Collective bargaining at issue in educators' court case

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- The Missouri Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case that could eventually lead to collective bargaining rights for public school employees.

The case was brought by a former teacher and a former principal in the Jefferson City School District and their union representative. The three claim the district denied the two employees the ability to file grievances against the district in violation of the Missouri and U.S. constitutions.

Cole County Circuit Court Judge Thomas J. Brown III dismissed the case in June 2001. The Missouri Court of Appeals Western District upheld Brown's action in May.

The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the case Nov. 6. If it overturns the lower courts, a trial would go forward on merits of the plaintiffs' claims.

Prominent labor attorney Ronald C. Gladney of St. Louis is the lead counsel for the plaintiffs. In his application seeking high court review, Gladney said the case "raises significant questions of general interest and importance related to the rights of public employees in Missouri to organize and present grievances through representatives of their own choosing."

The lead attorney for the school district, Thomas A. Mickes of Chesterfield, said in an interview that the case involves a well-settled area of law and is confident the lower courts will be upheld.

"There is really nothing new here," Mickes said. "The preclusion of public employees from collective bargaining has been reviewed by the Supreme Court at least five times since 1947. They've come up with the same conclusion each time."

Retaliation motive

In the present case, Cheryl Thruston says district officials retaliated against her because of her affiliation with the Missouri Federation of Teachers. She sought redress through the district's grievance process, but says the district refused to hear it. At the end of the 1999-2000 school year, the district did not renew her teaching contract.

Fern Ward was a principal in the district that same year. She attempted to file a grievance after the district "severely limited" her duties but says she wasn't allowed to do so. Her contract also was not renewed.

Luana Gifford, the president of the Missouri Federation of Teachers, sought to represent Thruston and Ward on their respective grievances and says the district thwarted her involvement.

The plaintiffs claim they were denied their guarantees of free speech, free association, due process and equal protection under the U.S. Constitution as well as the right to collectively bargain under the Missouri Constitution.

In its opinion upholding the case's dismissal, a three-judge panel of the western district court said the plaintiffs' case was moot. Since the redress they sought was a hearing of their grievances by the district, the court could not grant their request as Thruston and Ward were no longer employed by the district and, therefore, had no standing to pursue a grievance or to seek Gifford's representation.

In court documents, Gladney said the appeals court erred in allowing the district to pull an end-run around his clients' rights.

"A public employer is not permitted to subvert its employees exercise of these rights, and enforcement thereof, by terminating their employment," Gladney said.

Article I, Section 29 of the Missouri Constitution says "That employees shall have the right to organize and to bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing."

Missouri courts, however, have traditionally drawn a distinction between public-sector and private-sector employees in regard to collective bargaining.

Gladney argues that both New York and Florida have constitutional provisions on collective bargaining nearly identical to Missouri's and that courts in those states have extended the right to public workers. However, public employees do have the recognized right to join unions.

Gladney, the husband of Republican U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson of Cape Girardeau, helped to draft, on behalf of the Missouri AFL-CIO, the controversial executive order Democratic Gov. Bob Holden signed last year giving collective bargaining rights to many state employees.

That order is facing an unrelated court challenge from Senate President Pro Tem Peter Kinder, R-Cape Girardeau, and a coalition of business groups and individuals. Brown had dismissed that case, too, but an appeal is pending before the western district court.

mpowers@semissourian.com

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