Schwarzenegger

In these mandamus proceedings, the Attorney General and the union representing the lawyers in his office, among others, assert that the failure of the collective bargaining process under the State Employer-Employee Relations Act (SEERA; Gov. Code, § 3512 et seq.) has caused a *427 compensation crisis compromising public service and threatening the Attorney General’s ability to uniformly and adequately enforce the law. Twenty-eight years ago the dissenters in Pacific Legal Foundation v. Brown (1981) 29 Cal.3d 168 [ 172 Cal.Rptr. 487 , 624 P.2d 1215 ] (Pacific Legal Foundation) perceived a conflict between the mandate imposed upon the State Personnel Board (SPB) to enforce a civil service system “based on merit” and the collective bargaining process mandated by SEERA. (29 Cal.3d at pp. 203-209 (dis. opn. of Richardson, J.).)

Suggesting the dissenters were prescient, the union argues, “[t]he end result of an unfettered application of the collective bargaining system is that the legal professionals in Bargaining Unit 2 are being grossly under-compensated compared to those in other civil service job classifications” to the detriment of merit principles. The union asks this…

This litigation falls under the category of “be careful what you ask for.”

Edmund G. Brown, Jr., as a candidate for Governor in the general election of 1974, “said repeatedly” that he favored the passage of a bill to authorize collective bargaining for state employees, a goal that “[s]weeping victories for labor-endorsed candidates” was “expected to ensure” (Bernstein, Labor Bills’ Chances Improve, L.A. Times (Nov. 8, 1974) p. Cl). Victorious on election day, Governor Brown used his influence the following year to conduct “marathon talks to get a consensus behind a collective bargaining bill” for state employees (Bernstein, Brown Pursues Public Employee Bargaining Bill, L.A. Times (June 13, 1975) p. Cl). The effort succeeded when in 1977, Governor Brown “signed SB 839 (Dills, D-Gardena) enacting the State Employer-Employee Relations Act providing most state employees with meet and confer rights similar to those given employees of local agencies under the Meyers-Milias-Brown Act” (Press Release, Off. of the Governor, Sept. 30, 1977). The legislation was supported by then Attorney General Evelle J. Younger, who opined, “collective bargaining will assure [state] employees,…