Elk Grove Firefighters Local No. 2340 v. Willis

• Decision Date: 18 September 1975
• Docket Number: No. 74 C 2412.,74 C 2412.
• Citation: 400 F. Supp. 1097
• Parties: ELK GROVE FIREFIGHTERS LOCAL NO. 2340 et al., Plaintiffs, v. Charles A. WILLIS, Village Manager of the Village of Elk Grove, et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of Illinois

400 F. Supp. 1097

ELK GROVE FIREFIGHTERS LOCAL NO. 2340 et al., Plaintiffs, v. Charles A. WILLIS, Village Manager of the Village of Elk Grove, et al., Defendants.

No. 74 C 2412.

United States District Court, N. D. Illinois, E. D.

September 18, 1975.

Kleiman, Cornfield & Feldman, Chicago, Ill., for plaintiffs.

R. Theodore Clark, Jr., Seyfarth, Shaw, Fairweather & Geraldson, Chicago, Ill., Edward C. Hofert, Hofert & Samelson, DesPlaines, Ill., for defendants.

MEMORANDUM OPINION

DECKER, District Judge.

This case is brought by two unions: the International Association of Firefighters, AFL-CIO and its local affiliate, Elk Grove Firefighters Local No. 2340, against certain officials of the Village of Elk Grove. The Village officials have forbidden captains and lieutenants of the Elk Grove fire department to belong to any union which also has as members rank and file firefighters. The plaintiff unions, which had as members both firefighters and officers of the Elk Grove fire department at the time the Village officials promulgated this policy, claim that this policy infringes the First Amendment freedom of association of the officers. They bring this action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, seeking a declaration that any employee of the Elk Grove fire department, regardless of rank, can join them, an injunction against any further interference with membership of any firefighter or officer in plaintiff unions and damages for union dues lost because of the defendant officials' actions.

Defendants filed a motion to dismiss the complaint on the grounds that plaintiff unions lacked standing to assert the rights of the officers, that this court lacked jurisdiction over this action and that the complaint failed to state a cause of action. That motion was denied in a memorandum opinion filed January 29, 1975. 391 F.Supp. 487 (N.D.Ill. 1975). The sequence of events which led up to this action is described in that opinion.

Defendants have now answered and both sides have moved for summary judgment. Plaintiffs ask for judgment on the pleadings and defendants have supported their motion with the affidavit of Allen Hulett, Fire Chief of Elk Grove Village.

Neither motion is to be granted, of course, unless there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. F.R.Civ.P. 56(c). All parties agree that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact. The question on these motions is whether, as a matter of law, the Village officials' prohibition of membership by captains and lieutenants in plaintiff unions on the grounds that the unions also represent rank and file firefighters infringes the First Amendment rights of the officers. For the reasons set forth below, this court finds that the prohibition is constitutionally valid.

I.

There can be no doubt that First Amendment rights are affected by the actions of the Village officials. Whatever doubts there may once have been, it is now uncontrovertible that the First Amendment's freedom of association extends to economic associations such as unions. Thomas v. Collins, 323 U.S. 516, 531, 65 S.Ct. 315, 89 L.Ed. 430 (1945). Nor is there any doubt that public employees as well as private enjoy First Amendment protection of their union associations. McLaughlin v. Tilendis, 398 F.2d 287 (7th Cir. 1968); Am. Fed. of State, Co., & Mun. Emp. v. Woodward, 406 F.2d 137 (8th Cir. 1969). Public employees do not waive their constitutional rights by virtue of their status as public employees. Elfbrandt v. Russell, 384 U.S. 11, 86 S.Ct. 1238, 16 L. Ed.2d 321 (1966); Keyishian v. Board of Regents, 385 U.S. 589, 87 S.Ct. 675, 17 L.Ed.2d 629 (1967).

Broad as the protections of the First Amendment are, however, they are not without limit. See Civil Service Comm. v. National Association of Letter Carriers, 413 U.S. 548, 93 S.Ct. 2880, 37 L.Ed.2d 796 (1973), and Broadrick v. Oklahoma, 413 U.S. 601, 93 S.Ct. 2908, 37 L.Ed.2d 830 (1973), upholding severe restrictions on the partisan political activities of federal and state governmental employees on the grounds that the restrictions are necessary to insure an efficient civil service dedicated to public rather than partisan ends. See also Clark v. Holmes, 474 F.2d 928 (7th Cir. 1972), discussing the limits on the freedom of a teacher at a public university to teach as he likes.

