Jersey Shore Area School District v. Jersey Shore Education Association

Pennsylvania’s Public Employees Relations Act (PERA) gave teachers the right to strike. Courts were allowed to enjoin a teacher strike only if the strike posed “a clear and present danger or threat to the health, safety, or welfare of the public.” Separately, Pennsylvania’s Public School Code (code) mandated 180 instructional days per year. A school district’s failure to provide 180 instructional days could result in a loss of state subsidies to the district. The Jersey Shore Education Association (union) (defendant), a teacher’s union, called a strike four days into the school year. A month into the strike, the Jersey Shore Area School District (district) (plaintiff), the district in which the union operated, sued to enjoin the strike and to compel the teachers back to work. At trial, the district superintendent testified as to several compounding harms as a result of the continued strike. Those harms included a loss of state subsidies, learning loss and competitive disadvantage to students, loss of student access to hot meals, and families’ difficulties in arranging childcare. The court issued the injunction, and the union appealed to the Commonwealth Court, which upheld the validity of the injunction solely on the basis of the threatened state subsidies. The union appealed to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.