ABSTRACT
The legal basis for government labor relations and collective bargaining is a hodgepodge of statutes, ordinances, attorney general opinions, executive orders, and court decisions. The federal government does not have a single policy governing labor–management relations for all of its workers, and to say that state and local government labor policies vary widely is a gross understatement. Some states continue to prohibit collective bargaining in government at all levels, whereas in others virtually all public employees are in a bargaining unit. Most states forbid public employees to strike, but some permit strikes under certain conditions. Such extreme labor relations diversity is in stark contrast to other industrialized nations, wherein a single national collective bargaining law prevails for all public workers.
