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Compulsory Public Sector Bargaining and Arbitration in the Courts

NCJ Number
94906
Journal
Government Union Review Volume: 3 Dated: (Summer 1982) Pages: 3-29
Author(s)
S Petro
Date Published
1982
Length
27 pages
Annotation
In the 1940's and 1950's, courts were much more cautious in assessing public-sector bargaining and its adjuncts, interest and grievance arbitration.
Abstract
In 1947, for example, in City of Missouri v. Clouse, the Missouri Supreme Court held a collective agreement between a municipality and a union representing some of its employees unenforceable as an unconstitutional betrayal of power delegation by the people to their government. And, in the Norwalk Teachers Case of 1951, the Connecticut court took essentially the same position that the Missouri court had taken. In recent years, however, there has been a considerable shift in opinion among American judges in favor of both public-sector bargaining and arbitration. Today, public-sector bargaining is concentrated in the Northeast and Pacific Coast States. The costs of public-sector bargaining endorsed by Michigan and at least 14 other States are devastating, not only in material and economic terms but also in terms of the political corruption that public-sector bargaining and arbitration create. If authority over wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment of public servants is a legislative function, then legislatures may not constitutionally delegate that authority to anyone. Thus, all public-sector collective bargaining as well as grievance and interest arbitration must be regarded al ultra vires and unconstitutional in any society based on the ideas of popular sovereignty and representative government. Numerous references are included.

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