Below is our letter of support for AB-672:
Dear Assemblymember Caloza,
The Council of University of California Faculty Associations (CUCFA) strongly supports AB-672. Our members are faculty at the University of California (UC) and employees protected by the Higher Education Employer-Employee Relations Act (HEERA). Many stood in solidarity with our students and co-workers in UAW Local 4811 during their May-June 2024 unfair labor practice (ULP) strike against the UC. Some of our members withdrew their own labor as part of this dispute, as is their right under HEERA. CUCFA lodged its own ULP against UC in September 2024. That case is now pending at PERB, which we respect as the body that makes these decisions.
After being twice rebuffed in its applications directly to PERB, the UC did an end-run around the agency designated by the Legislature to have exclusive jurisdiction over the ULP question at the heart of the dispute. By successfully forum-shopping in its third bite at the apple, the UC obtained a temporary restraining order (TRO) from a Superior Court judge in seeming disregard of California’s “Little Norris-LaGuardia Act” sharply restricting judicial injunctive relief that suppresses strikes. [1] This action directly threatened not only Local 4811’s right to strike but also solidarity actions by other UC employees like our members.
Repetition of this scenario poses a grave threat to PERB’s authority and the rights of all public employees in California. PERB has deep experience in labor law, which is especially important in an emergency situation where a party seeks a TRO in hours or days. PERB also provides statewide uniformity to issues that affect public employees across the state. Because such labor disputes are often statewide issues, they create significant opportunities for forum shopping by public employers seeking a more favorable audience for their claims.
AB-672 is a very modest response to this serious problem. By ensuring that PERB has notice of any action for injunctive relief in Superior Court and the right to intervene in that action, it ensures that a Superior Court judge will have before them the agency assigned exclusive jurisdiction over ULPs and be able to present the interests in respecting that jurisdiction. Stronger action should be taken to curtail abuses like those that occurred last June, but this is a step in the right direction.
Sincerely,
Constance Penley,
President, Council of UC Faculty Associations
and Professor of Film and Media Studies, UCSB
[1] For more detailed discussion of both these legal problems, see two essays written by a UC labor law professor who is also a member of one of our campus faculty associations. Noah Zatz, The University of California Strike Injunction (Part 1), OnLabor, June 24, 2024; Noah Zatz, The UC Strike Injunction’s Second Fatal Flaw, OnLabor, June 25, 2024.