Thunderburk v. United Food & Commercial Workers' Union

NATTIE THUNDERBURK, Plaintiff and Appellant, v. UNITED FOOD & COMMERCIAL WORKERS' UNION, LOCAL 324, Defendant and Respondent.

(Superior Court of Orange County, No. 797728, Eileen C. Moore, Judge.)


Plaintiff Nattie Thunderburk appeals summary judgment entered against her and in favor of defendant United Food & Commercial Workers Union, Local 324 (Local 324). Plaintiff was formerly employed by Local 324 as a secretary. After Local 324 terminated her employment, she sued Local 324 for wrongful termination. Local 324 filed a motion for summary judgment, which the trial court granted on the ground plaintiff's contract-based wrongful termination claims were preempted by the federal Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959 fn. 1 (LMRDA).

The trial court also denied plaintiff's motion to amend her complaint to add a cause of action alleging wrongful termination in violation of public policy. The court determined that the proposed cause of action was also preempted by the LMRDA.

Plaintiff contends her contract-based wrongful termination causes of action are not preempted by the LMRDA because she was not a policymaking or confidential employee. She further contends her proposed tortious wrongful termination claim was not subject to preemption because it was not a "contract claim in other garb" but, rather, was based on a completely different theory based on violations of her First Amendment rights.

The United States Supreme Court in Finnegan v. Leu fn. 12 also indicated the union had an unlimited right to terminate confidential employees. In Finnegan the court held that under the LMRDA union officials had unlimited rights to terminate management and policymaking employees, such as union business agents, and added in a footnote that the court left open "the question whether a different result might obtain in a case involving nonpolicymaking and nonconfidential employees." fn. 13 It could thus be inferred from such language that, as with policymaking employees, confidential employees are also subject to termination without limitation by elected union officials because they also potentially can thwart implementation of the union's policies and objectives.