An Illinois federal judge on Friday tossed a counterclaim alleging a breach of implied good faith and fair dealing in a Chicago Teachers Union class action challenging the Chicago Board of Education’s allegedly discriminatory layoff policy, saying the board brought its union contract dispute to the wrong forum.

U.S. District Judge Jorge Alonso ruled that despite a lack of direct precedent on whether the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Act — which governs the collective bargaining agreement between the union and the board — divests courts of jurisdiction over common law claims for breach of a union contact, several state and federal rulings addressing the question under different labor statutes help him find that the state Legislature intended union contract disputes to fall solely under the relevant labor relations board’s jurisdiction.

Judge Alonso rejected the board’s argument that he was improperly applying precedent under inapplicable statutes, such as the Illinois Public Labor Relations Act, to resolve its issue. He ruled that the statutes got their teeth from a similar underlying state statute, which means the policy rationale in Cessna v. City of Danville of "avoiding inconsistent interpretations of collective bargaining agreements applies to the IELRA as well — just as courts, in decisions such as Cessna, have applied [Board of Education of Community School District No. 1, Coles County v. Compton]’s policy rationale to the IPLRA."

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