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6th Circuit award review standards under fire
January 29, 2006 by Ross Runkel at LawMemo

A 6th Circuit panel has practically begged the rest of the court to grant a rehearing en banc to review the 6th Circuit's test for vacating arbitrators' awards. Michigan Family Resources v. SEIU (6th Cir 01/27/2006).

First the court decided that an arbitrator's decision did not "draw its essence from the collective bargaining agreement." The flaw, according to the court, was that the arbitrator took a contract that was perfectly clear, decided it was actually ambiguous, and then used the parties' custom of granting wage increases as a source for construing the agreement. The court said this imposed an additional requirement not expressly provided for in the agreement.

What really happened is that the court believed that the arbitrator's legal analysis was wrong. Maybe it was, but that is not a valid ground for vacating an award (except in the 6th Circuit).

As one of the judges pointed out, the 6th Circuit's test for vacating a labor arbitration award is not as deferential as the US Supreme Court has indicated it must be.

Appended to the opinions is an appendix of published and unpublished opinions that have either upheld or vacated awards. It's quite a list. 27 percent have been vacated.

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