The determination of what limits may constitutionally be put on the First Amendment activities of public employees requires a balancing of the public interest asserted as justification for the limitation against the interests of the individuals or groups whose rights are being curtailed. Where the state seeks to limit First Amendment freedoms it must show (1) that a substantial, legitimate state interest (2) will in fact be served, and (3) that the limit imposed on First Amendment activities is the least drastic restriction of constitutional rights which will accomplish the state's purpose. Shelton v. Tucker, 364 U.S. 479, 81 S.Ct. 247, 5 L.Ed.2d 231 (1960).

II.

The interest asserted by the Village officials in this case is the need for a disciplined, efficient fire department. They claim that the lieutenants and captains are supervisory personnel for whom membership in a union which exists for the purpose of representing rank and file firefighters, whom the officers are supposed to supervise, concerning wages, hours and conditions of employment would present a conflict of interest. This, it is argued, would impair the efficiency of the fire department which plays a crucial role in safeguarding the lives and property of the citizens of Elk Grove village.

Clearly, an efficient fire department is a legitimate and substantial state interest. Civil Service Comm. v. National Association of Letter Carriers, supra, and Broadrick v. Oklahoma, supra, establish that the efficiency of public employees generally is a legitimate and substantial governmental interest. This interest is particularly strong with respect to firefighters because of the need for them to act quickly and effectively to prevent grievous loss of life and property.

The question of whether the restrictions at issue in this case will sufficiently further this governmental interest to warrant limitation of First Amendment rights might be a difficult one but for some recent legislation and case law on precisely the issue of the impact of joint rank and file — supervisor unions on efficiency and discipline. Section 14(a) of the Labor Management Relations Act (LMRA), 29 U.S.C. § 164(a), provides that no employer subject to that Act can be compelled under any law, federal, state, or local, to deal with supervisors as members of collective bargaining units.¹ This provision, added by the Taft-Hartley Amendments of 1947, reflects a strong congressional judgment that supervisor membership in unions is inimical to efficiency. See Beasley v. Food Fair of North Carolina, 416 U.S. 653, 658-662, 94 S.Ct. 2023, 40 L.Ed.2d 443 (1974). The LMRA is inapplicable to public employers, but § 14(a) represents a considered congressional judgment of which this court takes notice.

The validity of this judgment in First Amendment considerations was implicitly recognized by the Supreme Court in Beasley, supra, where the Court reversed, on the basis of § 14(a), a state court judgment against an employer who had fired a supervisor for union membership. The judgment was based on the North Carolina right-to-work law, which creates a cause of action in damages for any person discharged for union activities. The Court held that § 14(a) served to free all employers subject to the LMRA from any liability for discharges of supervisors for union activities. Although the Court did not explicitly consider First Amendment issues in Beasley, its decision recognized industrial efficiency and discipline as a substantial interest which is furthered by restrictions on supervisory unionization. While § 14(a) does not apply to public employers such as Elk Grove Village, that section is subject to the strictures of the First Amendment insofar as it overrides state laws which protect the organizational rights of supervisors.²

The New York Court of Appeals found the rationale of § 14(a) constitutionally applicable to public employers in Shelofsky v. Helsby, 32 N.Y.2d 54, 343 N.Y.S.2d 98, 295 N.E.2d 774 (1973), appeal dismissed 414 U.S. 804, 94 S.Ct. 60, 38 L.Ed.2d 41 (1973). Shelofsky considered a First Amendment challenge to a section of the New York Civil Service Law³ which forbids "managerial" public employees to belong to any union which also represents lower echelon public employees. The court upheld the statute, saying:

"The exclusion of supervisory personnel from collective bargaining rights enjoyed by employees is not a new concept. Citation omitted. In 1947, the Taft-Hartley Act (Labor Management Relations Act) amended the National Labor Relations Act in part to exclude `supervisors' from collective bargaining rights enjoyed by private employees generally . . .. The objective of the Taft-Hartley Act, held permissible in NLRB v. Budd Mfg. Co., 169 F.2d 571, 578 (6th Cir. 1958), was to assure the employer of a loyal and efficient cadre of supervisors and managers independent from the rank and file. Citation omitted. That objective is equally applicable to the State, as an employer." 32 N.Y.2d at 59-60, 343 N.Y.S.2d at 101, 295 N. Ed.2d at 775.

The treatment of § 14(a) of the LMRA in Beasley and of the New York Civil Service Law in Shelofsky, both of which held that limitations of supervisory union activity is a legitimate means of achieving the important governmental goal of an efficient, effective work force, public or private, is applicable to this case. There appears to be no controversy that the lieutenants and captains are supervisors.⁴ The duties and responsibilities of the supervisory officers are detailed in the uncontroverted affidavit of Fire Chief Allen Hulett, which states as...