Judge Carol Amon
United Cerebral Palsy of New York City (UCP) is a school for children afflicted by cerebral palsy. During the last few months of her employment at UCP, one of teacher’s assistant Shied’s duties was to care for a particular boy. Shied’s hybrid Labor Management Relations Act §301/duty of fair representation action against UCP and labor union United Federation of Teachers (UFT) arose from her March 2010 termination based on allegations that she had slapped and force fed the boy. In September 2010more than five months after grieving her termination, UFT informed Shied that it would not pursue arbitration. On appeal, Shied was told her grievance lacked merit. Deeming the two “inextricably interdependent” prongs of the test in Sanozky v. Int’l Ass’n of Machinists and Aerospace Workers met, the court denied dismissal of Shied’s lawsuit for failure to state a claim. Neither UCP nor UFT argued that Shied did not allege breach of their collective bargaining agreement. On the second prong, the court ruled that Shied’s allegations showed UFT aware of the facts underlying her grievance. Most importantly. The allegations in Shied’s complaint sufficiently supported an inference that UFT’s processing of her grievance was, at best, perfunctory.
