Local Division 519, Amalgamated Transit Union, Afl-Cio v. Lacrosse Municipal Transit Utility and City of Lacrosse, Wisconsin

SWYGERT, Circuit Judge.

Defendants-appellants appeal from an order granting a preliminary injunction enforcing a binding arbitration clause in a collective bargaining agreement made pursuant to the provisions of 49 U.S.C. §§ 1601 et seq. The questions on appeal are: (1) whether the district court had jurisdiction over this action; (2) whether, if federal jurisdiction exists, the district court should have abstained from exercising it; and (3) whether the district court improvidently issued the preliminary injunction.

From the turn of the century until 1974 intracity transit facilities in the…