A U.S. district court issued a Boys Markets
injunction enjoining a strike by the United Mine Workers against King Coal Company. The union was about to strike over whether a laboratory technician was included in the bargaining unit covered by the labor agreement.
In addition to its injunction, the court ordered the parties to resolve their dispute through binding arbitration as provided in the labor agreement. The arbitrator ruled in favor of the union and found that the laboratory employee was a member of the bargaining unit. Before the arbitrator issued a decision however, King Coal filed a "unit clarification petition" with the NLRB, asking the Board to decide whether the laboratory employee was a member of the unit. The NLRB subsequently held that the laboratory employee should be excluded from the unit.
King Coal asked the court to declare the arbitrator's award unenforceable. The union asked the court either to enforce the arbitrator's award or to dissolve the injunction that barred it from striking.
Should the court enforce the arbitrator's decision? Should the Boys Markets injunction be continued? Decide. [King Coal v. UMW, 110 LRRM 2786 (N.D. Ala.)]