Service Employees International Union, Local 1000 v. Department of Personnel Administration

The trial court sustained the State of California’s demurrer to a union’s complaint challenging the state’s refusal to permit work site distribution of material supporting a ballot proposition. The court held the union was first required to arbitrate the question of whether the materials were of a “partisan political nature” within the meaning of prohibitory language in a collective bargaining agreement. On appeal, the union contends the state’s interpretation of the disputed contractual language constitutes a deprivation of its federal and state constitutional right to freely communicate with its members and such a general policy operates as a prior restraint on free speech, thereby inflicting irreparable harm. We agree with the trial court that the union’s failure to exhaust its arbitration remedy bars its premature civil action, and therefore, we affirm the judgment of dismissal.

FACTS

The Service Employees International Union, Local 1000 (CSEA) (the union) entered into various collective bargaining agreements with the State of California (the state). The agreements allow the distribution of union materials, literature, and information before or after work hours or…