ABSTRACT
The recent surge in public demand for tax and expenditure limitation proposals, typified by passage of Proposition 13 in California and the Headlee amendment to the Michigan constitution, has generated renewed interest in the pay and employment of public workers. The questions of whether public workers are overpaid and underworked or, indeed, whether the services they provide are even necessary to the public welfare form headline articles in many popular periodicals and newspapers [1, pp. 83–85]. This paper examines the results of the collective bargaining process for two groups of public workers within one large metropolitan area. It is hoped this examination and the conclusions drawn will help to clarify a subject often obscured by partisan rhetoric.
