American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees v. County of Los Angeles

Appellants, Local 119 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (Union) petitioned the superior court to issue a peremptoiy writ mandating respondents, the County of Los Angeles and its department of personnel (County) to negotiate with Union in respect of job classifications. The trial court denied the writ and this appeal, follows.

Public employees as distinguished from private employees in California do not have the right to bargain collectively or to strike absent an enabling statute. (City of San Diego v. American Federation of State etc. Employees (1970) 8 Cal.App.3d 308, 311 [ 87 Cal.Rptr. 258 ]; Almond v. County of Sacramento (1969) 276 Cal.App.2d 32 [ 80 Cal.Rptr. 518 ].) In 1968 the state enacted the Meyer-Milias-Brown Act (MMBA) (Gov. Code, §§ 3500-3510) which authorized public employees to bargain with governmental entities and encouraged the entities to negotiate and consult with its employees. (Almond v. County of Sacramento, supra.)

County in 1968, conforming to the legislative policy of MMBA enacted Ordinance 9646 entitled Employees Relations Ordinance (ERO). Section 7 of ERO creates a commission of three herein referred to as…