Summary judgment reversed in employee’s suit against union for breach of its duty of fair representation. The union treated Rollins like all other workers in the unit in opposing the employer’s reduction in force in general, but failed to pursue Rollins’ special rights under a seniority agreement made when she was promoted that in case of a reduction in force, she could return to her prior job with increased seniority and bump a worker with lower seniority out of the remaining few jobs. Triable issues of fact remained as to whether the union’s stated reasons for not pursuing Rollins’ claim were reasonable.
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals (Fletcher, W.; Lemelle, J., concurring); October 26, 2016; 2016 WL 6246876