Court Denies Permanent Injunction in UC Strike

The San Francisco superior court today denied PERB’s request for a permanent injunction against AFSCME. PERB had sought the permanent injunction on behalf of the UC to prohibit AFSCME from calling a strike without sufficient notice and also prohibit certain health and safety sensitive positions from striking at all. The court had issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) against AFSCME on July 11th. In a widely publicized move, AFSCME claimed that the TRO was improper and went ahead with its strike on July 14th.

At the hearing today the judge questioned whether a permanent injunction was “moot” since the AFSCME strike had already occurred. Both PERB and the UC argued that the matter was not moot since AFSCME could, and likely would, initiate another strike in the near future. The judge, however, was not convinced. The judge felt that the language of the injunctive relief request focused solely on a strike set for July 14th, and since that strike had already occurred, the matter was moot. Accordingly, the judge denied the request for a permanent injunction.

Later that day, however, the court did grant UC’s request for an “order to show cause” against ASFCME for violating the court’s TRO. The parties will now submit briefs on that issue. It is expected that AFSCME will argue that no sanctions should be imposed since the order was improperly issued. It should be an interesting case. Stay tuned for more.