City of Miami v. Miami Water Works Local No. 654

• Decision Date: 24 May 1946
• Citation: 26 So.2d 194,157 Fla. 445
• Parties: CITY OF MIAMI. v. MIAMI WATER WORKS LOCAL No. 654
• Court: Florida Supreme Court

26 So.2d 194

157 Fla. 445

CITY OF MIAMI. v. MIAMI WATER WORKS LOCAL No. 654

Florida Supreme Court

May 24, 1946

Rehearing Denied June 11, 1946.

Appeal from Circuit Court, Dade County; Marshall C wiseheart, judge.

Roscoe Brunstetter, of Miami, for appellant.

J. W Watson, Jr., and Franklin Parson, both of Miami, for appellee.

J. Tom Watson, Atty. Gen., and Sumter Leitner, of Tallahassee, as amicue curiae.

SEBRING, Justice.

Miami Water Works Local No. 654 is a labor union affiliated with the American Federation of Labor. The membership of the Union is composed of employees of the City of Miami in the Department of Water and Sewers. The Union has instituted suit in the Circuit Court of Dade County, Florida, for a declaration of its rights in its relationships with the City. The court below has granted a motion to dismiss the bill of complaint and the plaintiff has appealed from this ruling.

The bill of complaint in the case alleges that for over a period of approximately one year the Union, through its officers and members, has made demands upon the City for recognition as a labor union group invested with authority to bargain collectively with the City through representatives of its own choosing, and to engage in concerted activities for the purpose of such collective bargaining activities or other mutual aid or protection; but that the City officials have refused to deal with the Union, on the ground that to do so would constitute a violation of the City charter. It is further alleged that 'members of the plaintiff Union have been coerced and intimidated because of their membership in plaintiff, and have reason to fear that they may be discharged and separated from their employment with the City because of their membership in the Union.' It is prayed in the bill that the court find and declare that Chapter 21968, General Laws 1943, F.S.A. § 481.01 et seq., requires the City of Miami to accord to the Union collective bargaining rights in the matter of wages, hours of labor, and conditions of employment with reference to its members; that the court find and declare that under the Constitution of Florida the right of collective bargaining is secured to the Union and that the City is forbidden from discriminating against its members because of membership in the Union; and finally, that an order be entered requiring the City of Miami, through its governmental officials, to accord to the Union and its members the rights privileges and immunities to which they are entitled under the law.

The charter of the City of Miami contains no provision which even remotely suggests that the duty elected or appointed officials of the City are under an obligation or duty to consult with the plaintiff union, or anyone else, in determining fitness for employment or promotion, or in fixing hours, wages, or conditions of employment of its employees. Indeed, all provisions of the charter are impliedly to the contrary. All employees of the City are under a civil service system established and created by Chapter 19981, Special Acts 1939, as amended by Chapter 21385, Special Acts 1941, Laws of Florida. See sections 60 to 71, inclusive, Charter of the City of Miami, Sp.Acts 1925, c. 10847.

The civil service of Miami is divided into two classes--unclassified and classified service. The unclassified service includes the city manager, his secretary, heads of departments, members of appointive boards, judges of the City court, city clerk, chief of police, and the chief of the fire department. The classified service includes all other employees in the service. The classified service is divided into the competitive class, which includes all positions and employments for which it is practicable to determine the merit and fitness of applicants by competitive examinations; the non-competitive class, which consists of employment for all positions requiring peculiar and exceptional qualifications of a scientific, managerial, professional, or educational character; and the labor class, which comprises ordinary unskilled labor. Under a code of rules and regulations required to be promulgated by the civil service board and approved by the City Commission, all employment, appointments and promotions in all positions of the classified service are determined on the basis of merit, efficiency, character and industry. The salaries of the employees in the civil service are required to be fixed by the City Commission and an appropriation made for this purpose after a public hearing. Unless it can be said that Chapter 21968, General Laws of Florida 1943, was intended by the Legislature of Florida to constitute an alteration of the existing City Charter so as to require the City of Miami to recognize the appellant union as an agency with which it must deal or negotiate concerning the matter of its employees, the lawful duty of the City to follow such course against its own wishes does not exist.

Chapter 21968, supra, is a general law regulating the affairs and activities of labor unions and their members in the State of Florida. It contains no reference to the City of Miami, or its employees, or to the special acts of the Legislature by which the City of Miami was created or its charter approved and established. Hence, if Chapter 21968, supra, is to be taken as an amendment to the present Miami Charter it must be held to have become effective for such purpose solely by implication. It is an elementary proposition that amendments by implication are not favored and will not be upheld in doubtful cases. Before the courts may declare that one statute amends or repeals another by implication it must appear that the statute later in point of time was intended as a revision of the subject matter of the former, or that there is such a positive and irreconcilable repugnancy between the law as to indicate clearly that the later statute was intended to prescribe the only rule which should govern the case provided for, and that there is no field in which the provisions of the statute first in point of time can operate lawfully without conflict. See Ferguson v. McDonald, 66 Fla. 494, 63 So. 915; Sanders v. Howell, 73 Fla. 563, 74 So. 802; Town of Hallandale v. Broward County Kennel Club, 152 Fla. 266, 10 So.2d 810.

As has been noted, Chapter 21968, supra, is a general law regulating the affairs and activities of labor unions and their members. Under the act a labor organization is defined as 'any organization of employees, local or subdivision thereof having within its membership residents of the State of Florida, whether incorporated or not, organized for the purpose of dealing with employers concerning hours of employment, rate of pay, working conditions or grievances of any kind relating to employment.' See Section 2(1). By section 3, Union employees are given 'the right to self-organization, to form, join, or assist labor organizations, to bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing, and to engage in concerted activities, for the purpose of collective bargaining or other mutual aid or protection.' The statute impliedly authorizes union employees to stage a strike or walk-out when such action has been agreed to by a majority vote of the employees to be governed thereby; and to picket in the area of the industry within which a labor dispute arises. See Section 9(3, 12).

Chapter 21968 supra, was doubtless intended by the framers to be a complete treatment of the subject matter of labor unions and labor union activities within the State. But we think that a careful consideration of the statute reveals that it was meant to be operative only in the field of private business and industry. It contains no expression of purpose to regulate employment in government. The statute, in its declaration of state policy speaks of the necessity for regulating labor unions as 'affecting the economic conditions of the country and the state, entering as they do into practically every business and industrial enterprise * * *.' See Section 1. The Statute authorizes collective bargaining. It deals with striking and picketing. It prescribes penalties for seizing or occupying property unlawfully during the existence of a labor dispute; of picketing by force and violence, or in such a manner as to prevent ingress and egress to and from any premises; and of picketing beyond the area of the industry within which a labor dispute arises. See Sec. 9(12). These terms are entirely familiar terms in today's pattern of economic and industrial strife in the field of private enterprise, but they are strange and incongruous terms when attempted to be squared with the governmental process as we know it, or when projected into the field of municipal legislation. The City of Miami is a governmental entity created by the state. It derives...