Acuff

This case concerns the application of Unemployment Insurance Code section 1262 which renders ineligible for unemployment compensation employees who leave work because of a trade dispute. The petitioners are striking employees whose employer implemented a wage reduction after their collective bargaining agreement expired. As the wage reduction was an issue expressly tendered in negotiations which had reached an impasse, we shall conclude the statutory “trade dispute” disqualification renders these petitioners ineligible for unemployment compensation during the period they were on strike.

I

Petitioners are individual claimants who applied for unemployment compensation from the Employment Development Department (EDD) for the period they were on strike against their employer, real party in interest, Greyhound Lines, Inc. (Greyhound). The strike lasted 47 days from November 3, 1983, through December 19, 1983. EDD denied benefits by reason of Unemployment Insurance Code section 1262, which provides: “An individual is not eligible for unemployment compensation benefits, and no such benefits shall be payable to him, if he left his work because of a trade dispute. Such…