Robison v. Francis
| Decision Date | 17 January 1986 |
| Docket Number | S-510 and S-552,Nos. S-493,s. S-493 |
| Citation | 713 P.2d 259 |
| Parties | James ROBISON, Commissioner of Labor; Robert Bacolas, Director, Division of Labor Standards and Safety; Donald Wilson, Deputy Director of the Division of Labor Standards and Safety; James R. Carr, Supervisor of the Wage and Hour Administration; the Department of Labor of the State of Alaska, and the State of Alaska, and the International Association of Bridge, Structural and Ornamental Ironworkers, Local 751, Appellants, v. James N. FRANCIS, Appellee. INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF BRIDGE, STRUCTURAL AND ORNAMENTAL IRONWORKERS, LOCAL 751, Appellant, v. James N. FRANCIS, Appellee. James N. FRANCIS, Appellant, v. James ROBISON, Commissioner of Labor; Robert Bacolas, Director, Division of Labor Standards and Safety; Donald Wilson, Deputy Director of the Division of Labor Standards and Safety; James R. Carr, Supervisor of the Wage and Hour Administration; the Department of Labor of the State of Alaska, and the State of Alaska, and the International Association of Bridge, Structural and Ornamental Ironworkers, Local 751, Appellees. |
| Court | Alaska Supreme Court |
Jan Hart DeYoung, Asst. Atty. Gen., Anchorage, and Norman C. Gorsuch, Atty. Gen., Juneau, for State Dept. of Labor, James Robison, Robert Bacolas, Donald Wilson, and James C. Carr.
Allison E. Mendel, Jermain, Dunnagan & Owens, Anchorage, for International Ass'n
of Bridge, Structural and Ornamental Ironworkers, Local 751.
Ron Zobel, Anchorage, for James N. Francis.
Before RABINOWITZ, C.J., and BURKE, MATTHEWS, COMPTON and MOORE, JJ.
We hold in this case that Alaska's local hire law, AS 36.10.010, 1 which requires that work on public construction projects be performed almost entirely by Alaska residents, violates the privileges and immunities clause of article IV, § 2 of the United States Constitution.
James Francis, a Montana resident, was employed in 1983 as an ironworker by Regan Steel & Supply, a sub-contractor on a North Pole High School project. When the Department of Labor discovered that Regan Steel had a work force of more than five percent non-residents on the project, it sent an enforcement notice to the company. As a result, the company discharged Francis.
Francis sued the state and various state officials, 2 seeking a declaration that the local hire law is unconstitutional under the privileges and immunities and the equal protection clauses of the United States Constitution and under the equal rights clause of the Alaska Constitution. In addition, injunctive relief and damages under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 were sought.
Following a non-jury trial, the superior court entered a partial final judgment declaring that the statute violated the privileges and immunities clause. In support of its decision, the court filed detailed findings of fact, including the following:
Between April, 1980, and July, 1982, the population of Alaska has grown by nearly fifteen percent (15%).
The population of Alaska has increased in the recent past more rapidly than at any other time in its history, and the State is growing more rapidly than other states in the union.
Property values in Alaska have been increasing over the last five years.
Alaska is not a depressed area as that term is used in the economics profession.
All sectors of the Alaska economy are expanding and Alaska has experienced very rapid economic growth since 1980.
Employment in Alaska in 1983 was at record levels, and the rate of increase was the best since the days of the Alaska Pipeline in 1974-1975.
In 1983, the construction industry was the strongest sector in the state's economy, and it has had the greatest impact on the Alaska economy since the Alaska Pipeline years.
The construction industry in Alaska was exceptionally strong in both the public and private sectors during 1983.
The major factor affecting the level of employment in Alaska in the construction industry is climatic changes as a result of extreme temperature differentials in the winter and summer months. Construction declines to substantially lower levels during the winter months, and increases, peaking out in August and September, during the latter summer months. During the peak periods of construction activity, the state experiences its lowest rate of unemployment.
