Public Sector Labor Relations Law In America

Prior to 1959, there were no lawsin the U.S. legitimizing collective bargaining between public sector representative groups and governmental bodies. In that year, the State of Wisconsin passed a law allowing public sector representatives to bargain for pay and benefits with state and local governments for its members. While Federal legislation had allowed collective bargaining for almost all private sector employees since 1935, this privilege had not been legal for public sector workers. In the next few years, other states passed collective bargaining legislation for state and local employees and in 1961, President John F. Kennedy issued an Executive Order to allow limited bargaining rights for Federal Employee unions. Growth of public sector unions has accelerated rapidly since then until now the percentage public sector employees represented by unions far exceeds that of private sector unions.