Local 1139 of the United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers of America brought this suit to enforce an arbitration award against Litton Microwave Cooking Products, Litton Systems, Inc. The award found that Litton, by requiring certain employees to take their vacation^ in March of 1981, had violated the collective-bargaining agreement. The arbitrator ordered Litton to grant all employees who were required to take their vacations in March of 1981 a second vacation during the summer months with pay. The arbitrator’s conclusion that the company was in breach of contract is no longer in issue. The purpose of the Union’s suit was simply to enforce the remedy that had been awarded. The District Court agreed that a second vacation should be granted, but refused to enforce that portion of the award directing that the second vacation should be a paid vacation.
On appeal, a panel of this Court affirmed, one judge dissenting. Local 1139, United Electrical Workers v. Litton Microwave Cooking Products, Litton Systems, Inc., 704 F.2d 393 (8th Cir.1983). The Union’s petition for rehearing en banc was then granted, the opinion of the panel was therefore vacated by operation of law, and the case was re-submitted to the Court en banc. Because we believe that the arbitrator’s award drew its essence from the collective-bargaining agreement, we now reverse and remand the cause to the District Court with directions to enforce the award in its entirety. The District Court’s decision to deny the Union’s request for attorneys’ fees, however, was not an abuse of discretion and is affirmed.
The Supreme Court has recently reminded us that the courts may set aside labor-arbitration awards only in rare circumstances. The Court said, in a unanimous opinion written by Justice Blackmun:
Under well established standards for the review of labor arbitration awards, a federal court may not overrule an arbitrator’s decision simply because the court believes its own interpretation of the contract would be the better one. Steelworkers v. Enterprise Wheel & Car Corp., 363 U.S. 593, 596 [80 S.Ct. 1358, 1360, 4 L.Ed.2d 1424] (1960). When the parties include an arbitration clause in their collective-bargaining agreement, they choose to have disputes concerning constructions of the contract resolved by an arbitrator. Unless the arbitral decision does not “dra[w] its essence from the collective bargaining agreement,” id., at 597 [80 S.Ct. at 1361], a court is bound to enforce the award and is not entitled to review the merits of the contract dispute. This remains so even when the basis for the arbitrator’s decision may be ambiguous. Id., at 598 [80 S.Ct., at 1361].
W.R. Grace & Co. v. Local 759, Int’l Union of Rubber Workers, — U.S. —, 103 S.Ct. 2177, 2182, 76 L.Ed.2d 298 (1983). We have recently reaffirmed and applied the same principles. Lackawanna Leather Co. v. District Union 271, United Food & Commercial Workers, 706 F.2d 228 (8th Cir.1983) (en banc).
*972Here, the only question is the appropriate remedy for a conceded breach of contract. In March of 1981, employees were compelled either to use vacation time or to work during a plant shutdown for the taking of inventory. Those who used their paid vacation time could not take a paid vacation later on, during the customary vacation season, which includes the summer months but not March. The arbitrator decided that employees who were thus forced to take their paid vacations at a time not permitted by the contract and not desired by them had suffered a real loss compensable in money. It is not for us to decide whether we would have awarded this particular relief, or whether the arbitrator correctly interpreted the contract. Those questions are, in all but the clearest cases, the arbitrator’s business, not ours. Simply to award another vacation, but without pay, would fall short of what the arbitrator thought was full compensation. We cannot say that the arbitrator clearly exceeded his authority or violated the collective-bargaining agreement, when he resolved doubts as to the remedy against the party that had broken its promise. We therefore believe that the Union is entitled to have the arbitrator’s award enforced in its entirety. It was, after all, the arbitrator’s judgment and interpretation for which the parties bargained when they agreed that disputes arising under the contract would be submitted to arbitration.
For a somewhat fuller statement of our reasons for enforcing the award of the arbitrator, the reader is referred to the opinion dissenting from the panel, 704 F.2d at 400-03, the reasoning and substance of which we hereby adopt.
The District Court’s decision to deny the Union an award of attorneys’ fees is affirmed. To the extent that the District Court refused full enforcement of the arbitrator’s award, its judgment is reversed, and the cause is remanded for further proceedings in accordance with this opinion.
It is so ordered.