George L. Duggan v. International Association of MacHinists a Voluntary Association,defendant-Appellee

A group of flight engineers, qualified for employment on piston-engine aircraft but for various reasons unable to satisfy jet-flight-engineer requirements, lost their jobs with Northwest Airlines, Inc. They sued their labor union for an alleged breach of its duty to provide fair representation in the acrimonious bargaining which plagued the airline industry for several years after the introduction of' jet aircraft. The district court dismissed the action. We affirm.

The plaintiffs concede that they are unable to allege bad faith or a hostile attitude toward their group in the defendant union’s industry-wide bargaining. The bargaining and a strike settlement resulted in substantial benefits for other members of the machinists’ union, but proved disappointing to the flight engineers. Their displeasure was exacerbated when they learned that flight engineers for two other airlines, represented by another union, had obtained substantial severance-pay awards on similar job losses.

Because the district court thought that the plaintiffs, through their former counsel, had been dilatory in the prosecution of their claim, the court granted a motion to dismiss for want of…