Labor Relations Fundamentals for Community College Districts

PERB determines the appropriateness of a bargaining unit on the basis of the community of interest between and among the employees and their established practices, including but not limited to the extent to which the employees belong to the same employee organization and the effect of the size of the unit on the efficient operation of the district. 20 The following rules and guidelines are observed:

 A faculty unit must include all faculty employed by the district with the exception of managers, supervisors and confidential employees. 21  A supervisors’ unit must contain all supervisors employed by the district, and will not be represented by the same employee organization as the supervisors’ subordinates. 22  Classified employees and academic employees will not be included in the same unit. 23  In a district that employs more than 20 supervisory peace officers, supervisory non-peace officers can be grouped in the same unit with supervisory peace officers, or they can be placed in separate, exclusive units. 24 PERB has held that under Government Code section 3508 of the Meyers Milias Brown Act (MMBA), governing local government labor relations, peace officers have the affirmative right to join or participate in peace-officer only units, although nothing in that section requires peace officers to exercise this right nor prohibits them from being in mixed units if they so choose." 25

If PERB determines that (1) the employee organization requesting recognition has demonstrated proof of support of more than 50 percent of the employees in an appropriate unit, (2) no other employee organization has demonstrated proof of support of at least 30 percent of the employees, and (3) the employer has not granted recognition, PERB will certify the petitioner as the exclusive representative. 26 C. P ERMISSIBLE VS . U NLAWFUL A CTIVITY D URING O RGANIZING Both during and after an organizing campaign, a supervisor must be able to distinguish appropriate and inappropriate types of conduct on behalf of the union, employees and management. As an agent of the district, the supervisor must refrain from any unlawful action that can result in an unfair practice charge against the district. Furthermore, the supervisor must be prepared to address prohibited activity on behalf of the union or employees.

1. U NION ’ S R IGHT TO C OMMUNICATE WITH E MPLOYEES

During the organizing process, a union representative is entitled to the following rights:

 A right of access to the district’s premises for the purpose of communicating with employees, subject to reasonable time and place regulations by the district. 27

Labor Relations Fundamentals for Community College Districts © 2019 (c) Liebert Cassidy Whitmore 11