Martinez v. Collins Building Services

Background

Yoscabel Martinez brought a pro se lawsuit against her former employer, Collins Building Services, Inc. (CBS), under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). She alleged that after a dental injury and infection, CBS failed to provide reasonable accommodations and treated her differently because of her disabilities. She also alleged that CBS terminated her employment after receiving incorrect medical-leave paperwork prepared with help from another person. The First Amended Complaint also made passing references to rights under a collective bargaining agreement and due process, but the court concluded that it did not adequately allege separate claims based on those references.

Martinez was a member of Service Employees International Union, Local 32BJ. CBS and the Union had negotiated a collective bargaining agreement, including the 2020 Contractors Agreement. That agreement prohibited disability discrimination, specifically contemplated ADA claims, and required such claims to proceed through grievance and arbitration procedures as the sole and exclusive remedy. It also stated that the arbitration provisions applied when the Union declined to arbitrate an individual employee’s employment-discrimination claim.

Court’s Analysis

Under the Federal Arbitration Act, the court considered whether the parties agreed to arbitrate and whether the agreement covered Martinez’s claims. The court found that the agreement clearly covered ADA claims. It further held that Martinez was bound by the agreement because she was a Union member. Relying on Supreme Court precedent concerning collective bargaining agreements, the court concluded that a union-negotiated agreement can require members to arbitrate statutory employment-discrimination claims when the agreement clearly and unmistakably says so.

The court rejected Martinez’s argument that the Union’s refusal to advance her matter to arbitration allowed her to pursue the case in federal court. The court found that the agreement expressly covered that situation and that Martinez had not shown that arbitration would prevent her from effectively enforcing her statutory rights. The court also found that she had not raised any adequately supported non-ADA claims outside the arbitration agreement.

Disposition

The court granted CBS’s motion to compel arbitration and denied CBS’s motion to dismiss. It did not reach CBS’s alternative arguments under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6), which concerns whether a complaint states a legally sufficient claim. Instead of dismissing the case, the court stayed it pending arbitration and directed the parties to provide a joint status update every six months, with the first update due by May 7, 2026. The court therefore required arbitration but did not decide the merits of Martinez’s ADA claims.