Beltran v. State of Cal.
| Decision Date | 30 March 1989 |
| Docket Number | AFL-CIO,87-5943,Nos. 87-5942,s. 87-5942 |
| Citation | 871 F.2d 777 |
| Parties | 113 Lab.Cas. P 56,105 Guadalupe BELTRAN, et al., Plaintiff-Appellee, v. STATE OF CALIFORNIA, Defendant-Appellant, and United Farm Workers of America,, an unincorporated association, Defendant-Appellant. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit |
Cathy Christian and Manuel M. Medeiros, Deputy Atty. Gens., Dianna Lyons, Lyons, Macri-Ortiz, Schneider, Dunphy & Camacho, Sacramento, Cal., for defendant-appellant.
Robert F. Gore, Springfield, Va., for plaintiff-appellee.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of California.
Before HALL and LEAVY, Circuit Judges, and CARROLL, District Judge. *
Defendants-appellants, the State of California and the United Farm Workers of America, appeal the district court's grant of summary judgment in favor of plaintiffs-appellees Guadalupe Beltran, et al. Appellees brought this action seeking, in part, a declaratory judgment that section 1153(c) of the California Agricultural Labor Relations Act ("ALRA"), Cal.Lab.Code Sec. 1153(c) (West 1988), is an unconstitutional abridgement of their first amendment rights of speech and association.
The district court granted appellees' motion for summary judgment, holding that section 1153(c) was unconstitutional on its face. In so holding, the district court refused to abstain under Younger v. Harris, 401 U.S. 37, 91 S.Ct. 746, 27 L.Ed.2d 669 (1971), and ruled that principles of res judicata did not bar appellees' constitutional claim.
This court granted permission to file this appeal pursuant to 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1292(b).
The parties stipulated to the facts for purposes of summary judgment. Those facts relevant to our discussion of this appeal are as follows. In January 1979, the collective bargaining agreement expired between Sun Harvest, Inc., an agricultural employer within the meaning of the ALRA, and the United Farm Workers of America ("UFW"), the certified exclusive bargaining representative for the agricultural employees of Sun Harvest. The parties were unable to agree on a new contract. After a valid strike vote and pursuant to its constitution, the UFW commenced a lawful economic strike against Sun Harvest on January 15. At the time of the strike, all of the appellees, Guadalupe Beltran, Cecilia Salinas, George, Ronald and Michael Moses, and Severo Pasillas were employed with Sun Harvest. They also were members of the UFW.
All of the appellees initially respected the UFW picket lines. However, appellees George, Ronald, and Michael Moses abandoned the strike in March, April, and July 1979, respectively, and returned to work at Sun Harvest. Appellees Beltran, Salinas, and Pasillas crossed the picket line and returned to work in June 1979. None of the plaintiffs resigned or attempted to resign from membership in the UFW before crossing the picket line and returning to work.
On September 5, 1979, Sun Harvest and the UFW agreed upon a new collective bargaining agreement. The union security provisions of the agreement provided in part:
A. Union membership shall be a condition of employment. Each worker shall be required to become a member of Union immediately following five (5) continual days after the beginning of employment, or five (5) days from the date of the signing of this Agreement, whichever is later; and to remain a member of the Union in good standing. Union shall be the sole judge of the good standing of its members. Any worker who fails to become a member of the Union within the time limit set forth herein, or who fails to pay the required initiation fee, periodic dues or regularly authorized assessments as prescribed by Union, or who has been determined to be in bad standing by the Union pursuant to the provisions of the Union's constitution, shall be immediately discharged or suspended upon written notice from the Union to the Company, and shall not be reemployed until written notice from the Union to the company of the worker's good standing status.
This term was nearly identical to the union security provision in the 1976 Sun Harvest/UFW agreement and was similar to language in the 1970 agreement.
In October and November 1979, each of the appellees was tried by UFW Ranch Committees for violating the UFW constitution during the strike. In particular, appellees were charged with "working without Union authorization during the period of an approved strike for a Ranch which is being struck by the Union" and "crossing an authorized Union picket line." Each was found guilty and expelled from membership in the UFW.
