In Wheeling Power Co v. Local 492 Utility Workers Union (4th Cir., No. 23-1157, 07/25/2025), Wheeling Power Company operated a power plant (the “Mitchell Plant”) whose employees were members of Local 492. A collective bargaining agreement recognized Local 492 as the exclusive bargaining representative for all employees of the Mitchell Plant.”Wheeling Power’s predecessor-in-interest operated the Mitchell Plant when a fire broke out at an affiliated power plant, taking that plant offline temporarily. The closure coincided with a staffing shortage at the Mitchell Plant, so the predecessor entity briefly assigned employees from the offline plant to work at the Mitchell Plant. These temporarily assigned employees were not subject to Local 492’s collective bargaining agreement. The Union filed a grievance with Wheeling Power’s predecessor. The arbitrator found that assigning Mitchell Plant work to non–Local 492 employees violated the agreement, but the arbitrator directed the Mitchell Plant’s owner (by this point, Wheeling Power) and the union to fashion a remedy on their own, with the arbitrator retaining jurisdiction if the parties “reached [an] impasse over the remedy issue.” Rather than comply with that instruction, Wheeling Power sued to vacate and the district court upheld the award.
Under the “complete arbitration rule”, the Fourth Circuit held that [w]hen a labor arbitrator first decides liability questions and reserves jurisdiction to decide remedial questions at a later time,” the award is not final, and the district court must dismiss the case. The court held the complete arbitration rule applied here and that Wheeling Power’s lawsuit was premature. The court vacated the district court’s judgment and remanded with instructions to dismiss the case without prejudice.