## Facts

- Michael Wills and Robert Thurlwell were craft service workers for Walt Disney Pictures and Television, Inc. (Disney) and senior members of their union.
- Disney staffed its production of *In the Army Now* by hiring craft service workers with less seniority than Wills and Thurlwell.
- Wills and Thurlwell filed seniority-based grievances with the union challenging Disney’s hiring decisions.
- The union decided not to pursue the initial grievances after determining that Wills and Thurlwell were unavailable to work when the disputed positions were filled.
- After the production was underway, Disney hired another less-senior craft service worker for the production when Wills and Thurlwell were available.
- The union pursued renewed grievances over that later hiring and negotiated a settlement under which Wills and Thurlwell each received $400.
- Separately, Thurlwell obtained an authorized leave of absence from Disney to work on a Fox television program.
- Despite the authorization, Disney sent Thurlwell a letter discharging him and severing his seniority.
- Thurlwell asked the union to file a grievance challenging the discharge and loss of seniority, but the union declined.
- Wills and Thurlwell sued, alleging the union breached its duty of fair representation by refusing to pursue certain grievances and by negotiating an unreasonably low settlement.
- The district court granted summary judgment for the union on all claims, and Wills and Thurlwell appealed.

## Issues

1. Whether the union breached its duty of fair representation by declining to pursue the initial seniority hiring grievances based on its conclusion that Wills and Thurlwell were unavailable when the jobs were filled.
2. Whether the union breached its duty of fair representation by pursuing the later hiring grievances but settling them for $400 per employee.
3. Whether the union breached its duty of fair representation by refusing to grieve Thurlwell’s discharge and the resulting severance of his seniority.
4. Whether summary judgment for the union was proper given the evidentiary record on arbitrariness, discrimination, or bad faith.

## Decision

- The Ninth Circuit affirmed the district court’s summary judgment in favor of the union.
- The court held that the record did not support a finding that the union’s handling of the initial hiring grievances was arbitrary, discriminatory, or in bad faith.
- The court held that the $400 settlements did not, without more, show irrational or bad-faith union conduct sufficient to constitute a duty-of-fair-representation breach.
- The court held that the union’s refusal to pursue Thurlwell’s discharge-and-seniority grievance did not amount to a duty-of-fair-representation breach on the evidence presented.
- Because the plaintiffs failed to raise a triable factual dispute on the required elements of a duty-of-fair-representation claim, judgment as a matter of law for the union was appropriate.

## Legal Principles

- A union breaches the duty of fair representation only when its conduct toward a bargaining-unit member is arbitrary, discriminatory, or in bad faith.
- A union has substantial discretion to evaluate grievances, including deciding whether a grievance has sufficient merit to pursue and whether to resolve it short of arbitration.
- A union’s choice not to press a grievance, standing alone, does not establish a breach; the member must show the union acted irrationally, with improper motive, or with hostility or unequal treatment.
- A union may settle grievances for amounts the member views as inadequate without violating the duty of fair representation, unless the settlement decision is shown to be arbitrary, discriminatory, or in bad faith.
- Summary judgment is proper when the nonmoving party cannot produce evidence from which a reasonable factfinder could find the union’s conduct met the arbitrariness/discrimination/bad-faith threshold.

## Conclusion

The Ninth Circuit affirmed summary judgment for the union because Wills and Thurlwell did not present evidence that the union’s decisions to drop the initial hiring grievances, settle the later grievances for $400 each, and refuse to pursue Thurlwell’s discharge-and-seniority grievance were arbitrary, discriminatory, or made in bad faith, as required to prove a breach of the duty of fair representation.


Wills v. Walt Disney Pictures and Television, 183 F.3d 862 (1998)