Graduate Program

Political Science

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Semester of Degree Completion

2005

Thesis Director

Richard Wandling

Thesis Committee Member

Andrew McNitt

Thesis Committee Member

Jeff Ashley

Abstract

Collective bargaining in the public sector is inherently political. Public unions negotiate either directly or indirectly with elected public officials. This thesis explores the political bargaining strategies adopted by municipal public unions and the inherent factors that surround the collective bargaining process (e.g. trust, state of the economy, community interest groups, and media). The intentions of this study were to see if these variables influenced negotiated wage increases and the likelihood of experiencing bargaining impasses. The findings suggest that public union political bargaining strategies positively affect negotiated wage increases. Trust, however, seems to evolve as the most important variable. Building a trusting labor-management relationship has a farreaching effect. Municipal bargaining units that possess a high level of trust for the city government officials are more likely to receive sizeable wage increases and less likely to reach a bargaining impasse, than bargaining units that possess a low level of trust for the city government officials.

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