deadlocked. While Wiley v. Livingston did not involve the precise question here presented, the same reasoning applies and the language of the court is persuasive, if not controlling.

The order of the district court is affirmed.

. Section 1 of Article VH provides that any “grievance or controversy affecting the mutual relations of the Employer and the Union shall first be taken up between the Local Union and the individual Employer involved”. If the matter is not resolved, the case is referred to the Joint Council 7 Labor-Management Committee. Section 2 creates Joint Council 7 Labor-Management Committee and provides that the Committee may formulate rules of procedure consistent with the agreement. Section 3 provides that cases on which the Committee reaches a deadlock “may be submitted to an impartial arbitrator for a decision only if a majority of the Committee so decides”.