ARAMARK FACILITY SERVICES, Plaintiff-counter-defendant-Appellee, v. SERVICE EMPLOYEES INTERNATIONAL UNION, LOCAL 1877, AFL CIO CLC, Defendant-counter-claimant-Appellant., 530 F.3d 817

Summary

The Social Security Administration (SSA) sent letters to the corporation, which employed approximately 170,000 people in the United States, that the social security numbers of some 3,300 of its employees nationwide did not match those in the SSA's database. Forty-eight employees were represented by the union, and those employees were notified to clear up the discrepancy as it pertained to them. Thirty-three employees did not respond, and they were terminated. The union filed a grievance, and the arbitrator concluded that there was no convincing information that any of the terminated workers were undocumented. He found the firings were without just cause, and ruled in favor of the union. The appellate court noted that the case turned on the deference owed to the arbitrator's factual findings, as well as the narrowness of both the public policy exception and the doctrine of constructive knowledge in the immigration context. Though it seemed reasonable to suspect that some of the fired ...