Page 75 - RICHERT VS. SORKIN THEFT OF THE AMERICAN PRESIDENT AND THE WEST WING

The answer, of course, is that $ 301 has the sdrn e prcemptive effect with respect to claims against unions- The Suprcme Courl so held in Int'l Brotherhood ofElectrical ll/orkers v. Hechler,481U.S.851 (1987), also ciled in our moving papers, where the Court ruled that state law could not bc used to prosecute a union's alleged breach ofa duty assumed under a collective bargaining agreement. The only response to Hechler plaintills can muster is to note that il involved a union's duty to make safety inspections, not to determine screen credits. Butitisthe sorrce not the nature oithe duty that drives the preemption analysis. Where the origin ol lhe union's duty is the collective bargaining agreemelt, its enforcement is a matter offederal law under $ 301. Hechler, 481 U.S. at 862|' see also United Steelworkers v. Rawso', 495 U.S. 362, 369 (1990) (state negligence claim against union preempted where "duty relicd on by [plaintiff]
was one without existence independent of the collective-bargaining agreement,').
By acknowledging that the allegations of the Amended Complaint may serve as the basis
for a DFR claim, plaintiffs have put themselves in a box from which there is no way out. The
fraud and conspiracy counts are preemptod.
II. PI-A,INTIFFS SHOULD BE DENIED ITAVE TO ASSERT A DFR CL.A.IM. WH]CH IS BARRED BY THE STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS.
A. I-eave Should Not Be Gtanted to File a Futile Amendment.
As noted above, plainliffs have now concluded that their complaint "should be amended,, to allege a federal claim against the WGA defendants for breach of rhe DFR [Opp. ar 16]. The Courl should deny tlre reque:t lor lea\e.
Initially, we note that the plaintiffs have already had one opportunity to amend their complaint. They voluntarily filed the Amended Complaint in rcsponse to pre-motion letters from each group of defendants, enumenting the dcticiencies of their original complaiDt. The lelter submitted by the WGA defendants laid out th€ g 301 preemption argument, then argued