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Pa. Supremes Reject Nutter Bid To Speed Up Union Contract Litigation

By Tony Romeo

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has rejected a bid by the Nutter administration to speed up litigation over its desire to impose a new contract on the city's blue collar workers union.

District Council 33 has been without a contract since 2009 and the union contends the mayor does not have the right to impose a new contract because of a 20 year-old Commonwealth Court ruling involving workers at the Philadelphia Housing Authority.

The Nutter administration began legal action, and saying the matter was likely to end up there eventually, had asked the state Supreme Court to consider the case directly.

But now the state high court has rejected that request, kicking the case back down to Common Pleas Court.

In a dissenting opinion, Chief Justice Ronald Castille says while the state Supreme Court, back then, chose not to review the lower court ruling issued in 1993, it should do so now because of the importance of the issue.

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