State Bd. of Regents v. United Packing House Food and Allied Workers, Local No. 1258

• Decision Date: 10 February 1970
• Docket Number: AFL-CI,J,No. 53565,No. 1258,1258,53565
• Citation: 175 N.W.2d 110
• Parties: 73 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2529 STATE BOARD OF REGENTS, State of Iowa, Appellant, v. UNITED PACKING HOUSE FOOD AND ALLIED WORKERS, LOCAL NO. 1258 affiliated with the United Packing House Workers of America,ohn Walton, Individually, and as President of Said Association, Richard Kammeyer, Individually, and as Vice-President of Said Association, Kenneth Stock, Individually and as Recording Secretary of Said Association, and Raphe Bramblett, Individually and as Financial Secretary of Said Association, and all Officers, Members, Agents and Representatives of Said United Packing House Food and Allied Workers Localand all Persons Individually and as a Class, who Aid, Abet or Assist the Foregoing Named Defendants, or any of Them, Appellee.
• Court: Iowa Supreme Court

Page 110

175 N.W.2d 110

73 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2529

STATE BOARD OF REGENTS, State of Iowa, Appellant, v. UNITED PACKING HOUSE FOOD AND ALLIED WORKERS, LOCAL NO. 1258 affiliated with the United Packing House Workers of America, AFL-CIO, John Walton, Individually, and as President of Said Association, Richard Kammeyer, Individually, and as Vice-President of Said Association, Kenneth Stock, Individually and as Recording Secretary of Said Association, and Raphe Bramblett, Individually and as Financial Secretary of Said Association, and all Officers, Members, Agents and Representatives of Said United Packing House Food and Allied Workers Local No. 1258 and all Persons Individually and as a Class, who Aid, Abet or Assist the Foregoing Named Defendants, or any of Them, Appellee.

No. 53565.

Supreme Court of Iowa.

Feb. 10, 1970.

Leo M. Baker, Reed, Merner, Sindlinger, Baker & Sabbath, Cedar Falls, for appellant.

C. A. Frerichs, Fulton, Frerichs, Nutting & Kennedy, Waterloo, for appellee.

STUART, Justice.

Sometime prior to February 20, 1968, the non-academic personnel who operate the physical plant of the University of Northern Iowa (UNI) organized themselves into a union and received a charter as Local No. 1258 United Packing House Food and Allied Workers of America ALF-CIO (UPWA). On February 20, 1968 the union and its members struck against plaintiff, who has the administrative authority over U.N.I., and established picket lines. Plaintiff brought this action which ultimately resulted in a permanent injunction:

'* * * enjoining and restraining the defendants and each of them individually and collectively from engaging in a strike or concerted work stoppage against the University of Northern Iowa and from picketing on or near the campus or in the vicinity of the campus * * * in furtherance of any strike or conserted work stoppage or for the purpose of coercing plaintiff to bargain collectively with the defendant union Local No. 1258 * * * except that nothing contained herein shall be deemed to prevent informational picketing which in no way interferes with or impedes the operation of the University of Northern Iowa.'

Plaintiff appealed from that part of the Ruling and Order and Decree which holds the Board of Regents has the power to enter into collective bargaining and collective bargaining agreements.

Defendants appealed from that portion of the injunctive order which prohibits them from picketing the campus for the purpose of coercing plaintiff to bargain collectively with defendant union.

Because of the narrow questions presented by this appeal, it might be helpful to point out that the following propositions are accepted as the law of the case. (1) Public employees have the right to organize and join labor organizations. (2) Public employees do not have the right to strike. (3) Defendants have the right to picket for informational purposes if the picketing does not interfere with or impede the operation of the university.

I. Does the Board of Regents, as the administrative agency of the state charged with the duty to operating the state institutions of higher learning, have the power and authority to bargain collectively with defendant union?

The employer-employee relationship in public employment 'is governed by statutory law and administrative regulation, it is not fixed, either in whole or in part, by contract, as in the field of private industry'. City of Los Angeles v. Los Angeles Bldg. & C. Tr. Council, 94 Cal.App.2d 36, 210 P.2d 305, 310. Defendants concede there is no specific legislation giving the board such authority. They rely on the rule of statutory construction that whenever a power is conferred by statute, everything necessary to carry out the power and make it effectual and complete will be implied. Koelling v. Board of Trustees of Mary F. Skiff Memorial Hospital (1966), 259 Iowa 1185, 1194, 146 N.W.2d 284, 290, and citations; Wichita Public Schools Emp. U. Local No. 513 v. Smith (1964), 194 Kan. 2, 397 P.2d 357, 359. They claim the authority is necessarily implied in section 262.9(2)(4)(7)(11), Code of Iowa which gives the Regents the general power to hire employees, fix their salaries and wages, direct the expenditure of money and to perform all other acts necessary and proper for the execution of the powers and duties conferred by law upon it.

