Columbia Power Trades Council v. United States Department of Energy, Bonneville Power Administration (Bpa), and Sterling Munro, as Bpa Administrator

Appellant, Columbia Power Trades Council (“the Union”), brought an action for declaratory and injunctive relief in the Western District of Washington against the Bonneville Power Administration (“the BPA”), its Administrator, Sterling Munro (“Munro”), and its parent agency, the Department of Energy (“USDE”). In essence, appellant sought the issuance of a writ of mandamus directing Munro to implement an arbitrator’s award of an 8.53% wage increase to BPA hourly employees. Upon cross-motions for summary judgment, the trial court entered judgment for the defendants and dismissed the complaint. This appeal followed.

Because subject matter jurisdiction may be raised at any time, after the case was under submission wé granted leave to the Civil Division of the Department of Justice to file a supplementary brief raising for the first time the issue of subject matter jurisdiction. We now hold that this court and the district court were without jurisdiction to hear this case.

I

The appellees would have us consider the question of whether Congress intended the Federal Labor Relations Authority (“the Authority”), created under Title VII of the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978, 5 U.S.C. §…