In the early 1960s, the militant demands of some organizations of state and local government employees to participate in decisions about compensation and conditions of employment challenged many established concepts of public administration. A series of strikes revealed a lack of public policy and administrative techniques to cope with the problems presented by aggressive and innovative groups of public employees. Although civil servants had been organized in some communities for as long as fifty years, public attitudes about how such organizations should fit into the political and administrative systems were hazy in the 1960s, and official policies were fragmentary or nonexistent. Some states adopted legislation forbidding public employees to join certain types of organizations. Some highly industrial and urban states enacted legislation creating a system of employer-employee relations based on the theory of collective bargaining developed in industry. California, the most populous state, developed a public policy that differs considerably from the industrial model. In Organized Civil Servants, Winston W. Crouch analyzes factors in California’s political system that have tended to produce this policy. He also analyzes the efforts made to reconcile collective bargaining in the public service with the established concepts and procedures of the merit system of public employment. The ultimate outcome appears to depend on the scope of agreements negotiated between public employers and employee organizations at the bargaining table. This title is part of UC Press’s Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1978.

While there is plenty of literature on California’s history, topography, and attractions, The Beholden State: California's Lost Promise and How to Recapture It is the first book examining in rigorous detail how a place seen just a generation ago as the dynamic engine of the American future could, through bad policy ideas, find itself with among the highest unemployment rates and poorest educational outcomes in the country

The Meyers-Milias-Brown Act governs labor-management relationships in California local government: cities, counties, and most special districts. The 14th edition covers new Public Employment Relations Board decisions and regulations spelling out unfair practices. -- from publisher's web site.

Unlike Europe, where most public sector workers have long been included in collective bargaining agreements, the United States excluded public employees from such legislation until the 1960s and 70s. Since then, union membership in the U. S. has grown more rapidly among public workers than among workers in the private sector. This book provides up-to-date information on public sector collective bargaining in the United States today. The editors' seek to understand the real nature of PSB by examining eight states where the action is taking place -- California, Hawaii, Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. The chapters offer unique case studies of legal origins, developments, and challenges to collective bargaining; negotiations experience and outcomes; discussion of legislation; and emphasis of histoical development as well as current practice.

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