1526 & 1542 Donovan et al. v. UAW Ford Dept.

Once the membership of Local 2000 voted to reject Vice President Bantom’s recommendation that it combine Units 1 and 2 for purposes of conducting its triennial election, there was no Constitutional basis for Bantom’s insistence that it do so. Nevertheless, the Union’s error in insisting that Local 2000 conduct its triennial elections as one unit was adequately addressed by the settlement agreed to in response to appellants’ lawsuit. There cannot be any election conducted in Unit 2 now, because the Unit no longer exists at the Ohio Assembly Plant. The documents that originally established two units at Local Union 2000 clearly defined the units by what they produced rather than their geographical description in the collective bargaining agreement. Unit 2 was not a place within the Ohio Assembly Plant, but a group of employees who had agreed to build a particular product using the team concept. When the product was transferred to another location, the project concluded and Unit 2 disappeared. The transfer of the product built by Unit 2 was permitted by Article VII, §24(b), of the UAW/Ford Agreement. It could not, therefore, be challenged through the grievance procedure as a unilateral act on the part of the Company.