Service Employees Internat. Union v. City of Santa Barbara

• Decision Date: 10 November 1981
• Docket Number: AFL-CI,P
• Citation: 125 Cal.App.3d 459,178 Cal.Rptr. 89
• Court: California Court of Appeals Court of Appeals
• Parties: SERVICE EMPLOYEES INTERNATIONAL UNION, LOCAL 660,laintiff and Appellant, v. CITY OF SANTA BARBARA et al., Defendants and Respondents; SANTA BARBARA COUNTY EMPLOYEES ASSOCIATION, Real Party in Interest. Civ. 60943.

Page 89

178 Cal.Rptr. 89

125 Cal.App.3d 459

SERVICE EMPLOYEES INTERNATIONAL UNION, LOCAL 660, AFL-CIO, Plaintiff and Appellant, v. CITY OF SANTA BARBARA et al., Defendants and Respondents SANTA BARBARA COUNTY EMPLOYEES ASSOCIATION, Real Party in Interest.

Civ. 60943.

Court of Appeal, Second District, Division 1, California.

Nov. 10, 1981.

Hearing Denied Jan. 20, 1982.

Geffner & Satzman and Jeff Paule, Los Angeles, for plaintiff and appellant

Frederick W. Clough, City Atty., for defendants and respondents.

Wyleen Luoma, Ventura, for real party in interest.

L. THAXTON HANSON, Associate Justice.

Service Employees International Union, Local 660, AFL-CIO (hereinafter referred to as Local 660), appeals an order of the superior court denying its petition for writs of mandamus and prohibition to restrain the Santa Barbara City Administrator and Employee Relations officer from holding an election of city employees to determine whether they wished to be represented in their labor negotiations with the City of Santa Barbara (hereinafter referred to as the City) by Local 660 or by the real party in interest, Santa Barbara County Employees Association (hereinafter referred to as SBCEA).

FACTS

In 1971 the City adopted chapter 3.12 of the Santa Barbara Municipal Code, also known as the Santa Barbara Employer-Employee Relations Ordinance (hereinafter referred to as the Ordinance), to provide for administration of employer-employee relations between the City and various employee organizations representing City employees.

In June 1979 during the term of an existing Memorandum of Understanding (hereinafter referred to as MOU) between the City and Service Employees International Union, Local 620 (hereinafter referred to as Local 620), Local 660 sought to replace Local 620 as the majority representative of City employees in the general employee's bargaining unit. On June 13, 1979, the City, Local 660 and Local 620 entered an agreement providing for conduct of a decertification election. As a result of the election, Local 660 replaced Local 620 as the majority representative of the general employee's bargaining unit.

Pursuant to the Meyers-Milias-Brown Act (Gov.Code, § 3500 et seq., hereinafter referred to as the MMBA) Local 660 and the City entered into an MOU covering the wages, hours and other terms and conditions of employment for employees of the City in the general employee's bargaining unit. The MOU recognizes Local 660 as the exclusive bargaining representative of the employees in the general employee's bargaining unit ¹ for the term of the contract, June 30, 1979, to June 30, 1982. ² The MOU was accepted by the City through a majority vote of the City Council.

On March 27, 1980, the SBCEA submitted to the City Administrator two petitions signed by a majority of City employees who held positions in, respectively, (1) airport and harbor patrol and (2) water treatment classifications. Each petition requested a decertification election be held to decertify Local 660 as the petitioners' majority representative These petitions were not acted upon until June 15, 1980, when SBCEA renewed its request for creation of the two new bargaining units and the conduct of a decertification election. On July 22, 1980, the City's Municipal Employee Relations Officer, Richard Thomas, unilaterally without bargaining with Local 660 or conducting a hearing, determined that the two proposed bargaining units were appropriate bargaining units within the meaning of section 3.12.090 of the Ordinance and granted SBCEA's request for a decertification election. The election was to be conducted under the supervision of the State Conciliation Service for the purpose of allowing the employees in the newly created water resources bargaining unit and public security bargaining unit to vote on decertification of Local 660 and certification of SBCEA as majority representative.

and to recognize SBCEA as exclusive representative of a new bargaining unit representing these employee classifications.

On September 5 Local 660 petitioned the Santa Barbara Superior Court for peremptory writs of mandamus and prohibition seeking to restrain the City from conducting the decertification election in the specific job classifications concerned. The matter was heard before Judge Boden of the superior court and on October 17 the court issued its order denying Local 660's petition for mandamus and prohibition to prevent the decertification election. Local 660's subsequent petition for writ of supercedeas to stay enforcement of the trial court's order was thereafter denied by the court of appeal.

