Aircraft Service International Inc. v. International Brotherhood of Teamsters AFL CIO Local 117

Facts and Procedural History

Air Craft Service International, Inc., doing business as Air Craft Service International Group (“ASIG”), provides air craft services at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (“Sea- Tac”). As part of such services, ASIG refuels approximately 75 percent of the airplanes at Sea-Tac.

On September 14, 2012, ASIG indefinitely suspended one of its employees, Alex Popescu. The parties dispute the reasons for his suspension. ASIG alleges it suspended Popescu for “inappropriate behavior, including screaming obscenities at his supervisor.” Popescu and other ASIG employees counter that he was suspended “in retaliation for his leadership on workplace safety issues, including testifying at a public hearing for the Seattle Port Commission.” The Seattle Port Commission hearing was held two days prior to his suspension and was Popescu’s second appearance before the Commission.

After Popescu’s suspension, other ASIG employees at Sea-Tac (“Employees”) decided to organize “a group

ASI V. IBT 5

response” to advocate for Popescu’s reinstatement. In organizing this response, Jonathan Rosenblum of Working Washington1 became heavily involved…

Opinion by Judge N.R. SMITH; Dissent by Judge MILAN D. SMITH, Jr.

*1112 OPINION

To avoid interruptions to interstate commerce, the Railway Labor Act treats labor relations in the national transportation industry differently from more generally applicable labor law. Section 152 First of the Railway Labor Act, 45 U.S.C. § 152 First (“section 2 First”), imposes a duty on all carrier employees to engage in the Act’s labor dispute resolution procedures before ceasing to perform their work. Because the employees of Aircraft Service International are carrier employees, they must comply with the Act. Because they are subject to this obligation, the district court did not abuse its discretion in issuing the strike injunction. The injunction did not violate the employees’ or other defendants’ First Amendment rights; it furthered the important governmental interest of regulating the economic relationship between labor and management and was no greater than essential to the furtherance of that interest.

Facts and Procedural History

Air Craft Service International, Inc., doing business as Air Craft Service International Group (“ASIG”), provides air craft services at Seattle-Tacoma…

dissenting:

I respectfully dissent. 1 The majority concludes that Section 2, First of the Railway Labor Act (RLA), 2 45 U.S.C. § 152 , First (Section 2, First), imposes an unprecedented, amorphous duty to refrain from striking on the Airline Services International fuellers (Fuellers), while imposing no duty to negotiate on Airline Services International (ASIG) before it sought the injunction at issue in this case, despite the clear language of Section 8 of the Norris LaGuardia Act (NLGA), 29 U.S.C. § 108 . The injunction upheld by the majority portends the reinsertion of federal courts into the “labor injunction business,” Marine Cooks & Stewards, AFL v. Pan. S.S. Co., 362 U.S. 365, 369, 80 S.Ct. 779 , 4 L.Ed.2d 797 (1960), in violation of the language of the NLGA stripping federal courts of the authority to issue injunctions related to labor disputes in most instances.

I. History

A. History of the NLGA

As the Supreme Court has observed, “[t]he Railway Labor Act cannot be appreciated apart from the environment out of *1124 which it came and the purposes which it was designed to serve.” Burlington N. R.R. Co. v. Bhd. of Maint. of Way Emps., 481 U.S. 429, 444 , 107 S.Ct. 1841 ,…