Labor Management Relations in State and Local Government: Progress and Prospects

Abstract

Until about six years ago, state and local employees were considered a fundamental stabilizing force in government. While politicians entered and left office at fairly frequent intervals, the bureaucracy stayed on to ensure that the day-to-day delivery of public services would not be interrupted. The public employee was commonly stereotyped as being docile, complacent, conservative, unimaginative, or even lazy. In many jurisdictions his lower pay compared with that of his private sector counterparts was considered more than adequately compensated for by the job security afforded by the merit system. The civil service emphasis of many of the public and personnel administration textbooks also suggested that the study of public employee labor relations deserved only a low priority. The development of workable public labormanagement policies in state and local governments is now a major tension point in our complex system of intergovernmental relations. No longer can it be ignored by practitioner and academician alike. Burgeoning employee rolls, mushrooming union and association membership, and skyrocketing strikes clearly demonstrate that in the public personnel area, state and local governments are where the action is.