Public sector unions are those legal trade unions that represent the interests of employees in the public sector. Public sector unions fight against privatization and any other policies that can be used to improve government efficiency. In the United States, the federal government employees do not have a right to strike, but certain state governments provide this right to its workers. The American Federation of Government Employees is the largest federal employee union in the United States. Many public-sector unions are denied the right to strike due to the sensitivity of some of their positions in the government. For instance, firefighters and police officers cannot leave their duties to strike, resulting in fatalities and insecurities, respectively. There are public sector unions at federal, state, and local governments, including the teachers, police officers, postal workers, and firefighters.
The unions' legislative demands vary and therefore make them have limited options when championing the workers' rights and better working conditions. However, most public workers are compensated based on labor agreements to ensure that they don't resort to industrial strikes. Such workers are often given more robust job security and other job benefits to discharge their duties comfortably. Their salaries are pre-determined and implemented in advance to reduce the number of strikes in such sensitive sectors. Most states in the United States tend to have collective bargaining agreements for their state and local employees. Despite the growth of private-sector unions, public sector unions have continued to exist since they are static (Edwards, 2010) . Government services are also monopolies like the police and fire. Other than the compensation costs, public sector unions improve government efficiency, making them not involved in strikes.
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References
Edwards, C. (2010). Public-sector unions and the rising costs of employee compensation. Cato, J. , 30 , 87.