GENERAL LEGAL PRINCIPLES; WAIVER – By Contract/Zipper Clauses/Management Rights Clauses

Single Topic for Decision 3054E

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Board rejected Alliance’s argument that UTLA’s execution of the Interim MOUs estopped UTLA from alleging that Alliance failed to bargain in good faith. Alliance argued that since UTLA received the benefit of the Interim MOUs, it could not dispute Alliance’s good faith in bargaining up to and including July 31, 2025, the date the parties executed the Interim MOUs. The gravamen of UTLA’s bad faith bargaining allegations concerned Alliance’s refusal to ratify the TAs, first on July 10, 2025, and next on September 10, 2025, and its subsequent conduct. Even if the recitals in the Interim MOUs could have bound UTLA as to conduct through July 31, 2025, nothing in the recitals came close to approaching a waiver of UTLA’s right to challenge Alliance’s conduct after that date. (Modoc County Office of Education (2019) PERB Decision No. 2684, p. 11 [“waiver of statutory rights must be ‘clear and unmistakable,’ and the evidence must demonstrate an ‘intentional relinquishment’ of a given right”].) There was ample evidence of Alliance’s bad faith post-dating the Interim MOUs to find that it violated its statutory obligations under EERA. (p. 42)