ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author examines the two faces of union voice in the public sector. There are reasons to believe that union voice in the public sector is likely to take on a more muscle-type bargaining face than the positive communication face. Public sector workers are likely to remain in their jobs, they also use the communication form of union voice to improve their working situation. Strikes are declining in both the private and public sectors. Unionization and strike activity are the clearest and loudest manifestations of voice in the public sector, a more subtle form of voice occurs in the form of employees wanting their say in how the organization is run on a daily basis. Union effects on productivity in the public sector have been analyzed more extensively in education, where teachers’ unions bargain over curriculum, class sizes, student/teacher ratios, student discipline, and student transfers.
