City of San Jose v. Operating Engineers Local Union No. 3
Opinion
Opinion
Jennifer B. Henning, for Amicus curiae, California State Association of Counties and League of California Cities.
Altshuler, Berzon, Nussbaum, Rubin & Demain, Jonathan Weissglass, Linda Lye, San Francisco, for Amicus curiae, California State Council of Service Employees.
Robert Thompson, General Counsel, Robin Wesley, Tammy Samsel, for Amicus curiae, Public Employment Relations Board.
Office of the County Counsel, Ann Miller Ravel, County Counsel, Nancy J. Clark, Assistant County Counsel, Lori E. Pegg, Lead Deputy County Counsel, for Amicus curiae, County of Santa Clara.
McADAMS, J.
When a strike involving statutory unfair labor practice claims is threatened by public employees whose services are essential to municipal health and safety, who has jurisdiction over the dispute: the superior court or the Public Employment Relations Board? As the trial court correctly determined, the agency has exclusive initial jurisdiction. We therefore affirm the order challenged here.
The statute at the heart of this case is the Meyers-Milias-Brown Act (MMBA), codified at Government Code sections 3500-3511. [1] The MMBA "governs collective bargaining and employer-employee relations for most…