District Council No. 16 of the International Union of Painters & Allied Trades, Glaziers, Architectural Metal & Glass Workers, L

Background

Plaintiff-Appellant is District Council No. 16 of the Inter- national Union of Painters and Allied Trades, Glaziers, Archi- tectural Metal and Glass Workers, Local 1621 (“Local 1621” or the “union”). It is located in Northern California and is sig- natory to a collective bargaining agreement (“CBA”) with contractors in Santa Clara County. The union filed this action in the Northern District of California in 2004 against Defendant-Appellee B&B Glass, Inc., a Texas corporation (“BBTX”). The union seeks to compel BBTX to arbitrate the union’s claim that another corporation, B&B Glass, Incorpo- rated, an Arizona company (“BBAZ”), violated the Texas agreement BBTX signed with Local 1621’s Texas counter- part, Painters and Glaziers Local Union No. 53 (“Local 53”). The California dispute concerned work BBAZ was doing at San Jose State University in Santa Clara County.

BBTX appeared specially to contest the district court’s per- sonal jurisdiction over it, asserting that it was not doing the work in California and therefore was not present in the state. In support of its assertion, BBTX provided declarations that the persons controlling BBTX had no control over BBAZ’s…