Plaintiff appealed the dismissal of her age/race discrimination complaint. Plaintiff, a Hispanic woman in her forties, had worked for defendant for over a decade. Plaintiff was a member of a union that had a CBA with defendant; the CBA had a provision governing the application process for open positions. Since the CBA took effect, defendant changed its process for open position applications, switching to an online tool to collect applications. When plaintiff applied for two supervisor positions, she faxed her application rather than using the online tool, meaning her name never made it onto the list of candidates. However, plaintiff filed suit, alleging that age and race discrimination were to blame for her failure-to-promote because the selected candidates were white, younger, or both. Defendant successfully dismissed on grounds that the Railway Labor Act required arbitration for interpretation of CBAs.
Where an interpretation of the CBA’s application process would be necessary to determine whether plaintiff had complied with the process requirements, the district court correctly concluded that plaintiff’s case was subject to arbitration.
Judgment is affirmed.
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