Court Opinion

ID: 9693044
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 16:17:24.661209+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:19:39.128061
License: Public Domain

M. J. Kelly, P.J.
(concurring). I concur with the majority’s resolution of the instant case but write separately on the question of unilateral transfers of bargaining unit work to nonunit positions.
The majority in Part hi of its opinion states that "[t]he unilateral transfer of work away from union employees without bargaining is an unfair labor practice.” The authority cited in support of this rule is Lansing Fire Fighters v Lansing, 133 Mich App 56; 349 NW2d 253 (1984), in which I joined stating that the unilateral transfer of bargaining unit work out of the bargaining unit constitutes a mandatory subject of bargaining. In that case, a position within the bargaining unit had been vacated and the employer filled it with a nonunion employee whose annual salary and retirement benefits were reduced by approximately $14,000. *766Merc found, and we agreed, that the employer’s actions constituted an unfair labor practice because the employer’s mandatory duty to bargain over the transfer of work outside the bargaining unit had not been waived by the union in light of past practices or by the terms of the collective bargaining agreement in effect.
While I adhere to that position on this general principle of labor law, I agree with the Supreme Court’s observation in Local 1277, Metropolitan Council No 23, AFSCME, AFL-CIO v Centerline, 414 Mich 642, 659; 327 NW2d 822 (1982), that "whether or not a particular issue is a mandatory subject of bargaining in the private sector depends heavily on the particular facts” of each case. I believe the same observation applies to mandatory subjects of bargaining in the public sector, as evidenced by my participation in the recent case of Ishpeming Supervisory Employees’ Chapter of Local 128, Michigan Council 25, AFSCME, AFL-CIO v Ishpeming, 155 Mich App 501; 400 NW2d 661 (1986).
In that case, I joined in an opinion which held that "the [unilateral] decision to transfer work [outside a bargaining unit] in pursuit of a legitimate reorganization effort was not a mandatory subject of bargaining.” The City of Ishpeming had undertaken to reorganize the supervisory structure of its city departments, which effort resulted in the elimination of at least two union positions. The duties formally assigned to one of these supervisory positions were reassigned to other positions outside the supervisory bargaining unit. We held that the decision to reorganize is within management’s prerogative and is therefore not a mandatory subject of bargaining. We further held that the decision to reassign duties outside a bargaining unit as part of a legitimate reorganization effort is *767part and parcel of the decision to reorganize and is therefore also a decision within management’s prerogative and not a subject of mandatory bargaining. We cautioned, however, that the impact of the transfer of duties is a mandatory subject of bargaining, which the city had apparently observed by bargaining with the nonsupervisory unions representing those positions to which the work had been transferred. In the narrow context of government reorganization, therefore, I have held that the unilateral transfer of duties outside a bargaining unit does not constitute an unfair labor practice.
I wish to point out that this is a difficult area of labor law which is still in the evolving stages as applied to the Michigan public sector. Although I believe that the seemingly conflicting decisions in Lansing Fire Fighters and Ishpeming regarding the unilateral transfer of bargaining work outside the bargaining unit are reconcilable if viewed in context, I am persuaded that further argument and discussion is necessary before this area of the law is settled.
Fortunately, we need not decide in the instant case whether the college’s transfer of job duties to positions outside the bargaining unit constituted an unfair labor practice because the union has failed to sustain its burden of proving that a transfer of duties did, in fact, occur. I thus concur with the majority’s opinion affirming the decision of MERC.