Labor Relations Law in the Public Sector: Cases and Materials
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Description
Several premises underlie the preparation and offering of the materials contained in this volume. The first is that public sector “unionization” and collective bargaining represent the most important development in “labor relations” since the post-Wagner Act period of the 1930s and 1940s. This significance derives both from the sheer magnitude and success of organizing efforts in the public sector and from its major impacts on the management of governmental affairs and public employees at all levels of government—federal, state and local. During the past decade, dramatic changes have occurred in the body of relevant public sector law, as was true in the private sector in the earlier era. These changes have both contributed to and resulted from public sector unionization. While labor relations law in the public sector has naturally drawn heavily on private sector precepts and models, it has also involved major departures, in response to numerous problems peculiar to the public sector. These are not only substantive. In contrast with the preemptive “federalization” in the private sector, the most important body of public sector labor relations law is state and local. Thus, there are wide variations, resting on differing judgmental evaluations and determinations of public policy. Indeed, the states have proven to be “laboratories” for socio-political experimentation in the development of the law in this area. In our judgment, a law school curriculum is incomplete which does not afford students the opportunity to examine in some depth the parameters, important variations and problems of public policy embodied in this area of the law. The traditional law school Labor Law curriculum has given primary attention to the private sector, and the typical Labor Law “casebook” reflects this fact. It is quite apparent now, however, that adequate treatment of both private and public sectors is not feasible in a single volume. Hence a basic objective has been to provide a separate set of teaching materials use in law school and in other educational contexts. We have also sought to achieve a kind of approach and treatment of the relevant materials which will be of interest and value to those directly concerned on a working basis with public sector labor relations (lawyers, administrators, officials of labor organizations and public employers). We have not sought to treat many of the obviously important problems relating to collective bargaining provisions of the numerous practical aspects of labor relations, except to the extent these matters are affected or influenced by the applicable legal structure of rule. In many of these areas, the law does have significant relevance. But it has not seemed to us to be feasible to attempt to deal fully, in a single volume, with the process of collective bargaining or with the more practical aspects of administering labor agreements. In dealing with collective bargaining, therefore, we concentrate on the legal framework and not on specific techniques of collective negotiations or contract administration. Although the body of “law” in the public sector is now substantial, it is still in the formative stage. As a consequence, we have sought to supplement the judicial decisions reported herein with numerous excerpts from other publications and with substantial text and note material written by the editors. It is our hope that this textual material, much of which has been written by some of the outstanding scholars and practitioners in the field, will raise significant policy questions for consideration in connection with the proper course of the development of labor relations law in the public sector.
Publication Date
1974
Edition
1
Recommended Citation
Smith, Russell A.; Edwards, Harry T.; and Clark, R. Theodore Jr., "Labor Relations Law in the Public Sector: Cases and Materials" (1974). Faculty Books & Edited Works. 148.
https://gretchen.law.nyu.edu/fac-books-edited-works/148
