United Steel Paper & Forestry Rubber Manu. Allied Ind. & Svc. Workers Int’l Union AFL-CIO-CLC v. Gov’t Virgin Is. — labor — reversal — Fisher

The introduction of yesterday’s opinion is a model of concision and clarity:

In 2011, the Virgin Islands faced a severe budget crisis as a result of the economic recession. In response to this crisis, the Government of the Virgin Islands enacted the Virgin Islands Economic Stability Act of 2011 (“VIESA”), 2011 V.I. Sess. Laws 84, which reduced most Government employees’ salaries by 8%. Many of the Government employees, however, were covered by collective bargaining agreements negotiated on their behalf by their representative unions. The collective bargaining agreements, agreed to and signed by the Governor on behalf of the Government, set forth detailed salary and benefit schedules to be paid to covered Government employees.

The unions brought suit alleging that the salary reductions in VIESA constituted an impermissible impairment of the collective bargaining agreements, in violation of the Contract Clause of the United States Constitution. The District Court, after a bench trial, held that VIESA did not violate the Contract Clause. We will reverse.

The court rejected the government’s mootness argument, finding the ‘evading review’ exception inapplicable but ruling that the challenged law’s continuing collateral consequences preclude mootness. On the merits, the court ruled that VIESA violated the Contract Clause because it was unreasonable: the government knew about the financial crisis when it negotiated the contracts it later voided, and it promised the unions it could pay the contract rates in exchange for other concessions. Said the court, “The Contract Clause is not toothless.”

Joining Fisher were Krause and Roth. Arguing counsel were Nathan Kilbert for the unions and Samuel Walker for the government.

UPDATE: News coverage in the St. Thomas Source is here.