Cruise Ship Law

LARRY SKOWRONEK, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. AMERICAN STEAMSHIP COMPANY, Defendant-Appellant.
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT
07a0417p.06; 2007 U.S. App. LEXIS 23926; 2007 FED App. 0417P (6th Cir.)
October 12, 2007, Decided

PROCEDURAL POSTURE: Plaintiff employee sued defendant employer in which he challenged the maintenance rate for ill crew members alleging that a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) discriminated against ill crew members in comparison to injured crew members with regard to the payment of maintenance. The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan granted summary judgment in favor of the employee. The employer appealed.

OVERVIEW: The employee worked as a wheelsman aboard the employer's ship. While at sea, the employee suffered a heart attack. Under the terms of the CBA, he was paid $ 56.00 per week for maintenance. Under the CBA, an injured crew member received $ 300 per week for maintenance. The employee sought $ 300 per week in maintenance. The appellate court found that maintenance rates, like any other benefit that was the ultimate result from give and take collective bargaining between parties, should be binding on them. Therefore, the $ 8.00 per day rate fixed by the CBA was enforceable. The employee did not allege that the agreement was not legitimately negotiated, that the CBA was unfair as a whole, or that he was not adequately represented by the union. When a benefits package included an express reference to a precise rate of maintenance, the adequacy of this rate, considered in isolation, was not a subject for judicial speculation when the rate was part of a total package of wages and benefits that resulted from the process of collective bargaining.

OUTCOME: The judgment was reversed and the case was remanded for further proceedings consistent with the opinion.