Some Impacts of Collective Bargaining On Local Government

Abstract

The rapid growth of collective bargaining in the A merican public sector, especially local government, has sparked much concern with, but relatively little research of, union impacts on governmental management. Such impact analysis may most fruitfully be undertaken from a diversity perspective that envisions a multiplicity rather than a single pattern of bargaining outcomes. This diversity thesis is examined in relation to five dimensions of public management-compensation, personnel administration, service provision and delivery, government structure, and politics-and is tested in a preliminary way against relations in New York City, Chicago, and Los Angeles. The paper concludes with some implications of the analysis for policy and research in public sector labor relations.