Missouri supreme court hears oral arguments in case about public-sector collective-bargaining rights
The Missouri supreme court has heard oral arguments in a case between a school district and unions over whether the Missouri Constitution’s guarantee of collective-bargaining rights extends to public-sector employees. The court has long said the answer to that question is no. At issue is an April 2002 decision by the school board that altered the way it negotiated salaries and working conditions for teachers and other employees. In their legal briefs, the unions said Missouri supreme court precedents that gave the employees little power to fight the policy change are "at odds … with the modern recognition that meaningful public sector labor relations promote the goal of labor peace." The school district argued that the court’s stance is good public policy, especially in this case, because the possible disruption in schools is at odds with the "paramount importance" of education.
Kansas City Star
By Mike Sherry
[Full story]
[Editor’s Note: The court has posted a summary of the case and the arguments made by the parties and amici, along with their briefs, below; scroll down past the information on the first case argued the same day. The unions are urging the court to reconsider its 60-year-old ruling in Springfield v. Clouse, 206 S.W.2d 539 (Mo. 1947), which they argue is based on discredited legal doctrine, as well as its more recent ruling in Sumpter v. City of Moberly, 645 S.W.2d 359 (Mo. 1982). The school district argues that collective bargaining contracts stifle improvements in education, benefit employees at the expense of students, thwart the government's ability to provide education, drain schools' limited financial resources at the expense of children, hinder compliance with the No Child Left Behind Act, and would be contrary to Missouri’s statutorily established system for local control of education through a local governing body directly accountable to the people.
The Missouri School Boards’ Association (MSBA), joined by the Missouri Municipal League (MML), argues in its brief that the lower court properly recognized that collective bargaining in the public sector would be harmful to public entities and that the state’s public sector labor law already provides for organized conversations between public entities and their employees. The American Federation of Teachers-Missouri asserts that collective bargaining for public employees is good public policy, including in education. In January the same court heard arguments in a separate case, Reichert v. Board of Education of the City of St. Louis, over this and other issues.]
[Missouri Supreme Court information on Independence-National Educ. Ass’n, et al. v. Independence Sch. Dist.]