The expenditure of state funds are a major factor affecting the level of employment in Alaska generally, and the construction industry in particular. The state expenditure for public works projects accounts for approximately sixty to seventy percent (60% to 70%) or more of the total annual construction dollar outlay within the state.
Private investment has a lesser effect on the level of construction activity from year to year in the State of Alaska, and such effect, from time to time, is affected by interest rates.
Unemployment is substantially greater in the rural areas than in the urban areas. The unemployment rate in Anchorage is less than the national average, while in the rural areas, it is greater than the national average and greater than the average within the State of Alaska.
The construction activity is greater within the urban area than within the rural areas. Unemployment is less within the urban areas than within the rural areas.
Rural Alaskans lack the training that urban Alaskans have access to in construction work.
In-migration in the State of Alaska is a factor affecting unemployment in the construction industry in Alaska.
Reasonable inferences from the evidence support a finding that most of the job seekers coming to Alaska intend to become residents upon their entry into the state, thus contributing to the rapid population growth within the state.
There is not sufficient evidence to support a finding that nonresident construction workers are a peculiar source of unemployment in the construction industry in Alaska any more than they would be in any other state. The only inference that can be drawn from the record is that nonresident construction workers come to Alaska to work during peak construction periods of time, during which there are more jobs available and less unemployment resulting.
Among the court's conclusions of law were:
The right to obtain employment in any state is a fundamental right and is a privilege which shall be immune from any burden unless the State of Alaska can show a legitimate purpose for such burden. In this case, the State has failed to establish by a preponderance of the evidence such a legitimate purpose.
The defendants and intervenor have failed to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that nonresident construction workers constitute a peculiar source of unemployment in the State of Alaska.
Serious factors affecting unemployment within the State of Alaska are the extreme climatic conditions, the change in the legislative appropriation for public works construction projects, the extreme rapid growth of population experienced by Alaska, and the wildly fluctuating interest rates which have a direct effect on the private sector construction spending.
Statistics over the last several years demonstrate that Alaska's unemployment rate has increased at a rate lesser than the nationwide average. Whereas Alaska's unemployment rate for several years was substantially greater than the nationwide rate, it now stands much closer to the national average, further supporting the conclusion that nonresident employment is not a serious factor in the unemployment rate in Alaska.
The State and the intervenor have failed to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that there is a substantial reason to discriminate against employment of citizens of other states on public works construction projects within the State of Alaska.
The State and intervenor have failed to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that the preference granted Alaska residents is closely tailored to alleviate unemployment in the construction industry in the State of Alaska.
The privileges and immunities clause of section 2, article IV of the United States Constitution provides:
The citizens of each state shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of citizens in the several states. 3
The primary purpose of this clause is to prevent states from enacting measures which discriminate against non-residents for reasons of economic protectionism. Supreme Court of New Hampshire v. Piper, 470 U.S. 274, ---- n. 18, 105 S.Ct. 1272, 1279 n. 18, 84 L.Ed.2d 205 (1985). Historically, it was meant to:
[h]elp fuse into one Nation a collection of independent, sovereign States. It was designed to insure to a citizen of State A who ventures into State B the same privileges which the citizens of State B enjoy. For protection of such equality the citizen of State A was not to be restricted to the uncertain remedies afforded by diplomatic processes and official retaliation. "Indeed, without some provision of the kind removing from the citizens of each State the disabilities of alienage in the other States, and giving them equality of privilege with citizens of those States, the Republic would have constituted little more than a league of States; it would not have constituted the Union which now exists."
In line with this underlying purpose, it was long ago decided that one of the privileges which the clause guarantees to citizens of State A is that of doing business in State B on terms of substantial equality with the citizens of that State.
Toomer v. Witsell, 334 U.S. 385, 395-96, 68 S.Ct. 1156, 1161-62, 92 L.Ed. 1460, 1471 (1948) (footnote omitted, citations omitted). In brief, the clause was meant "to prevent discrimination against non-residents, to further the concept of federalism, and to create a national economic unit." Sheley v. Alaska Bar Association, 620 P.2d 640, 642 (Alaska 1980) (citations omitted).
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