UNFAIR PRACTICE ISSUES; STRIKES, SLOWDOWNS AND WORK STOPPAGES – In General

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The right to strike is qualified. Modesto City Schools (1983) PERB Decision No. 291 noted that the right is qualified only to the extent that it is inconsistent with another EERA provision—the duty to bargain in good faith. (Id. at pp. 62-63.) Specifically, a strike is a bad faith pressure tactic to the extent that it: (1) imminently and substantially threatens the public health or safety (County Sanitation Dist. No. 2 v. Los Angeles County Employees Assn. (1985) 38 Cal.3d 564); County of San Mateo (2019) PERB Order No. IR-60-M, pp. 6-9; Sacramento County Superior Court (2015) PERB Order No. IR-59-C, pp. 2-4); (2) uses tactics in which employees retain the benefits of working and striking at the same time (Regents of the University of California (2019) PERB Order No. IR-62-H, pp. 6-10; Sweetwater Union High School District (2014) PERB Order No. IR-58, p. 16, fn. 11); (3) constitutes a unilateral change in the status quo as set forth in an operative no-strike agreement (San Francisco County Superior Court & Region 2 Court Interpreter Employment Relations Com. (2018) PERB Decision No. 2609-I, pp. 7-10 [discussing allegation that union deviated from contractual no-strike clause when employees honored picket lines of another union]; City of San Jose (2013) PERB Decision No. 2341-M, pp. 34-36 [strike over reopener bargaining does not normally violate no-strike clause]); or (4) constitutes bad faith bargaining because it is a pre-impasse attempt to bring economic pressure on an employer to make concessions in collective bargaining. (pp. 20, 23-33.)