AI Generated Opinion Summaries

This summary was computer-generated without any editorial revision. It is not official, has not been checked for accuracy, and is NOT citable.

Facts

• The City of Albuquerque and multiple chapters of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (the Unions) were involved in a dispute over the City's refusal to honor expired collective bargaining agreements (CBAs) after their expiration on June 30, 2011. Despite negotiations, no successor CBAs were reached, leading the City to notify the Unions that it would no longer compensate union members for union business conducted during city work time, though it offered leave without pay for union representatives to continue representing employees in various proceedings (para 3).

Procedural History

• District Court of Bernalillo County, Clay P. Campbell, District Judge: Granted the Unions injunctive relief, requiring the City to honor the expired CBAs until new ones were negotiated (para 1).

Parties' Submissions

• Plaintiffs-Appellees (the Unions): Argued that the Public Employee Bargaining Act’s (PEBA) evergreen provision required the expired CBAs to remain in effect until new agreements were reached, thus seeking to compel the City to comply with the expired CBAs (para 4).
• Defendant-Appellant (the City): Contended that its Labor-Management Relations Ordinance (LMRO) was entitled to grandfather status under PEBA, exempting it from compliance with the PEBA’s evergreen provision, and therefore it was not required to honor the expired CBAs (para 1).

Legal Issues

• Whether the City’s collective bargaining procedures, granted grandfather status under PEBA, are required to comply with the PEBA’s evergreen provision.

Disposition

• The Court of Appeals of New Mexico reversed the district court’s order granting the Unions preliminary and permanent injunctions requiring the City to honor the expired CBAs pending successful negotiation of successor CBAs (para 19).

Reasons

• CYNTHIA A. FRY, Judge, with MICHAEL E. VIGIL, Judge concurring, and TIMOTHY L. GARCIA, Judge specially concurring: The court reasoned that the City’s LMRO, enacted before October 1, 1991, and not requiring expired CBAs to remain in effect until a successor is reached, is exempt from the PEBA’s evergreen provision due to its grandfather status. The court found that the PEBA’s grandfather clause allows public employers with collective bargaining systems in place before October 1, 1991, to operate under those systems despite the PEBA’s requirements. The court also noted that the absence of an evergreen provision in the LMRO does not fundamentally violate the PEBA, as the LMRO includes impasse resolution procedures ensuring Unions' participation in determining employment conditions post-CBA expiration. The court concluded that the Legislature did not intend for the PEBA’s evergreen clause to apply to all public-employer collective bargaining systems, regardless of grandfather status, and that the City’s LMRO does not need to include an evergreen provision to qualify for grandfather status (paras 5-17).