Collective Bargaining, Strikes, and Financial Costs in Public Education: A Comparative Review. State-of-the-Knowledge Series.

Drawing on data about unionism in education as well as in other public and private sectors, this literature review focuses on three areas: the causes of collective bargaining in public education, the reasons for strikes by school employees, and the impact of unions on educational expenses and salaries. The author first discusses the factors leading to educational unionism, including changes in teachers' and administrators' attitudes and desires, increases in the number of educators, concentration in larger work units, decisions by teacher and administrator organizations to bargain collectively, and legal support from state laws. Economic, political, and moral arguments for and against educator strikes are considered in the second section, which examines the rational and irrational reasons for strikes and recommends strike prevention rather than strike prohibition. In the last section the author surveys research on collective bargaining's effect on educational costs. He finds that researchers agree that unionism increases teacher salaries but disagree about its effects on salary structures, program cuts, taxes, and educational quality. The author recommends further research on unionism's causes and consequences, especially on the effects of the current educational retrenchment on unions. (Author/RW)