High Court Asked To Rule On Unions Prosecutor, District Court Judges Take Deadlocked Labor Dispute To Top

The Washington Supreme Court is being asked to break the stalemate between union employees and two Spokane County agencies.

Prosecutor Jim Sweetser and District Court judges claim their workers are not entitled to bargain collectively for anything other than wages and benefits.

They are suing the Public Employment Relations Commission, a state agency formed 20 years ago by the Legislature as an impartial arbitrator of labor relations for public workers.

The argument by Sweetser and the judges centers on the separation of powers doctrine. The executive branch, for example, cannot diminish the power of the judicial branch.

“This is an act of desperation,” said union representative Bill Keenan, “so they will be absolute masters of their employees and can’t be held accountable.”

Lawyers representing the judges and Sweetser said labor negotiations have broken down, so they want the high court determination on whether they or the state commission has jurisdiction over non-wage matters involving their employees.

The commission is set to hear a half-dozen unfair labor practice charges filed by the union against the prosecutor and judges.

Those charges would be moot if the Supreme Court rules in favor of the lawsuits.

“Who’s in charge? This is what they’re trying to get resolved,” said Frank Conklin, a Spokane attorney representing judges.

Conklin is a state and U.S. constitutional law expert and professor at Gonzaga Law School.

His lawsuit was filed Thursday and is expected to be followed shortly by a similar action from the prosecutor’s office.

The Supreme Court has set a Feb. 22 hearing to determine whether it will consider the cases or refer them to another court.

Counties all over the state will be watching the lawsuits - the first of their kind - with great interest to see if county courts have the ultimate authority over their employees, lawyers predicted.

“It’s of statewide importance,” Conklin said. “It’s a thorny, complex legal problem.”

Martin Muench, a county civil attorney who represents the prosecutor, said only four counties, including Spokane, have unionized prosecutor’s offices. Two others bargain collectively through associations.

“The action is mainly to clarify issues, to see as far as the court’s concerned, whether or not employees of the judiciary branch are subject to the executive branch,” Muench said.

“Then things can proceed one way or the other.”

Sweetser and the judges are the only county elected officials who have not signed a master contract with all the unions.

Those agencies maintain that their employees are at-will appointees subject to discretionary hiring and firing.

Union chief Keenan said the lawsuits prove what he has said all along: The prosecutor and judges want to bust the union.

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