The NLRA, Taft-Hartley Act, and Landrum-Griffin Act primarily regulate collective bargaining in the private sector. Although, like private-sector employees, federal, state, and local government employees are also generally permitted to join unions and bargain collectively, their collective-bargaining rights and obligations are determined by other statutes.
The collective-bargaining rights of federal-government employees are established and regulated by the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978, which is a federal statute. Many of the same type of activities by employers or unions that would constitute unfair labor practices in private sector are likewise not tolerated in federal-government collective bargaining. There are however, two differences:
- Federal-government employees do not have the right to strike in support of economic demands or to protest improper employer practices.
- Unions representing federal-government employees cannot bargain with federal employers directly concerning wages and economic fringe benefits, which are instead established by law.
Despite the inability of federal-employees’ unions to bargain over most monetary issues, federal unions are generally active in protecting federal employees against unfair employer discipline and discharges and in improving working conditions at facilities where federal employees work.
State- and local-government employees in different states have varying level of protective bargaining rights because their rights are determined by state statutes. State and local employees have limited rights to strike, as in the federal-government sector. In particular, public-safety employees, such as police officers, emergency medical personnel, and fire fighters, are often prohibited from striking due to the importance of services to the public.
Often these workers are provided with an alternative method to strike for resolving collective-bargaining economic disputes: binding interest arbitration. Under this system, when a state or local employee union and its employers are unable to successfully agree on the terms of collective-bargaining agreement through their own negotiations, their disputes are submitted to independent, neutral arbitrators, who considers the positions of both sides and issue what they believe are appropriate awards to establish the terms of new collective-bargaining agreements.