Local Union No. 637, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Afl-Cio v. Davis H. Elliot Company, Incorporated

OPINION

NIEMEYER, Circuit Judge:

The deceptively simple question presented on this appeal is whether the court or the arbitrator should decide the question of whether a collective bargaining agreement entitles the union to invoke an interest arbitration clause. The district court held that the issue is one of arbitrability for judicial determination, and we affirm that conclusion.

I

Davis H. Elliot Co., Inc., an electrical contracting firm in Roanoke, Virginia, has been for years a member of the National Electrical Contractors Association (“the National Association”), a trade association that…