## Facts

- Uniroyal, Inc. operated a plant with a bargaining unit of about 600 employees represented by a labor union.
- About 25 bargaining-unit employees worked in the maintenance department.
- Uniroyal and the union were parties to a collective-bargaining agreement (CBA) that included a grievance-and-arbitration procedure.
- Uniroyal decided to subcontract plant-area janitorial work to an outside contractor.
- Uniroyal projected that subcontracting the janitorial work would save the company more than $11,000 per year.
- The subcontracting decision resulted in the layoff of three bargaining-unit maintenance employees who had been performing the janitorial work.
- The union filed a grievance challenging the subcontracting and the resulting layoffs.
- The parties proceeded to arbitration to resolve whether Uniroyal could subcontract bargaining-unit work when the CBA contained no express prohibition on subcontracting.

## Issues

1. Whether, in the absence of an express contractual prohibition, the CBA permitted Uniroyal to subcontract bargaining-unit janitorial work where the subcontracting caused layoffs of bargaining-unit employees.

## Decision

- The dispute was submitted to labor arbitration and is reported at 76 Lab. Arb. (BNA) 1049 (1981).
- Based on publicly available information, the arbitration addressed whether subcontracting was allowed under a CBA that did not expressly bar it.
- Publicly available sources do not disclose the arbitrator’s final disposition (whether the grievance was sustained or denied) or any remedy ordered.

## Legal Principles

- Subcontracting disputes in labor arbitration commonly turn on whether the CBA limits management’s ability to assign work outside the bargaining unit, either expressly or by necessary implication from the agreement read as a whole.
- When a CBA is silent on subcontracting, arbitrators often examine related provisions (such as recognition/coverage clauses, seniority and layoff/recall language, and any job-security commitments) to determine whether the parties restricted contracting out that displaces unit employees.
- Evidence of bargaining history and past practice may be considered to determine whether the parties treated subcontracting as a reserved management function or as restricted unit work.
- Cost savings and operational reasons may be relevant to the employer’s justification, but they do not substitute for contractual authority if the agreement is found to protect bargaining-unit work from displacement.

## Conclusion

Uniroyal, Inc., 76 Lab. Arb. (BNA) 1049 (1981), concerns a common labor-arbitration question: whether an employer may subcontract bargaining-unit janitorial work—saving more than $11,000 annually—when the CBA does not expressly forbid subcontracting, even though the decision led to the layoff of three bargaining-unit maintenance employees; while the published citation and available summary confirm the dispute and its framing, the detailed outcome and remedy are not available from public sources.
