Should public employees be allowed to strike? Why or why not?
I believe that public employees should be allowed to strike but only 11 states within the United States
allow their public employees to strike but impose restrictions.
The most common restriction is banning
police officers and firefighters because it would impose immediate danger to public safety.
But other
categories such as teachers, transit workers, DMV clerks, park rangers impose an economic threat which
is the very essence of a strike.
The reason that public employee strikes are outlawed in all states except
11 is not based on the threat to public safety, but it is that governments are the only employers that
actually have the ability to outlaw strikes.
Public employee strike including the 11 states that allow strikes are rare and the reason has a lot to do
with the dynamics that strikes in general.
Employers and employees in any job actions make a
calculation based on comparative hardship and sustain economic losses.
The workers will not receive a
pay check and risk losing their jobs, the employers loses income and risk losing customers.
The goal is to
survive the short-term economic loss while imposing greater costs on the other side, until one side or
cries uncle.
Hiltzik, Michael. (2013).
Why public employees should have the right to strike.
Retrieved from
http://articles.latimes.com/2013/oct/24/business/la-fi-mh-strike-20131024
