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Police Labor Relations - Where Labor Organizations and Employers Stand

NCJ Number
89032
Journal
Police Journal Volume: 56 Issue: 2 Dated: (April-June 1983) Pages: 183-187
Author(s)
M S Katzman
Date Published
1983
Length
5 pages
Annotation
Because police labor unions provide a vehicle for police officers to gain more job benefits does not preclude their also becoming vehicles for management and employees to cooperate in improving efficiency and productivity.
Abstract
In large police departments, the individual employee can easily feel powerless to influence factors affecting job satisfaction, benefits, and responsibilities. Unions become the vehicle whereby employees can communicate with management about their needs, desires, and complaints, with the sense that management will be responsive within the formal structure of collective bargaining. Labor organizations provide an outlet for employee dissatisfactions that might otherwise be expressed in slowdowns, sabotage, or high employee turnover. Further, labor unions provide an assurance that labor agreements will be honored. Also, successful managers consult a labor organization before introducing changes in working conditions, so that employee input can be secured and resistance to change may be minimized. Rather than dealing with a large number of individual employees, it is far more efficient and effective to converse with a union leader, who presumably represents the perspective of the entire work group and who will be listened to when presenting departmental changes that will ultimately benefit the employees.

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