Orenic v. Illinois State Labor Relations Bd.
| Decision Date | 29 March 1989 |
| Docket Number | No. 66984,66984 |
| Parties | , 130 Ill.Dec. 455 Michael A. ORENIC, Judge, et al., Petitioners, v. The ILLINOIS STATE LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, Respondent (The County of Cook et al., Intervenors-Respondents). |
| Court | Illinois Supreme Court |
Lee J. Schwartz, Special Asst. Atty. Gen., Julie O'Donnell Allen and Neil L. Brilliant, Sidley & Austin, Chicago, for petitioners.
Neil F. Hartigan, Atty. Gen., Springfield , for respondent.
Richard M. Daley, State's Atty., Chicago (Joan S. Cherry, Deputy State's Atty., Iris E. Sholder, Asst. State's Atty., of counsel), for intervenor-respondent County of Cook. David R. Akemann, Elgin, for intervenors-respondents Counties of Vermilion and Will.
Gilbert Feldman, Cornfield & Feldman, Chicago, for intervenor-respondent American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.
This is an original action for a writ of prohibition or mandamus, brought by four chief judges of Illinois circuit courts (the four chief judges) against the Illinois State Labor Relations Board (the Board). Three Illinois counties and two labor organizations have intervened as respondents.
The principal question is whether, given their statutory role in funding the circuit courts, counties may be considered joint employers of those courts' nonjudicial employees for purposes of collective bargaining under the Illinois Public Labor Relations Act (the Act) (Ill.Rev.Stat.1987, ch. 48, par. 1601 et seq.). As explained later in this opinion, we answer that question in the negative and issue a writ of prohibition accordingly.
The present action arises out of four cases pending before the Board.
The first case, No. S-RC-88-71, involves the Honorable Michael A. Orenic, as chief judge of the 12th Judicial Circuit; the County of Will; and District 55, International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, AFL-CIO (IAM). In that case, IAM petitioned the Board for an election so that, as the petition was amended, IAM might represent all assistant public defenders (except for confidential employees, supervisors, and others excluded by the Act) said to be employed jointly by the county, the chief judge, and the public defender in the office of the Will County public defender. The Board hearing officer's recommended opinion found that the county and the chief judge are the assistant public defenders' joint employers.
The second case, No. S-RC-88-74, involves the Honorable Ralph S. Pearman, as chief judge of the Fifth Judicial Circuit; the County of Vermilion; and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 399 (IBEW). In that case, IBEW petitioned the Board for an election so that it might represent (except for guards, supervisors, and others excluded by the Act) all regular full-time and part-time bailiffs said to be employed jointly by the county and the chief judge at the Vermilion County courthouse facility.
The third case, No. S-CA-88-137, involves the Honorable John W. Rapp, Jr., as chief judge of the 15th Judicial Circuit; the County of Stephenson; and the International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America, UAW (UAW). In that case, UAW filed an unfair labor practice charge against Chief Judge Rapp for refusing to bargain, in a role as joint employer with Stephenson County, concerning clerk-stenographers and senior stenographers employed in the Stephenson County court services department. The case followed a determination by the Board that the county and the chief judge are joint employers of those employees. (County of Stephenson, 3 Pub. Employee Rep. (Ill.) par. 2066, No. S-RC-87-45 (ISLRB Oct. 28, 1987).) In County of Stephenson, Stephenson County had taken the position that it was not an employer of the stenographic employees.
The fourth case, No. S-RC-88-63, involves the Honorable Joseph M. McCarthy, as chief judge of the 16th Judicial Circuit; the County of De Kalb; and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, Council 31, AFL-CIO (AFSCME). In that case, AFSCME petitioned for an election so that it might represent, with certain exclusions and after certain stipulations had been made, all unrepresented nonprofessional employees of De Kalb County (as employer) and of certain elected county officials, the clerk of the circuit court in De Kalb County, and Chief Judge McCarthy (as respective joint employers). Chief Judge McCarthy's employees at issue are bailiffs and jury commission clerks. The Board hearing officer's recommended opinion found that the county is a joint employer with the circuit court's chief judge and the court's clerk in De Kalb County, respectively, as to the latter officials' employees.
