Article 1. Employee Relations of California Public Utilities Code >> Division 10. >> Part 16. >> Chapter 5. >> Article 1.

Except as otherwise provided in this article and in Article 2 (commencing with Section 105150), the determination of questions concerning employee representation and the conduct of employee-employer relations within the district shall be governed by the Meyers-Milias-Brown Act (Chapter 10 (commencing with Section 3500) of Division 4 of Title 1 of the Government Code).

Except as otherwise provided in Article 2 (commencing with Section 105150), whenever a majority of the employees employed by the district in a unit appropriate for collective bargaining indicate a desire to be represented by a labor organization, and upon determining that the labor organization represents at least a majority of the employees in the appropriate unit, the board and the accredited representative of employees shall bargain in good faith and make all reasonable efforts to reach agreement on the terms of a written contract governing wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment within the scope of representation set forth in Section 3504 of the Government Code.

(a) If, after a reasonable period of time, representatives of the district and the accredited representatives of the employees fail to reach agreement either on the terms of a written contract governing wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment or the interpretation or application of the terms of an existing contract, upon the agreement of both the district and the representatives of the employees, the dispute may be submitted to an arbitration board.
  (b) The arbitration board shall be composed of two representatives of the district and two representatives of the labor organization, and they shall endeavor to agree upon the selection of a fifth member. If they are unable to agree, the names of five persons experienced in labor arbitration shall be obtained from the State Conciliation Service. The labor organization and the district shall, alternately, strike a name from this list, and the name remaining after the labor organization and the district have stricken four names shall be designated as the fifth arbitrator and chairperson of the board of arbitration. The labor organization and the district shall determine by lot who shall first strike a name from the list. The decision of a majority of the arbitration board shall be final and binding upon the parties thereto.
  (c) Each party shall be responsible for the expense of the presentation of its case. All other expenses of arbitration shall be borne equally by the parties and the expenses may include the making of a verbatim record of the proceedings and transcript of that record.

The district may contract for management services with any public agency or person and may contract for operations and maintenance services with the district organized pursuant to Part 3 (commencing with Section 27000) of Division 16 of the Streets and Highways Code. However, the district may not contract out the performance of services performed by or fairly claimable by employees of a bargaining unit without the agreement of the accredited representative of that bargaining unit's employees.