El Rancho Unified School District v. National Education Ass'n ( 1983 )

RICHARDSON, J.

I concur in the judgment, but only under the compulsion of San Diego Teachers Assn. v. Superior Court (1979) 24 Cal.3d 1 [154 Cal.Rptr. 893, 593 P.2d 838], in which I dissented.

As I explained in my dissent in that case, public employees’ strikes are illegal in this state. (Los Angeles Met. Transit Authority v. Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen (1960) 54 Cal.2d 684, 687 [8 Cal.Rptr. 1, 355 P.2d 905]; see Pasadena Unified Sch. Dist. v. Pasadena Federation of Teachers (1977) 72 Cal.App.3d 100, 105-107 [140 Cal.Rptr. 41]; Los Angeles Unified School Dist. v. United Teachers (1972) 24 Cal.App.3d 142, 145, 146 [100 Cal.Rptr. 806]; Trustees of Cal. State Colleges v. Local 1352, S.F. State etc. Teachers (1970) 13 Cal.App.3d 863, 867 [92 Cal.Rptr. 134]; City of San Diego v. American Federation of State etc. Employees (1970) 8 Cal.App.3d 308 [87 Cal.Rptr. 258]; Almond v. County of Sacramento (1969) 276 Cal.App.2d 32 [80 Cal.Rptr. 518].) This court should no longer continue its hesitant, tentative ritual dance around the perimeter of this central legal principle, but honestly, openly, and forthrightly enforce it. The Education Employees Relations Act (EERA) (Gov. Code, § 3540 et seq.) does not create any exception to this rule in favor of public school employees. Accordingly, it is my view that courts retain their traditional jurisdiction to restrain and punish illegal public strikes, and the Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) should be precluded from exercising exclusive jurisdiction over such strikes or from doing any act which either sanctions or encourages such unlawful conduct. (San Diego Teachers Assn. v. Superior Court, supra, 24 Cal.3d at p. 20 [dis. opn.].)

Unfortunately, a majority of the court in San Diego Teachers, supra, 24 Cal.3d 1, ruled in favor of PERB’s exclusive jurisdiction in illegal public employee strike cases. In the absence of some remedial legislation clarifying EERA or abrogating the majority’s San Diego Teachers holding, the principles expressed in that case probably control here.