United Steelworkers v. Cherokee Electric Cooperative

Background

A union and an employer disagreed about whether a grievance could go to arbitration after it was filed more than five working days after the event that led to the complaint. Their collective‑bargaining agreement said any grievance not reported within five working days of first knowledge would be deemed waived. The employer refused to arbitrate because the union missed that deadline. The union sued in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama; that court granted summary judgment to the employer because the timeliness facts were undisputed. The Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit affirmed.

Reasoning

The core question presented was whether labor and management can be forced to arbitrate a grievance that obviously missed the contract’s time limit. The district court thought courts should decide timeliness when the facts are not in dispute, saying sending such questions to an arbitrator would waste resources and any contrary arbitrator decision would be plainly unreasonable. Other federal appeals courts have reached a different result, reading earlier Supreme Court guidance to mean arbitrators should decide procedural objections like timeliness when the grievance’s subject matter is covered. The Supreme Court declined to review the Eleventh Circuit’s decision.

Real world impact

Because the Court refused review, the lower-court outcome stands: employers can avoid arbitration for undisputedly late grievances under similar facts, and unions may have to litigate such claims in court instead of sending them to arbitrators. The Circuit split noted by Justice White remains unresolved nationally.

Dissents or concurrances

Justice White dissented from the denial of review and would have granted review to resolve conflicts among Courts of Appeals about who should decide timeliness.