Recently, the Public Employee Relations Board (“PERB”) ruled
that a union representative engaged in MMBA-protected advocacy by sending
e-mails to the County Board of Supervisors in order to persuade the Supervisors
to direct the County to put “money on the table.”
In County of Tulare,
Charging Party, v. Service Employees International Union Local 521, Respondent;
Service Employees International Union Local 521, Charging Party, v. County of
Tulare, Respondent 44 PERC ¶ 141, Tulare County filed an unfair labor
practice charge alleging that Service Employees International Union (“SEIU”) violated
the Meyers-Milias-Brown
Act (“MMBA”) by engaging in bad faith bargaining during negotiations for a
memorandum of understanding (MOU).
Specifically, the Tulare County claimed that SEIU unit
representative Kermit Wullschleger lost the MMBA’s protection for advocacy when
he sent several e-mails to the County’s Board of Supervisors advocating
proposals that had already been made in prior negotiations. The county claimed
this was an MMBA violation because it was “direct dealing.”
However, PERB did not find that Wullschleger’s behavior was
an unfair labor practice. In fact, PERB clarified that: “an exclusive
representative has a right to engage in direct and indirect advocacy with an
employer’s elected and unelected officials, up to and including the employer’s
highest levels, provided that the exclusive representative does not make new
collective bargaining proposals that the exclusive representative has not
already made in negotiations with the employer’s chosen bargaining team.” As the PERB decision highlighted, the union
was “well within its right to public advocacy.”
This is an important reminder that Union negotiations teams
are permitted to directly advocate with their respective Board of Supervisors
during contract negotiations.