On November 24, 1980, the decertification election took place. Local 660 was decertified as to the newly created water resources and public security bargaining units.

On December 2, 1980, the trial court entered its final judgment denying peremptory writs of mandamus and prohibition, together with its findings of fact and conclusions of law. The court found mandamus inappropriate on the following grounds: (1) the threatened actions of Richard Thomas were neither judicial nor quasi-judicial in nature; (2) neither he nor the City was required under the MMBA to meet and confer with Local 660 regarding the appropriateness of the new bargaining units or to conduct a hearing thereon; and (3) the MOU between Local 660 and the City does not bar a decertification election as to the new bargaining units.

ISSUES

Local 660 contends on appeal (1) that the superior court erred in holding that an MOU between an exclusive bargaining representative and a public employer governed by the MMBA does not bar a decertification election during the term of the contract; (2) that an existing bargaining unit can be changed or altered only through collective bargaining with the recognized exclusive bargaining representative for that unit; and (3) that if an existing bargaining unit can be changed or altered through a process other than collective bargaining with the exclusive bargaining representative for that unit, an administrative hearing and a right to appeal are mandatory under the due process and equal protection clauses of the United States and California Constitutions.

DISCUSSION

I

Local 660 first contends that the "contract bar" doctrine, as developed by the National Labor Relations Board (hereinafter referred to as the NLRB), should be applied in the instant case to invalidate an employee election and decertification which was conducted during the three-year term of a collective bargaining agreement between the union and the City. Determination of this question depends on interpretation of applicable sections of the MMBA. (Gov.Code, § 3500 et seq.) The MMBA expresses state policy regarding the collective bargaining rights for most California public employees.

Briefly, the MMBA confers on public employees the statutory right to be represented Pursuant to this authority, the City has established its own labor relations procedures, codified in its Ordinance as chapter 3.12 of the Municipal Code. Section 3.12.100 of the Ordinance ³ authorizes the City Administrator to revoke exclusive recognition of an elected majority representative of a particular bargaining unit once a secret ballot election shows that the recognized exclusive bargaining agent no longer represents a majority of employees in the unit. It also prohibits any challenge to the recognized status of an elected majority representative during the 12 months immediately following recognition. In this respect, section 3.12.100 parallels that provision of Government Code section 3507 which permits revocation of majority representative status "only after a period of not less than 12 months following the date of such recognition." Thus, under the applicable statutes and municipal regulations, an election determining majority representative status conceivably could be held every 12 months.

by employee organizations of their choice. (Gov.Code, §§ 3500, 3502.) This right is subject to the limitations of section 3507, subdivision (d), which permits local governing bodies to adopt rules and regulations providing for exclusive recognition of employee organizations selected by majority vote of the employees in the particular employee's bargaining unit.

Local 660 contends that an existing MOU entered into by the City and the majority representative for a term of three years operates as a "contract bar" superseding the right of public employees to vote on the question of majority representation every 12 months. The "contract bar" doctrine was developed by the NLRB as an administrative policy designed to "protect the bargaining atmosphere." (Pioneer Inn Associates v. N.L.R.B. (9th Cir. 1978) 578 F.2d 835, 838.) It prevents conduct of a decertification election during the life of a valid collective bargaining contract, which may be of up to three years duration. (General Cable Corp. (1962) 139 NLRB 1123 (51 LRR M 1444).)

Federal labor relation legislation has frequently served as the prototype for California labor enactments, and accordingly, the courts have looked to the federal law for guidance in interpreting state provisions when the language utilized parallels that of the federal statutes. (Social Workers Union, Local 535 v. Alameda County Welfare Dept. (1974) 11 Cal.3d 382, 391, 113 Cal.Rptr. 461, 521 P.2d 453; Fire Fighters Union v. City of Vallejo (1974) 12 Cal.3d 608, 616, 116 Cal.Rptr. 507, 526 P.2d 971.) ⁴

Both the National Labor Relations Act (hereinafter referred to as the NLRA) ⁵ and the MMBA ⁶ contain similar language restricting decertification elections within 12 months succeeding a representation election but neither statute contains legislative direction or guidelines governing the principles of a contract bar. As a result, the NLRB has developed rules "solely as a matter of administrative discretion under the broad authority delegated to it by Congress under the NLRA." (Cadiz v. Agricultural Labor Relations Bd. ...