Court and Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) decisions, commentary on California public sector labor relations

I previously wrote about AB 155 (DeSaulnier, D-Concord), which would have prohibited municipalities from declaring bankruptcy without first obtaining approval from the California Debt and Investment Advisory Commission.  AB 155 was sponsored by unions hoping to prevent another “Vallejo” situation from occurring.  Fortunately, AB 155 got bogged down in committee and was going no where fast.  Unfortunately, the provisions in AB 155 have now been resurrected into SB 88 in a “gut and amend.”As I stated previously, I believe such a bill is completely unnecessary. I think the bankruptcy court’s recent decision in Vallejo throwing out the IBEW contract actually supports my…

In re Vallejo (U.S.E.D. Bankruptcy Case No. 08-26813-A-9) (Issued 8/31/09)The federal judge hearing the City of Vallejo’s bankruptcy case has tossed out the MOU between the City and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW). The City had initially asked the court to toss out all its MOUs.  However, the City was able to reach agreements with all its unions, with the sole exception of the IBEW.  Even the firefighters—the group most responsible for pushing the City into bankruptcy—agreed to dissolve their MOU in exchange for an expedited negotiations process for a new one.  The last holdout was the IBEW.Most observers…

The National Law Journal just did an article on the likely effect of the Maryland furlough case and also a recent case out of Hawaii. The article includes some comments I provided the reporter on the potential effect (really, none) of those cases in California. The article can be found here.

Fraternal Order of Police v. Prince Geroge's County (U.S. District Court, Maryland) (Issued on 8/18/09)Unions representing public employees throughout the nation have been crowing about a recent federal court decision in Maryland finding that Prince George’s County violated the federal Constitution when it furloughed nearly 6,000 county employees for 80 hours during fiscal year 2009.FactsFacing a $57 million budget deficit, the county implemented a furlough plan for employees. The unions sued the county arguing that the furlough plan violated the Contracts Clause of the Constitution. The district court agreed. The court held that the furloughs substantially impaired the bargaining agreements…

I’ve been following with interest a battle over a minimum staffing initiative in the City of Alameda (City). In January of this year, the City began engine company “brownouts” because of the budget crisis. In response, the firefighters’ union began circulating a petition for a local ballot measure that would mandate a minimum staffing level of 27 firefighters per shift. At the time, the City had 24 firefighters per shift.In March, while the petition was still circulating, the City took the unusual step of filing a lawsuit against the measure’s backers. The City argued that the measure constituted “an improper…