West Des Moines Education Association v. Public Employment Relations Board

Iowa’s Public Employment Relations Act (the act) established a process for public-employment collective bargaining. Under the system, arbitration was the last step, after mediation and fact-finding. The West Des Moines Education Association (the union) (plaintiff) had been negotiating a new collective-bargaining agreement with the West Des Moines School District. The parties had reached the third and final stage of arbitration. Under Iowa’s system, the arbitrator would choose between the packages submitted by the parties on impasse items that could not be agreed to. The union submitted a petition to the Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) (defendant), which issued a declaratory ruling in which it concluded that if the parties had agreed on all issues except the grievance procedure, then that issue would be an impasse item. If there were disagreements on a number of questions relating to that issue, then all of the questions relating to the grievance issue would constitute an impasse item. Under Iowa’s system, the arbitrator was to choose one of the two proposals submitted on the grievance procedure. The union contended that each individual question constituted an impasse item, requiring the arbitrator to review packages submitted by the parties for each question relating to the grievance procedure. The union sought review of PERB’s decision in Polk District Court. A trial court agreed with the union and reversed the declaratory ruling. PERB appealed the decision.