International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local Union 1245 v. City of Gridley

Public employee strikes are illegal. They cannot and should not be condoned. To permit, for example, the firemen of the City of Gridley to instigate a strike is to permit them to hold hostage to their demands the very lives and property of the citizens of Gridley. My colleagues should forthrightly, clearly, and unmistakably acknowledge this. (See San Diego Teacher’s Assn. v. Superior Court (1979) 24 Cal.3d 1, 15-18 [ 154 Cal.Rptr. 893 , 593 P.2d 838 ], dis. opn.) It follows that the employees of the public works, fire and finance departments of the City of Gridley were acting outside the law when they struck. It is with this underlying principle in mind that I concur insofar as it may appear that the record is inadequate to determine whether the City of Gridley’s failure to afford its employees a pretermination hearing violated its own rule allowing dismissal “for stated cause” thereby resulting in prejudice to some or all of those employees. Accordingly, remand to flesh out the record on those issues and to provide any appropriate relief appears warranted.

I respectfully dissent, however, from the majority’s attempt to rewrite the Meyers-Milias-Brown Act (Gov. Code, § 3500 et…

Plaintiffs, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local Union 1245 (union) and some of its members, appeal from a judgment denying their petition for writ of mandate and complaint for injunctive relief. They seek mandate to compel defendant, the City of Gridley (city), to meet and confer with the union regarding wages, hours and other terms and conditions of employment and an injunction requiring the city to reinstate union members’ employment until or unless they are discharged for cause pursuant to adequate pretermination notice and hearing.

This case presents two issues; (1) May a local government, consistent with the Meyers-Milias-Brown Act (Gov. Code, § 3500 et seq., hereinafter MMBA or the act), 1 revoke the recognition of a public employee union *195 because the union has instigated a strike? and (2) Are noncivil service employees who have engaged in a strike entitled to notice and hearing before dismissal, when city personnel rules provide that discharge must be “for stated cause,” and the city has discretion to impose sanctions less severe than dismissal? We conclude that the MMBA’s protection of employees’ rights to participate in organizations of…

John M. Powers, City Attorney (Vallejo), Carter J. Stroud, City Attorney (Alameda), William P. Hopkins, City Attorney (Anaheim), William R. Galstan, City Attorney (Antioch), Allen Grimes, City Attorney (Atascadero and Santa Maria), Robin E. Faisant, City Attorney (Atherton), Dallas Holmes, City Attorney (Banning, Corona and Redlands), Charles J. Williams, City Attorney (Benicia, Lafayette and Moraga), Samuel Gorlick, City Attorney (Burbank), Jerome F. Coleman, City Attorney (Burlingame), Royal M. Sorensen, City Attorney (Camarillo and Downey), Richard Hargrove, City Attorney (Chowchilla, Firebaugh, Fowler, Kingsburg and Parlier), Marvin E. Helon, City Attorney (Clovis), S. William Abel, City Attorney (Colusa), William Camil, City Attorney (Commerce, Duarte and Santa Fe Springs), C.A. Stromsness, City Attorney (Corning and Red Bluff), Roger W. Krauel, City Attorney (Coronado), Thomas C. Wood, City Attorney (Costa Mesa), P. Lawrence Klose, City Attorney (Davis), Ronald E. Moe, City Attorney (Dixon), Michael C. Miller, City Attorney (Dorris), Lynn R. McDougal, City Attorney (El Cajon), Sidney Maleck, City Attorney (El Monte), Michael D. Milich, City Attorney (Escalon and Riverbank),…