Each of the appellees, except Pasillas, appealed his expulsion to the UFW's National Executive Board which reduced the punishment to one- or two-year suspensions. 1 Subsequently, the UFW informed Sun Harvest that each was considered to be in "bad standing" with the union and demanded that each be discharged. Sun Harvest complied and discharged the remaining appellees in January 1980. 2
On February 14, 1980, appellees filed an action in the Superior Court for Imperial County, California seeking, in part, a declaration that California Labor Code section 1153(c) violated their first amendment rights of speech and association. Section 1153 provides in part:
It shall be an unfair labor practice for an agricultural employer to do any of the following:
* * *
(c) By discrimination in regard to the hiring or tenure of employment, or any term or condition of employment, to encourage or discourage membership in any labor organization.
Nothing in this part, or in any other statute of this state, shall preclude an agricultural employer from making an agreement with a labor organization to require as a condition of employment membership therein.... For purposes of this chapter, membership shall mean the satisfaction of all reasonable terms and conditions uniformly applicable to other members in good standing; provided, that such membership shall not be denied or terminated except in compliance with a constitution or bylaws which afford full and fair rights to speech, assembly, and equal voting and membership privileges for all members, and which contain adequate procedures to assure due process to members and applicants for membership.
Cal.Lab.Code Sec. 1153 (West 1988).
The basis of appellees' constitutional claim, both in the Superior Court and here, is that section 1153(c) authorized agricultural employers and certified labor unions to negotiate union security agreements requiring members not merely to pay dues, but to remain in good standing, as determined by the union, to retain employment. By authorizing such a provision, appellees allege, the state unconstitutionally abridges their freedoms of speech and association. The Superior Court ruled that appellees' action was within the exclusive jurisdiction of the Agricultural Labor Relations Board ("ALRB"). The court did not dismiss the complaint, however, but instead waited for a narrowing construction of section 1153(c).
Appellees George, Michael, and Ronald Moses, Beltran, and Salinas filed unfair labor practice charges with the ALRB. They charged, in part, that UFW and Sun Harvest violated the ALRA by entering into a collective bargaining agreement containing a "formal membership" clause, which allowed the discharge of appellees for reasons other than a failure to pay dues and fees used solely for purposes of collective bargaining. The General Counsel for the ALRB dismissed these charges, and the ALRB upheld the validity of section 1153(c) on the ground that the California legislature did not intend to make an unfair labor practice the discharge of appellees for reasons other than the failure to pay dues and fees. Id.
Appellee Pasillas also filed unfair labor practice charges in November 1979. Subsequently, he added additional charges in April 1980 to also challenge the "formal membership" clause. On July 8, 1980, the General Counsel for the ALRB dismissed these latter charges on the same grounds as the identical charges of the other appellees. On December 30, 1982, the ALRB upheld Pasillas' discharge based on his failure to exhaust internal union remedies afforded him by the UFW constitution. United Farm Workers of America (Pasillas), 8 ALRB No. 103 (December 30, 1982). The ALRB, although acknowledging it lacked statutory authority to rule on Pasillas' constitutional challenge to section 1153(c), nevertheless expressed its view that section 1153(c) was constitutional. Id. 3
Appellees sought review of the ALRB's decisions by the California Court of Appeal. On January 18, 1984, the court of appeals granted Pasillas' petition for writ of review and oral argument was held on February 15, 1984. On May 24, 1984, the court of appeal affirmed the ARLB's decision and rejected Pasillas' constitutional claim on the basis that there was no state action. Pasillas v. ALRB, 156 Cal.App.3d 312, 202 Cal.Rptr. 739 (1984). That court denied Pasillas' petition for rehearing. The California Supreme Court denied his petition for a hearing. The United States Supreme Court dismissed Pasillas' appeal for want of jurisdiction. Pasillas v. ALRB, 469 U.S. 1145, 105 S.Ct. 890, 83 L.Ed.2d 906 (1985).
The remaining appellees filed their opening briefs in support of their petition for a writ of review on February 8, 1984. The California Court of Appeal denied the petition without elaboration. Moses v. ALRB, 4 Civil No. 31129, D000959 . This case was not appealed further.
In the midst of these state proceedings, on April 15, 1983, appellees filed the instant action in federal court seeking, in part, a declaratory judgment on their constitutional claim. Appellants argued that the district court should abstain from interfering in ongoing state proceedings and should dismiss the action, relying...
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