Rhode Island Council on Postsecondary Education and University of Rhode Island v. American Association of University Professors, Part-Time Faculty United, a/k/a URI/AAUP, PTFU

Citations

• 176 A.3d 1101

Syllabus

Kenneth Jolicoeur, a part-time faculty member at the University of Rhode Island (URI) and a member of the American Association of University Professors, Part-Time Faculty United union (the union), was assigned two courses and a \Special Programs Contract\ for the fall 2013 semester. URI then informed Jolicoeur that he could not perform all three assignments. Jolicoeur opted to teach the two classes and filed a grievance with URI protesting the limitation on assignments, but a resolution could not be reached through the grievance process. The union then filed a demand for arbitration on Jolicoeur's behalf. The arbitrator deemed the dispute arbitrable, found that URI's limitation on Jolicoeur's assignments violated the parties' collective bargaining agreement (CBA), and ordered URI to pay Jolicoeur $6,500 in salary for the rescinded \Special Programs Contract\ and to cease and desist from unilaterally imposing a two-course limit. URI moved in the Superior Court to vacate the arbitration award and to stay the implementation of the award, to which the union objected and moved to confirm the award. The hearing justice denied URI's motion to vacate the arbitration award and granted the union's motion to confirm the award. On appeal to the Supreme Court, URI challenged the hearing justice's decision on three grounds: (1) the dispute was not substantively arbitrable (2) URI's imposition of a limitation did not violate the CBA and (3) the arbitrator exceeded his authority by issuing a cease-and-desist order. The Supreme Court held that: (1) the dispute was arbitrable because its resolution required interpretation of the CBA (2) the arbitrator's conclusion that URI violated the CBA was based on a passably plausible interpretation of the CBA and (3) the arbitrator exceeded his authority by imposing the cease-and-desist order. Accordingly, the Supreme Court vacated the cease-and-desist order and affirmed the judgment of the Superior Court in all other respects. Justice Indeglia