Buffalo Teachers Federation, Inc. v. Helsby

• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit
• Writing for the Court: Before FEINBERG, Chief Judge, and VAN GRAAFEILAND and MESKILL; PER CURIAM
• Citation: Buffalo Teachers Federation, Inc. v. Helsby, 676 F.2d 28 (2nd Cir. 1982)
• Decision Date: 01 April 1982
• Docket Number: D,No. 765,765
• Parties: 110 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2090, 4 Ed. Law Rep. 14 BUFFALO TEACHERS FEDERATION, INC., Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Robert D. HELSBY, Joseph R. Crowley and Ida Klaus, as Members of the New York State Public Employment Relations Board, Defendants-Appellees. ocket 81-7405.

Page 28

676 F.2d 28

110 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2090, 4 Ed. Law Rep. 14

BUFFALO TEACHERS FEDERATION, INC., Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Robert D. HELSBY, Joseph R. Crowley and Ida Klaus, as Members of the New York State Public Employment Relations Board, Defendants-Appellees.

No. 765, Docket 81-7405.

United States Court of Appeals Second Circuit.

Argued Feb. 24, 1982.

Decided April 1, 1982.

Mady Gilson, Washington, D. C. (Bredhoff & Kaiser, Robert H. Chanin, Washington, D. C., of counsel), for plaintiff-appellant.

Richard G. Liskov, Asst. Atty. Gen. of the State of New York, New York City (Robert Abrams, Atty. Gen. of the State of N. Y., Stanley A. Camhi, Asst. Atty. Gen., New York City, of counsel), for defendants-appellees.

Before FEINBERG, Chief Judge, and VAN GRAAFEILAND and MESKILL, Circuit Judges.

PER CURIAM:

Plaintiff, Buffalo Teachers Federation, Inc. (BTF), appeals from dismissal of its complaint against the chairman, Robert D. Helsby, and two members, Joseph Crowley and Ida Klaus, of New York's Public Employment Relations Board (PERB). The complaint under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 sought declaratory and injunctive relief on the ground that the dues checkoff forfeiture provision of New York's Public Employees' Fair Employment Act (the Act), N.Y.Civ.Serv.Law § 210 (McKinney 1973 & Supp. 1981-1982), denied appellant the equal protection of the laws. After a non-jury trial in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, Judge John M. Cannella dismissed the complaint for reasons set forth in a carefully reasoned opinion, familiarity with which will be assumed. The opinion is reported at 515 F.Supp. 215 (S.D.N.Y.1981).

The statutory scheme at issue here, commonly known as the Taylor Law, has been described in detail in the companion case of Shanker v. Helsby, --- F.2d ---- at ---- (2d Cir., 1982). Appellant in this case attacks the dues checkoff forfeiture provisions, both on their face and as applied, because an allegedly arbitrary distinction has been drawn between employee organizations under PERB's jurisdiction and those under the jurisdiction of mini-PERBs. As the district judge found, appellant was subjected to the dues checkoff forfeiture sanction after PERB found that appellant had engaged in an unauthorized 14-day strike in September 1976, its second since the enactment of the Taylor Law. Buffalo Teachers Federation, Inc. v. Helsby, 515 F.Supp. at 216-17.

Under section 210.3(f) of the Act, PERB "shall order forfeiture" of the dues checkoff privilege once it determines that a violation has occurred. By contrast, as the district judge noted, a mini-PERB "may" impose the forfeiture penalty under its substantially equivalent procedures once it finds a violation. Buffalo Teachers Federation, Inc. v. Helsby, 515 F.Supp. at 220. In the alternative, a court "may" revoke the dues checkoff privilege if it finds an employee organization in contempt of court. N.Y.Jud.Law § 751.2(a). Appellant argues that the statute is discriminatory on its face because once a violation is found, the provisions make imposition of the penalty mandatory for employee organizations under PERB's jurisdiction and discretionary for those under mini-PERBs' jurisdiction.

In fact, PERB has imposed the dues checkoff forfeiture penalty in approximately 96% of the cases in which it has found a violation. ¹ By contrast, as appellant argued below, mini-PERBs have ordered forfeiture of the dues checkoff privilege in approximately 28.6% of the cases in which a violation of the no-strike prohibition was found. ² Appellant therefore further urges that, as applied, this framework discriminates against it in violation of the Equal Protection Clause.

Both of these claims must be rejected. Because appellant neither qualifies as a suspect class nor asserts a fundamental interest, the challenged legislation will pass muster if it is " 'rationally related to furthering a legitimate state interest.' " Vance v. Bradley, 440 U.S. 93, 97, 99 S.Ct. 939, 942, 59 L.Ed.2d 171 (1979) (quoting Massachusetts Board of Retirement v. Murgia, 427 U.S. 307, 312, 96 S.Ct. 2562, 2566, 49 L.Ed.2d 520 (1976)); Civil Service Employees Association, Inc. v. Helsby, 439 F.Supp. 1272, 1276-77 (S.D.N.Y.1977). In reviewing the challenged provisions, we must keep in mind that "although this rational-basis standard is 'not a toothless one,' Mathews v. Lucas, 427 U.S. 495, 510, 96 S.Ct. 2755, 2764, 49 L.Ed.2d 651 (1976), it does not allow us to substitute our personal notions of good public policy for those of (the legislature)...." Schweiker v. Wilson, 450 U.S. 221, 234, 101 S.Ct. 1074, 1082, 67 L.Ed.2d 186 (1981).

The classification here clearly has a rational basis. In enacting the Taylor Law, the New York legislature faced the choice of creating either a uniform statewide system or a decentralized scheme to regulate public employee relations. The legislature could reasonably have determined that local autonomy would play an important role in fostering harmonious labor relations. See McHugh, New York's Experiment in Public Employee Relations: The Public Employees' Fair Employment Act, 32 Albany L.Rev. 58, 81-82 (1967). Particularly in light of the experimental nature of the Act, id. at 59, 95; King, The Taylor Act-Experiment in Public Employer-Employee Relations, 20 Syracuse L.Rev. 1, 1 (1968), the distinction drawn here can not be deemed an arbitrary or irrational one.

Moreover, we find that the procedures employed by PERB and mini-PERBs, although not identical,...