LAWI/CSA Consolidators, Inc. v. Wholesale & Retail Food Distribution, Teamsters Local 63

Local 63 of the Teamsters Union appeals the district court’s judgment permanently enjoining it from arbitrating a grievance pursuant to a collective bargaining agreement with appellee LAWI/CSA Consolidators, Inc. (“Consolidators”). The principal questions we consider are whether the court or the arbitrator should decide whether the duty to arbitrate a grievance had terminated, and, if the district court properly assumed responsibility for deciding the arbitrability issue, whether it erred in finding that the duty to arbitrate had lapsed.

I

For nearly thirty years, Local 63 and Consolidators were parties to a collective bargaining agreement covering the terms and conditions of employment of dock workers employed by Consolidators at its trucking terminal in Vernon, California. Their final agreement, the one at issue here, was composed of the 1982-85 Teamsters National Master Freight Agreement and the 1982-85 Western States Area Pickup and Delivery Local Cartage and Dock Workers Supplemental Agreement, with certain modifications. The agreement provided that it would remain in effect through March 1985 unless either party served written notice of its desire to terminate the…