EMPLOYER INTERFERENCE, RESTRAINT, COERCION; INTERFERENCE WITH STRIKES AND PICKETING: LOCKOUTS – Post-Strike Furloughs

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County engaged in facial discrimination when it granted preference to non-strikers over strikers by prohibiting striking nurses from returning to work at the end of the strike period for three days unless called to work. Singling out employees who honored picket lines during the strike and reducing their post-strike work opportunities—while granting greater opportunities to employees who did not strike—constitutes facial discrimination under PERB’s discrimination standard and inherently destructive conduct under PERB’s interference standard. (Campbell Municipal Employees Assn. v. City of Campbell (1982) 131 Cal.App.3d 416, 423 [noting that, under NLRB v. Great Dane Trailers, Inc. (1967) 388 U.S. 26, favoring non-strikers over strikers constitutes “discrimination in its simplest form”].) To meet its affirmative defense burden, the County was required to prove that it acted solely due to circumstances beyond its control and no alternative course of action was available. (Contra Costa County Fire Protection District (2019) PERB Decision No. 2632-M, pp. 36 & 40.)