Case Name: UNITED STEELWORKERS OF AMERICA, AFL-CIO-CLC v. CITY OF FRANKFORT
Court: Michigan Court of Appeals
Jurisdiction: Michigan
Decision Date: 1986-07-21
Citations: 153 Mich. App. 352
Docket Number: Docket No. 79593
Parties: UNITED STEELWORKERS OF AMERICA, AFL-CIO-CLC v CITY OF FRANKFORT
Judges: Before: D. E. Holbrook, Jr., P.J., and Allen and E. M. Thomas, JJ.
Reporter: Michigan appeals reports; cases decided in the Michigan Court of Appeals.
Volume: 153
Pages: 352–362

Head Matter:
UNITED STEELWORKERS OF AMERICA, AFL-CIO-CLC v CITY OF FRANKFORT
Docket No. 79593.
Submitted February 11, 1985, at Lansing.
Decided July 21, 1986.
The United Steelworkers of America, afl-cio-clc, filed a petition with the Michigan Employment Relations Commission requesting an election in a bargaining unit composed of all secretaries and full- and part-time assessors employed by the City of Frankfort. The proposed unit included two employees, a secretary, who was also the part-time city assessor, and the secretary to the city superintendent. The union already represented the nonsupervisory employees of the city in the department of public works and it sought to add the unrepresented office clerical employees to its existing bargaining unit. Merc ruled that the superintendent’s secretary was excluded from the bargaining unit as a confidential employee, but that the secretary and part-time city assessor could be included in the bargaining unit. The city appealed as of right from that portion of the ruling relating to the secretary and part-time city assessor. Held:
The secretary and part-time city assessor spent the greater share of her employment time as a secretary. She was therefore properly included by merc in the bargaining unit. However, had she been a full-time city assessor, she would have been an executive for purposes of the public employment relations act and would have been excluded, as a matter of law, from the bargaining unit on the basis of her executive status.
Affirmed.
E. M. Thomas, J., concurred. He noted that the executive exclusion does not prohibit employees in executive positions from organizing, but only prevents their inclusion in a bargaining unit consisting of nonexecutive employees, and that whether a particular employee has executive status is properly a factual determination which must be made by merc on a case-by-case basis. He concluded that, in this case, merc did not err in ruling that the part-time assessor was not an executive and was therefore not barred from being included in the union’s bargaining unit.
References
Am Jur 2d, Labor and Labor Relations §§ 1764 et seq., 1787 et seq.
See the annotations in the ALR3d/4th Quick Index under Labor and Labor Unions.
Opinion of the Court
1. Labor Relations — Public Employees — Collective Bargaining Units — Excluded Employees — Executives — Public Employment Relations Act.
A full-time city assessor, who is responsible for performing the duties of city assessor pursuant to statutes and the city charter, is an executive for purposes of the public employment relations act and may not be included in a collective bargaining unit representing other city employees (MCL 423.9e; MSA 17.454[10.4]).
Concurrence by E. M. Thomas, J.
2. Labor Relations — Public Employees — Public Employment Relations Act. /
Public employees, under the public employment relations act, have the right to organize together to bargain collectively with their employer and to freely choose an exclusive collective bargaining representative (MCL 423.209; MSA 17.455[9]).
3. Labor Relations — Public Employees — Collective Bargaining Units — Employment Relations Commission — Public Employment Relations Act — Appeal.
The Michigan Employment Relations Commission shall determine the appropriate collective bargaining unit as will best secure to the employees their right of collective bargaining; the Court of Appeals, in reviewing such a determination, must determine whether such decision by the Michigan Employment Relations Commission is contrary to law, and if not, whether supported by competent, material and substantial evidence on the whole record (Const 1963, art 6, § 28; MCL 423.9e, 423.23[2][e]; MSA 17.454[10.4], 17.4B4[25][2][e]).
4. Labor Relations — Public Employment Relations Act — Statutes.
The public employment relations act prevails over conSicting legislation, municipal charters, and ordinances regarding public employers’ powers; it must be regarded as the dominant law regulating labor relations in public employment (MCL 423.201 et seq.; MSA 17.45B[1] et seq.).
5. Labor Relations — Public Employees — Collective Bargaining Units — Excluded Employees — Executives — Public Employment Relations Act.
Municipal employees, who are executives for purposes of the public employment relations act, are not as a matter of law prevented from joining a collective bargaining unit; rather, the Michigan Employment Relations Commission shall, on a case-by-case basis, determine whether such executives can be members of a collective bargaining unit; in making such a determination, the Michigan Employment Relations Commission shall consider factors such as the extent of the executives’ authority, the scope of their responsibilities, the interchangeability of their functions with other executives, and the number of executive positions relative to the size of the organization (MCL 423.9e; MSA 17.454[10.4]).
Kim Arthur Siegfried, for petitioner.
Joan Swartz McKay, for respondent.
Amicus Curiae:
Clary, Nantz, Wood, HofRus, Rankin & Cooper (by Jack R. Clary and John H. Gretzinger), for the Michigan Municipal League.
Before: D. E. Holbrook, Jr., P.J., and Allen and E. M. Thomas, JJ.
Recorder’s court judge, sitting on the Court of Appeals by assignment.

Opinion:
Allen, J.
The facts of this case are sufficiently set forth in the concurring opinion, and will not be repeated herein. Because Margaret Sanders spent the greater share of her employment time as a secretary and only served as a city assessor on a part-time basis, we agree with the Michigan Employment Relations Commission's order including the city assessor position in the collective bargaining unit. Accordingly, we affirm.
However, had Margaret Sanders been a full-time city assessor, we would not hesitate "to rule as a matter of law," that she should "be excluded from a bargaining unit as an executive." In our opinion, a person occupying a full-time position of assessor and responsible for performing the statutory and charter duties of city assessor is an "executive" under § 9e of the public employment relations act. MCL 423.9(e); MSA 17.454(10.4). No position in city government is more intimately related to policy-making than the assessor's. Anticipated revenues are largely based on the assessments of real and personal property made by the assessor's office. In turn, the revenues become the base upon which a city budget is made.
Accordingly, we disagree with Berlin Twp, 1983 MERC Lab Op 1054, to the extent that it stands for a rule that the exercise of the statutory duties of an assessor will not make an employee an executive under pera. In situations where the position is a full-time position, we believe that the exercise of such statutory duties, whether personally performed or performed by others under the supervision of the assessor, does make the assessor an "executive."
Affirmed.