A Look Ahead at Public Employee Unionism

The surge in public sector union membership in the 1960s has abated, although the proportion of members who bargain is still on the increase. It seems likely that bargaining will become more widespread in the public sector than in the private sector because public sector management resists unionization less strongly than does private sector management. Public sector unions are solidly entrenched in the large northern U.S. cities and in the coming years will be attempting to organize in the South and the Southwest and in medium-sized cities and rural areas. In the field of education one finds considerable interest in faculty bargaining and speculation about how fast this will proceed. Securing favorable legislation is essential to the success of these various public sector union efforts. Inclusion in the statutes of interest arbitration and agency shop authorization represents a probable union goal in the current decade.