should public employees have the right to strike

Please respond to two students discuss questions. Make sure each response is answered with 100 or more word count and cited with 2 scholarly sources for each question. (apa format)

Original discuss question below:

1. Should public employees have the right to strike?

Jobe, JeWuana, student 1

What is a strike and why do employees choose to strike? A strike occurs when union employees refuse to work and stop coming to work. Workers strike to protest wages, working conditions, benefits, etc. When they are not able to collectively bargain with their employer they notify them they will striking until they negotiate a contract. There are two types of workers, public sector and private sector. To put it simply private sector employees work for organizations which are privately owned by an individual and not by the government whereas are public sector employees work for government organizations. Examples of public sector jobs include firefighters, police officers, public school teachers, state workers, etc. The question being posed this week is should public employees have the right to strike? To answer this question we must determine what state the employee works in as according to Burton (1970), in some states it is legal for public employees to strike while in other states it is not. “Public workers were not granted the formal legal right to bargain collectively, or in most cases,even the right to form unions, until the 1960s” (Slater, 2012, p. 474). Although we have answered the question as to whether public employees have the right to strike we should also ask ourselves should they strike. According to Burton (1970), he states private sector employees should not strike and states strikes cause political controversies and more importantly he feels it is inappropriate as it takes away from their job. Burton states public workers play important in society and it is critical for them to be available to perform their job functions.

Prosecky, Ericka, Student 2

The best question to ask in this situation is when an individual calls 9-1-1, how would the emergency be handled if the police, fire department, and other public services not be available? Public employees such as the police, firemen, the military and more provide services that would cause a significant disruption to the overall functioning of the country if strikes are allowed by public employees (Burton, 1970). Because of the disruptions that may occur during strikes with public employees many states have developed laws against striking for public employees such as employees being arrested (Aronowitz, 2011). Although public employees should not be allowed to strike due to the major issues that will result in the striking of public employees, this does not mean public employees do not have the right to collectively bargain and ask for a better work environment (Aronowitz, 2011; Burton, 1970).

Public employees may have laws against striking that many individuals agree with, but this does not mean public employees should not be able to fight for better wages, benefits, and other protections unions provide. Collective bargaining should still occur between the government and union representatives since good faith collective bargaining allows for the concerns of both the employees and government to be heard and an agreement can be reached that would prevent the need for strikes (Holley, Jennings, & Wolster, 2012). Many organizations have anti-strike clauses in the agreements made between the union and management and these organizations can function and make agreements that allow for this relationship to work, so through collective bargaining, the need for strikes with public employees may be reduced or eliminated as well. Also, employees 18 years or older have the benefit of voting, depending on the state, every two to four years for new officials such as mayor, which allows for public employees to decide on an individual who shares the same views and wants as the employee. This allows employees some control over bargaining since a mayor or representative with comparable views is more likely to collectively bargain and meet the needs of the public employees as well.

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