On June 10, 1988, we allowed the four chief judges' motion for leave to file their petition for a writ of prohibition or mandamus. (Ill. Const.1970, art. VI, § 4(a); 107 Ill.2d R. 381.) We also entered an order, effective until our final resolution of the issues raised in this action, (1) allowing the Board to continue its consideration of the representation cases and to conduct any elections that it saw fit under the Act, but (2) prohibiting the Board from certifying in those cases any bargaining unit that includes a county as joint employer of judicial-branch employees, (3) requiring the Board to stay any final decisions in those cases relating to the identity of the employers of judicial-branch employees, and (4) prohibiting the Board from processing the unfair labor practice charge in the Stephenson County case, and requiring the Board to stay that proceeding.
Intervening in this action are Cook, Vermilion, and Will Counties, AFSCME, and IAM, all as respondents. Ill.Rev.Stat.1987, ch. 110, par. 2-408.
The four chief judges have advised the court in briefs that AFSCME, IAM, and IBEW lost the representation elections conducted during 1988 in the 16th, 12th, and 5th Judicial Circuits respectively and that therefore Chief Judges McCarthy, Orenic, and Pearman "have nothing immediately at stake in this litigation" but that they remain interested in its result, particularly since at the time of filing briefs Chief Judges Orenic and Pearman were each currently considered a joint employer with Will County and Vermilion County respectively as to certain judicial-branch employees. In addition, though the parties have not suggested it of record, the court takes judicial notice (see Madden v. City of Chicago (1918), 283 Ill. 165, 171, 119 N.E. 60) that Chief Judges Orenic and McCarthy have resigned their positions as chief judges.
In their petition, the four chief judges contend that, for several reasons, the Board lacks jurisdiction over the counties said to be joint employers of court employees in the four pending actions. The four chief judges contend that:
(1) the State is the sole employer of State judicial-branch employees;
(2) the counties' funding role in relation to the court system cannot make them employers of judicial-branch employees, because, according to the four chief judges, the statutes * requiring counties to fund the courts violate provisions of the Illinois Constitution creating a unified State court system (Ill. Const.1970, art. VI, § 1) and mandating State budgets and appropriations for State government expenses (Ill. Const.1970, art. VIII, §§ 2(a), (b)); and
(3) if counties are deemed employers of judicial-branch employees, their role is merely ministerial and they lack authority to participate in collective bargaining between chief judges and labor organizations as to those employees.
Accordingly, the four chief judges pray (1) for a writ of prohibition that would prohibit the Board from certifying any bargaining unit in which a county has been listed as a joint employer of judicial-branch employees, or (2) for a writ of mandamus that would command the Board to take no such further action.
In their brief, the four chief judges expand on the foregoing contentions by arguing that the cited constitutional provisions "eliminat[e] the counties as co-employers" of State court employees (seemingly whether or not the funding statutes themselves are unconstitutional) and that, even if the funding statutes are constitutional and the counties' funding role is not wholly ministerial, the counties' collective-bargaining role as joint employers is "limited to negotiation over the strictly financial terms of employment." In particular, and somewhat elliptically, the four chief judges expand on or modify their jurisdictional contention by urging that the requested writ is justified because, since the Board itself believes it has no jurisdiction to decide constitutional issues that they raise, the Board should be prevented from issuing orders that are formulated without regard to constitutionality.
The four chief judges also suggest that our decision in County of Kane v. Carlson (1987), 116 Ill.2d 186, 107 Ill.Dec. 569, 507 N.E.2d 482, held that counties are not joint employers of State judicial-branch employees.
The four chief judges detail their reasons for asserting that counties, through assumption of a collective-bargaining role as to court employees and through refusals to yield on financial matters during bargaining, actually or potentially are sources of interference in the courts' critical decisions on funding and other administrative issues. The four chief judges say that, in order to fulfill their duty to engage in good-faith collective bargaining, judicial negotiators have had to accept counties' bargaining positions even when they disagreed with them and that the counties therefore have impeded judicial administration.
As an example of interference with judicial administration, the four chief judges cite statements made by Du Page County in an amicus curiae brief filed in ...
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