The answer to the question depends upon the definition of the term 'collective bargaining'. Neither party nor the trial court defines the term. There is a vast difference between implying authority in the Regents to meet with selected representatives of a group of employees to discuss wages, working conditions and grievances on behalf of those who have agreed to such representation and implying authority in the Regents to recognize the union as the exclusive employee representative for collective bargaining on behalf of all employees.

It is not clear for which concept of collective bargaining the parties are contending. Plaintiff seems to take the position that all sort of representative bargaining and discussion is improper without specific authority. In oral argument counsel for defendant stated that if one person spoke for himself and another this was 'collective bargaining'. However, their brief contains extensive quotes from Richard F. Dole, Jr., State and Local Public Employee Collective Bargaining in the Absence of Explicit Legislative Authorization, 54 Iowa L.Rev. 539, 542--543, which is focused 'on the legality of negotiating and contracting with an exclusive employee representative, and that is the sense in which collective bargaining is hereafter used. As a practical matter, execution of a collective bargaining contract almost never occurs without some form of exclusive recognition.'

The power to hire employees, fix their salaries and wages, direct expenditures of money and to perform all other acts necessary and proper for the execution of the powers and duties conferred upon the Regents carries with it the power and authority to confer and consult with representatives of the employees in order to make its judgment as to wages and working conditions. We hold the Regents have authority to engage in collective bargaining in this context.

'A public employer's general power to carry out its assigned functions is sufficiently inclusive to permit consultation with all persons affected by those functions. * * * This consultation serves the public interest by permitting informed governmental action without abridging governmental freedom of action.' Dole, ibid., 54 Iowa L.Rev. at 542.

'In order to react to the validity of the assertion that such a general concept of collective bargaining does constitute a serious invasion of school board authority, it seems necessary to delineate fully what is legally meant by collective bargaining. The concept of what constitutes good faith collective bargaining has been worked out to a large extent by the federal courts and the National Labor Relations Board in interpreting Section 8(d) of the National Labor Relations Act, which by its specific language imposes a duty on employers and unions to 'meet at reasonable times and confer in good faith with respect to wages, hours and other terms and conditions of employment' and goes on to state 'such obligation does not compel either party to agree to a proposal or require the making of a concession'.

'* * * It is submitted that the guide lines laid down by the National Labor Relations Board and the Federal courts establish a valid concept of good faith collective bargaining. Indeed those who indulge in voluntary bargaining may very well want to follow much the same pattern.' Seitz, Legal Aspects of Public School Teacher Negotiating And Participating In Concerted Activities. 49 Marquette Law Review 487, 489. (Emphasis supplied.)

'An appreciation of the principles set forth helps to give realistic meaning to the term good faith collective bargaining and has convinced certain courts and legislative bodies that permitting public school employees to bargain collectively does not invade school board authority. Essentially this is because even though collective bargaining does place certain responsibilities upon the employer, thre is nothing in the principle stated which forces capitulation to demands. It does not, therefore, appear accurate to assert that school boards are forced to delegate away authority. * * *

'It is, of course, apparent that when the school board undertakes collective bargaining, as it has been defined, it undertakes burdens which it does not need to assume if it does not bargain collectively. The assumption, however, of these burdens does not mean that the board has delegated away its authority.' Seitz, ibid., 49 Marquette Law Review at 493.

The Board of Regents has the power and authority to meet with representatives of an employee's union to discuss wages, working conditions and grievances if it so desires. It can do so without becoming obligated to meet with the representatives of any other group of employees. The agreed terms could be adopted by the Regents in a proper legislative manner. Such action does not involve an improper delegation of legislative powers to private persons as there is no compulsion to sign an agreement and the final decision remains in the Board of Regents.

On the other hand, if the legislature desires to give public employees the advantages of collective bargaining in the full sense as it is used in private industry, it should do so by specific legislation to that effect. We cannot imply authority under these general powers to agree to exclusive representation, depriving other employees of the right to be represented by a group of their choosing or an individual the right to represent himself. Dole, in 54 Iowa L.Rev. 539, presents many sound reasons why collective bargaining, with limitations, should be authorized for public employees. But the limitations, provisos and exceptions which the author...