Chapter 21 : Public Sector Labor Issues: Rights, Retrenchment, and Democracy

Public sector unions operate in politically challenging environments. Recent limitations on collective bargaining rights in Wisconsin and attempts to curtail collective bargaining in Ohio are illustrative of union vulnerability to shifts in the political climate. In Wisconsin, only months after taking office, Governor Walker eliminated most collective bargaining rights for public sector employees, excluding the police and firefighters. Day care workers and home health care aides had only gained such rights under the previous governor (Collins, 2012). In Ohio, Governor Kasich introduced similar legislation, but unlike Walker also attempted to limit collective bargaining for public safety employees. Like in Wisconsin, child care providers and home health care aides lost their collective bargaining rights gained under the immediately preceding governor (Early and Wilson, 2012). The susceptibility of unions to political changes stems in part from the legal environment in which they operate and in part from the nature of their employers (Slater, 2012). State law governs collective bargaining for public sector employees, and the employers, that are also elected officials, can change the law depending on their preferences. Preferences of elected officials related to collective bargaining rights, and unions more broadly, depend on various factors ranging from party ideology, legitimacy concerns, and power relations among political actors to changes in local fiscal conditions and shifts in public opinion. The election of public officials unsympathetic to unions in several states and the pressure placed by recent budget crises even on sympathetic elected officials resulted in what some scholars call a “war on public sector collective bargaining” and “the most widespread and substantive attack on collective bargaining in the US since the 1930s’ battles in the private sector” (Freeman and Han, 2012, p. 387). This paper examines recent developments in public sector labor relations at the state and local levels. It begins with an overview of the state and local public sector workforce characteristics followed by a brief description of events surrounding pension crises and limitations on collective bargaining rights in several states and municipalities. The paper further discusses forms, causes, and implications of restrictions on collective bargaining for public sector employees. Finally, concluding remarks focus on some of the lessons learned from recent developments in public sector labor relations and offer suggestions for the way forward