Court Opinion

ID: 9848031
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 04:11:39.409746+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:17:55.977265
License: Public Domain

IRWIN, Vice Chief Justice,
concurring in part, dissenting in part.
I am unable to agree with the majority of my associates that “the Legislature intended the sanction of non-recognition against a professional organization to last only for the duration of a strike.” I therefore dissent to that portion of the majority opinion which achieves that conclusion.
70 O.S.1978 Supp., § 509.2 provides that: “The local board of education shall recognize a professional organization that secures authorization signed by a majority of the professional educators designating *725said organization as their representative for negotiations. . . . However, all school districts with an average daily attendance of thirty-five thousand (35,000) or more shall adopt the following method for choosing the professional organization.”
The method designated for the larger districts requires an election. However, “No election shall be directed by a local board in a bargaining unit within which a valid election was held in the preceding two (2) years.”
The majority is concerned, and rightly so, with the possibility that if non-recognition of the organization extends beyond the duration of the strike, the educators might be deprived of the very right the Legislature intended to grant, i.e., the right to be represented by an elected representative in collective bargaining. It appears the concern of the majority is premised to some extent upon the language that “No election shall be directed to be held by a local board in a bargaining unit within which a valid election was held in the preceding two (2) years.”
This two year proscription is not applicable to school districts having less than a 35,000 average daily attendance, and in such districts, if the organization shall cease to be recognized, the majority of the educators can immediately designate another organization as its representative. The educators do not lose the right to collective bargaining but the organization that engaged in a strike ceases to be the recognized representative. Prior to the amendment of § 509.2 in 1978, all school districts could immediately designate another organization as its representative if an organization ceased to be recognized.
Although there is a difference in the method for choosing a “professional organization” between school districts with an average daily attendance of 35,000 and those with less attendance, all professional organizations are subject to the same rights and obligations. When a professional organization is properly elected or authorized, the local board of education shall recognize it. If the organization or its members engage in a strike, said “organization shall cease to be recognized as a representative of the professional or nonprofessional educators and the school district shall be relieved of the duty to negotiate with such organization or its representatives.” 70 O.S.1971, § 509.8. This non-recognition proviso is applicable to an organization representing a school district with an average daily attendance of 35,000 and an organization representing a school district with less attendance. Both, if they engage in a strike, cease to be recognized as a representative.
In my opinion, when an organization is elected by the educators in a school district having an average daily attendance of 35,-000, and such organization engages in a strike and ceases to be recognized as representative, the two year proscription is not applicable. And, where such organization ceases to be recognized, another organization can be elected to represent the educators. And where such organization is elected, the two (2) year proscription starts again.
I respectfully concur in part and dissent in part.