Opinion ID: 2321064
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Unions' Right to Intervene

Text: The next issue we are called upon to determine is whether the Unions had standing to challenge the State Board's waiver decisions. Patterson Park contends that the Unions were not necessary parties to the waiver process because the requested waivers did not effect positions covered by the Baltimore City public school employees' collective bargaining agreements, only positions not currently offered by the Baltimore City Public School System such as that of a karate teacher, as distinguished from the positions effected in Baltimore Teachers Union v. Maryland State Board of Education, 379 Md. at 192, 840 A.2d at 728. The Circuit Court held that the Unions were necessary parties to the waiver proceedings because the proceedings modified existing collective bargaining agreements. Although we agree with the Circuit Court that the Unions had standing to intervene, we disagree with its determination that the Unions were necessary parties to the waiver application process because they modified existing collective bargaining agreements; the Unions had standing to intervene because the requested Section 9-108(a) waivers had the potential to create a competing labor pool and also to reduce the Unions' collecting bargaining unit. [18] We had the opportunity to explore standing prerequisites specifically with regard to decisions issued by the State Board of Education in Baltimore Teachers Union. In that case, the State Board of Education enacted regulations for the reconstitution of schools that consistently fail to meet the prescribed student performance standards. Part of the reconstitution plan enabled the State Board to delegate control and management over public schools to third parties. Pursuant to these new regulations, the State Board and the Baltimore City Board of School Commissioners entered into a five-year contract with a company, Edison Schools, Inc., under which Edison was to assume operation and management of three Baltimore City public schools, serving as the employer of all employees hired for the . . . schools with the power to hire, assign, discipline, and dismiss all personnel hired at the schools. Id. at 197, 840 A.2d at 731. The Baltimore Teachers Union, American Federation of Teachers, Local 340, and the AFL-CIO filed a complaint challenging the reconstitution regulations and the Edison contract to which the State Board and the City Board responded by filing a motion to dismiss for lack of standing. The circuit court ruled that the Unions had standing, and we affirmed, underscoring that the Unions, as the exclusive collective bargaining agent for the employees of the Baltimore City Public School System, possessed statutory rights and fiduciary duties to negotiate for, and to act in the best interests of, the public school employees. Id. at 199, 840 A.2d at 732. We further explicated that, by removing three public schools from the Unions' charge, the Edison contract not only interjected a competing labor pool with the Unions' bargaining unit, but also reduced the size and scope of the Union's bargaining unit. Id. Thus, we held that the Unions had standing to challenge the reconstitution. In this case, waivers were sought for Section 9-108(a), which provides that employees of public charter schools are public school employees, and are entitled to the benefits of any existing collective bargaining agreements. Pursuant to our jurisprudence in Baltimore Teachers Union, the Unions had a statutory and fiduciary duty to represent the Baltimore City public school employees in the waiver proceedings because the waivers created the potential for a competing labor pool within those public charter schools, and also because the waivers had the potential of limiting the scope of the Unions' bargaining unit. Therefore, the Unions possessed a sufficient interest in the proceedings to satisfy standing requirements and the State Board erred by not giving proper notice or opportunity to be heard in the waiver proceedings.