Disputed UTU merger ordered implemented

An arbitrator has ruled that a merger of the United Transportation Union and the Sheet Metal Workers International Association (SMWIA)—now viewed by many as a takeover of the UTU—be implemented at the “earliest possible date.” In a decision announced Tuesday, Arbitrator Michael H. Gottesman ordered the current leadership of the two unions to meet within two weeks to decide how the implementation is to take place.

The merger was negotiated by previous UTU leadership and approved in a membership vote in August 2007. It has been delayed by up protracted legal actions rising from alleged procedural errors.

The arbitrator ruled that the agreement to create the Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation (SMART) Workers Union is an enforceable agreement. Gottesman was named by AFL-CIO President Rich Trumka to decide the question after binding arbitration was ordered by Federal District Court Judge John Bates.

This is not necessarily the last word in the dispute.

Gottesman noted that still pending before Judge Bates is a complaint bysome UTU members that Titles I and V or the Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (LMRDA) were violated. When Judge Bates ordered binding arbitration to determine if the UTU-SMWIA merger agreement is enforceable, he said the LMRDA claims were beyond the purview of the arbitrator and that would decide those claims following the outcome of the arbitration.

Just a month ago, on Aug. 12, the UTU reported that nearly 500 delegates to the UTU’s Quadrennial convention voted unanimously in favor of a resolution opposing the merger. The resolution said in part: “We have faith that the attempted SMWIA takeover of the UTU, which could not be in the best interests of either union, will never occur, and that such combination would indeed be destructive of the UTU and harmful to the labor movement itself.”