Public vs. Private Sector Unions

Unions representing workers in private industry and commerce are fundamentally different from unions representing public employees, although this may not seem so on the surface. Both represent their workers and try to get them better pay, shorter hours, safer working conditions, better benefits, etc. The differences are in how they go about it: their sources of leverage.

The Manhattan Institute for Policy Research has issued a brief policy paper on this issue. It points out that in 1955 almost no government employees were represented by unions, and that Federal employees still may not bargain collectively over salary and benefits.

The key benefit of this paper is its thorough discussion of the differences between public and private sector unions. Here is an example of those differences from the AFSCME Newsletter of September, 2006:

We elect our bosses, so we’ve got to elect politicians who support us and then hold them accountable on our issues.