International Union of United Automobile Aerospace & Agricultural Implement Workers v. Department of Human Resources Development

This is an appeal from a judgment denying the issuance of a peremptory writ of mandamus commanding respondent California Department of Human Resources Development (the Department) to reverse decisions of the California Unemployment Insurance *927 Appeals Board which denied the petitioners’ claims for unemployment insurance benefits.

Facts

The 10 individual petitioners are all members of the petitioner union, International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America (UAW). The individual petitioners are automobile assemblers employed by Respondent General Motors Corporation (the real party in interest), at its automobile assembly plant in South Gate, California. This plant closes each summer for a short period of time, generally from one to four weeks, in order to make tooling changes for new automobile models. Consequently, the individual petitioners, together with most of their co-employees, were temporarily laid off on July 19, 1973. Each of the individual petitioners was given a specific recall date. 1 Individuals so laid off are eligible for unemployment insurance benefits under section 1252 of the Unemployment Insurance Code. 2…