Section 3 The Constitutional Challenge to the Public Sector Labor Law

• Library: Emp-Emp Law 2000

In 1967 Local 2, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), sought to organize the employees of Cabool, Missouri. In early 1968 the State Board of Mediation held a hearing and determined that the requested unit was appropriate and that the union represented a majority of the employees in the unit. Two of the employees in the unit were subsequently discharged by the city, and a representative of the city offered selected employees wage increases and benefits as inducement to withdraw support of and membership in the union. Local 2, IBEW, by its representatives, then filed a mandamus proceeding in circuit court, which was dismissed, and an appeal was taken to the Supreme Court of Missouri. The Court, in State ex rel. Missey v. City of Cabool, 441 S.W.2d 35 (Mo. 1969), held that the City of Cabool, which had refused to recognize the union as a representative of the majority of the employees and laid off and demoted employees, had violated the Public Sector Labor Law. The Court held:

Upon the present record the only motive and purpose of respondents in laying off and reducing pay of appellant employees was to discriminate against and intimidate them for joining and having Local 2 represent them in dealing with respondents, clearly a...