Rethinking Public-Service Unions

Faegre Drinker Consulting Principal Skip Stitt co-authored an article for National Affairs with Eli Lehrer, president of the R Street Institute, in which they describe how officeholders can develop relationships with public-sector unions while navigating the politics of labor relations.

The authors share two recommendations for officeholders to collaborate with public-service unions:

1. “Recognize that building good working relationships with public-service unions … can be accomplished by marketizing services, reforming or repealing counterproductive rules and drawing on the wisdom of methods developed by unionized private-sector employers.”
2. “Any successful effort will require a combination of good labor-relations practices and smart politics.”

They further discuss examples of working with unions, lessons to be learned from the private sector, the politics involved with public-service unions and what the future holds for labor relations.