Recently, the State Employment Relations Board ("SERB") addressed the issue of whether an employer engages in bad-faith bargaining by unilaterally eliminating health insurance benefits of union employees where no collective bargaining agreement ("CBA") is in effect and the Union has sought redress in court. In re SERB v. City of Cleveland, Case No. 2007-ULP-050214. SERB found that the City of Cleveland did not commit such an unfair labor practice when it unilaterally eliminatedhealth insurance benefits as the Union had abandoned the collective bargaining process. Id.

The CBA between the City and the Municipal Construction Equipment Operators' Labor Council ("Union") expired on March 31, 2007. The City notified the Union that under the application of "external law:, the City would cease providing Union employees' health insurance benefits effective April 30, 2007. As a result, Union employees had to purchase health insurance benefits at the City's rate, plus a two percent administrative fee under COBRA. Negotiations continued until reaching impasse, after which the City notified the Union of its intent to implement its last best final offer. In response, the Union sought remedy by filing a complaint in mandamus with the Ohio Supreme Court.

SERB found that by filing the complaint in mandamus with the Court, the Union had "abandoned the collective bargaining process" by pursuing its bargaining unit members' rights ". . . under the application for the writ of mandamus." As a result, the City was no longer under a duty to bargain with the Union over the providing of health insurance benefits. As such, SERB dismissed the Union's unfair labor practice charge. This decision gives those negotiating in the public sector a more defined understanding of when their duty to negotiate expires.