Local 266, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers v. Salt River Project Agricultural Improvement & Power District

275 P.2d 393, 78 Ariz. 30, 1954 Ariz. LEXIS 129, 35 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2073
CourtArizona Supreme Court
DecidedOctober 18, 1954
Docket5621
StatusPublished
Cited by63 cases

This text of 275 P.2d 393 (Local 266, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers v. Salt River Project Agricultural Improvement & Power District) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Arizona Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Local 266, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers v. Salt River Project Agricultural Improvement & Power District, 275 P.2d 393, 78 Ariz. 30, 1954 Ariz. LEXIS 129, 35 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2073 (Ark. 1954).

Opinion

LA PRÁDE, Justice.

.This appeal presents two questions:

1:. Can an agricultural improvement district of the State of Arizona, organized by virtue of and pursuant to the provisions of Article 7 of Chapter 75, A.C.A.1939, as amended, legally enter into collective1 bargáining agreements with its employees regarding wages, hours, and’other conditions of employment?

2. May the employees of such a District, by concerted action, strike to enforce the execution of such an agreement?

The appellant, Local 266, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, A.F.L., is a labor organization, whose membership is comprised exclusively of the employees of the appellee District and Salt River Valley Water Users’ Association. The individual appellants are either officers or members of the local. The Union employees of appellee are interested in and affected by the wages, hours and working conditions generally which prevail in the business engaged in by the appellee in the production and distribution of its electrical power.

The Salt River Project Agricultural Improvement and Power District is engaged in the manufacture and development of electric power through hydroelectric power installations located along the Salt River, and is engaged in the distribution of electric power to consumers, principally in the city of Mesa, Arizona, which it serves exclusively, and in other areas of the Salt River Valley, both within and without the corporate limits of incorporated towns, where it has in the neighborhood of 20,000 customers, serving approximately 100,000 private .and commercial users in Maricopa and Pinal counties; and is engaged in the construction, extension, operation, control, maintenance and management1 of the fa *34 cilities and works necessary or incidental to the successful operation of said businesses.

For some years prior to November 1, 1949, there existed between the parties hereto (or their predecessors in interest) a collective bargaining agreement which expired on that date. Upon its expiration appellee refused to enter into any agreement covering the terms and conditions of employment, pertaining to the generation and distribution of electrical energy or to the construction or maintenance of facilities necessary therefor, on the ground that as a political subdivision of the State of Arizona, with the rights, privileges, and immunities of a municipal corporation, it could not lawfully so do. Upon the District’s refusal to recede from this position, the Union called a strike and placed the usual picket line about the several business establishments of the District.

The District filed its complaint against the Union and caused a temporary restraining order to issue, enjoining the Union from picketing, striking, or causing a slow down. After various court proceedings the parties stipulated all the material facts which they deemed essential to a proper determination of the issues presented by the pleadings, whereupon the superior court granted a judgment and made its temporary restraining order permanent. This appeal followed.

■The appellants claim error

“for the reason that the acts and conduct of appellants, which the injunction restrained, were but the lawful exercise of lawful rights for a lawful objective granted to and confirmed to the appellants by the Constitution, statutes and court decisions of the State of Arizona.”

In support of this assignment appellants assert (1) that the District is engaged in a purely proprietary business for the benefit of a restricted class of citizens, and is governed generally by the same rules that govern private individuals and corporations engaged in similar business, and (2) that the law under which the District is organized vests in the District full power and authority to negotiate and execute collective bargaining agreements affecting terms and conditions of their employment in the District’s business.

Any discussion of the legal status of the District must begin with Section 7 of Article 13 of the Constitution of the State of Arizona, which provides as follows:

“(Improvement districts political subdivisions) — Irrigation, power, electrical, .agricultural improvement, drainage, and flood control districts, and tax levying public improvement districts, now or hereafter organized pursuant to law, shall be political subdivisions of the state, and vested with all the rights, .privileges and benefits, and entitled to the immunities and exemptions granted municipalities and political subdivisions *35 under this Constitution or any law of the state or of the United States; but all such districts shall be exempt from the provisions of sections 7 and 8 of article 9 of this constitution.”

Appellants contend that the foregoing amendment to the Arizona Constitution did nothing more than to grant the District immunity from taxation. We believe that a plain reading of the constitutional provisions unequivocally defines agricultural improvement districts of the state as political subdivisions of the state and vested with all the rights, privileges and benefits, and entitled to the immunities and exemptions granted municipalities and political subdivisions under the constitution or any law of the state or of the United States. A review of all of the decisions of this court since the adoption of the foregoing constitutional provision establishes that the court has consistently recognized improvement districts organized under Article 7 of Chapter 75, A.C.A.1939, to be political subdivisions of the state, vested with the rights, privileges, and immunities granted municipalities and political subdivisions of the state. See Maricopa County Municipal Water Conservation Dist. No. 1 v. LaPrade, 1935, 45 Ariz. 61, 40 P.2d 94; Hallenbeck et ux. v. Yuma County (Miners & Merchants Bank et al., Intervenors), 1944, 61 Ariz. 160, 145 P.2d 837; Shumway v. Fleishman, 1947, 66 Ariz. 290, 187 P.2d 636; Maricopa County Municipal Water Conservation Dist. No. 1 v. Warford et ux., 1949, 69 Ariz. 1, 206 P.2d 1168; Taylor v. Roosevelt Irr. Dist., 1950, 71 Ariz. 254, 226 P.2d 154, and the rehearing of the same case, 1951, 72 Ariz. 160, 232 P.2d 107; Rubenstein Const. Co. v. Salt River Proj. Agr. Imp. & Power Dist., 1953, 76 Ariz. 401, 265 P.2d 455. Appellants’ contention is incorrect.

As a municipal corporation the District asserts the following consequences. The first is that the District, as a political subdivision of the state, is powerless to enter into collective bargaining negotiations with its employees. They state the reason to be that,

“The process of collective bargaining calls upon the governmental agency to delegate to a private agency the authority to operate and control the activities of the governmental agency itself.”

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Bluebook (online)
275 P.2d 393, 78 Ariz. 30, 1954 Ariz. LEXIS 129, 35 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2073, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/local-266-international-brotherhood-of-electrical-workers-v-salt-river-ariz-1954.