Federal 7th Circuit Court
Civil Court
Collective Bargaining
Plaintiff filed a declaratory judgment action in a matter arising out of a dispute regarding employee benefits, seeking a declaration as to whether the matter was arbitrable under the parties’ collective bargaining agreement. The district court concluded that the monthly benefit at issue was governed by terms outside of the bargaining agreement and that the parties’ bargaining history showed that they did not intend the benefit to be arbitrable. The Seventh Circuit, however, under a de novo review reached the opposite conclusion by finding that the plaintiff failed to present the “most forceful evidence” regarding exclusion of the benefits and reversed. (LEE and KOLAR, concurring)