Goolsby v. City of Detroit

In this case, we are asked to

determine whether a union’s unexplained failure to process a member’s grievance constitutes a breach of the union’s duty of fair representation.1

*656I

Plaintiffs belonged to a group of sanitation laborers, known as white wingers, within the Environmental Protection and Maintenance Department (EPMD) of defendant City of Detroit. They wore white uniforms, and their duties consisted of picking up refuse from city streets with a hand shovel and a broom and placing it in white wheeled barrels which they pushed. Plaintiffs were represented exclusively by defendant labor…