(5 of 6)
To make bargaining work and last, some experts favor bringing all unions that deal with a particular government into bargaining sessions simultaneously and as a group. The rationale is that this would tend to keep one union from trying to get a better deal than the last one, a labor tactic so familiar in private industry negotiation that it is known as "whipsawing." At the same time, say these experts, the other side of the table should include not only government administrators but also representatives of the legislative branch, which inevitably must appropriate the money that the settlement demands.
As all this indicates, worried experts and officials are coming forward, however tentatively, with proposals that merit study. U.S. Senator Jacob Javits of New York in 1966 introduced a bill that would meet a strike threat with a 30-day "freeze," during which, as tempers cooled, a presidential board of inquiry would examine the issues involved. George Taylor's committee favored a law obliging the proper officials—Governors, mayors—to seek a court injunction as soon as they saw a strike coming in an essential service, rather than waiting until the actual walkout.
Nearly all of the finespun theories are still in the laboratory, of course; none of them have been tested under fire. The only significant local government forum in the U.S. that is available to the disputants in public labor controversy is New York City's Office of Collective Bargaining, which opened this year and which the garbage men ignored. The nonacceptance of such a well-intentioned agency leads to the conclusion that solutions lie a long, troubled way ahead. "Public employees will strike unless there are acceptable alternatives," says Arnold Weber, professor of industrial relations at the University of Chicago. "I don't have any answers, and nobody else has any answers." In some quarters there is cautious hope. Says Victor Gotbaum, who heads the New York District 37 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees: "Both sides are just learning how to bargain, and must be given a natural chance to grow."
A Positive Approach
What is urgently needed is an entirely fresh approach to the problem. Until now, most government thinking and effort have been directed at prohibiting strikes and punishing the unions that violate the bans. Since it is now clear that this negative stance only makes matters worse, new efforts must be mounted on the positive side.