Hunter College

From the SelectedWorks of William A. Herbert

2019

Public Workers William A. Herbert

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons CC_BY-NC International License.

Available at: https://works.bepress.com/william_herbert/45/ CHAPTER 11 by William A. Herbert Public Workers ublic workers began self-organ- izing in in the late 19th and early 20th cen- Pturies, coinciding with an increase in governmental services and the ad- vent of civil service reform.

Various associations of federal, state, immunity from hard work. The ste- and local government workers reotype is more than a century old. formed along occupational (post- It was used in a May 1911 speech by al, sanitation, and clerical workers; President William Howard Taft to teachers, police, and firefighters) justify placing conditions on public and departmental lines, or accord- workers “that should not be and ing to civil service status. An early, ought not be imposed upon those important goal of many employee who serve private employers.” associations was enforcement of It remains a rhetorical tool used to civil service rules, a goal shared by create divisions between public- government-reform groups to end and private-sector workers, and political patronage-based deci- to attack collective bargaining, job sion-making. security protections, and pensions. Organizational strength varied. Some early New York public Interunion rivalries and factional dis- employee organizations affiliated putes, as well as political and strate- with the labor movement, which had gic differences, permeate much long sought to make government a of the city’s public-sector labor his- “model employer” as a means of per- tory. Among the most unified have suading private employers to follow been occupation-specific organiza- suit, particularly in efforts to win the tions. Over time, the racial, ethnic, eight-hour workday. and gender composition of the city In the late 19th century postal workforce has substantially changed and sanitation workers joined the as well, with the uniformed services Knights of Labor. Later the Amer- requiring litigation to compel a diverse ican Federation of Labor (AFL) char- and integrated workforce. tered public-sector organizations One thing has not changed: the and advocated for laws to improve persistent stereotype of government working conditions in government, workers as a privileged class with even when it eschewed legislative job security, pensions, and alleged solutions for industrial workers. The

142 UNION CITY: 1898–1975 New York City Teachers Union affili- ization as undermining their pro- ated with the AFL in 1916. Two years fessional status. And some had no later, the Uniform Fireman’s Asso- choice: the Patrolmen’s Benevolent ciation (UFA) joined as well. Other Association was prohibited by mu- employee organizations remained nicipal law from affiliating with the nonaligned, priding themselves on labor movement, even after the AFL being protective associations of civil had lifted its two-decade ban on servants, rather than defining them- chartering police unions. (The lifting selves as unions bent on collective of the ban led to Boston’s dramatic bargaining. Resistance to unioniza- 1919 police strike after officers were tion came from another employee fired because their union accepted group—those holding white-collar an AFL charter.) government jobs who viewed union-

Traditional Means of Collective Advocacy: Lobbying and Political Action he fact that they worked employment. A prime example of for the government caused the exercise of that power is the ex- public-sector workers to rely clusion of government workers from Ton strategies and tactics different the right to unionize and engage in from their private-sector counter- collective bargaining guaranteed parts. State power necessitates by the 1935 National Labor Relations public-sector unions to develop and Act (NLRA), the 1937 New York maintain good working relationships State Labor Relations Act, and the with public officials. The government 1938 New York State Constitution. has the power to grant or deny labor Without collective bargaining, Strikebreakers rights to its workers and to create public employee organizations lob- “Breaking Garbage Strike at $5 a day,” and enforce laws concerning public bied and engaged in political action 1911 to improve working conditions. Most tives. The civil liberties of govern- public-worker organizations limit- ment workers were suppressed, ed their focus to bread-and-butter and workers were retaliated against, issues: wages, hours, pensions, and based on political or union activities. job security. The latter was what Presidential gag orders had prohib- attracted many workers, including ited federal workers from lobby- African Americans, women, and ing Congress concerning working ethnic minorities, to public service. conditions. The New York City Early legislative victories brought Charter once banned police officers, elements of industrial democracy to firefighters, and teachers from joining New York’s public sector by giving or supporting organizations that employees a voice in the workplace lobbied, and teachers were subject to through due process disciplinary loyalty oaths. procedures, a salary classification During the first half of the 20th system, equal pay for women teach- century, legislation made gradual in- ers, and platoon systems for fire- roads. The federal Lloyd-La Follette fighters and police. Act of 1912 was the first important A prominent practitioner of law to protect the civil liberties of maintaining close working rela- public workers. The law overturned tionships with elected officials, the presidential gag order, granted party leaders, and candidates was postal workers the right to form an organization of workers in city a union, and codified tenure protec- departments known as the Civil tions for many federal workers. Service Forum, long led by onetime Another important civil liberties Deputy Comptroller Frank J. Prial development was the 1920 Civil who owned the civil service news- Rights Law provision signed by paper, The Chief. The Civil Service New York Governor Alfred E. Smith Forum closely aligned itself with protecting the right of public work- politicians and it opposed collec- ers to petition government officials. tive bargaining and strikes. The Extending that individual right into organization’s close collaboration a collective right to file departmental and entanglement with partisan grievances with union represen- political forces undermined its or- tation became a priority for many ganizational independence. organizations, but such procedures The effectiveness of lobby- did not get codified until the 1950s ing and informal negotiations was and 1960s. Even today, most work- limited. Public officials had no legal place-related speech and petitions by obligation to meet or confer with individual public employees remain subordinates or their representa- unprotected by the First Amendment.

Early Examples of Militant Public Unionism in New York City obbying and political action more militant strain. Early examples were never the sole means include periodic strikes by sani- adopted by municipal work- tation workers over wages, hours, Lers. From the beginning there was a and workloads, including an April

144 UNION CITY: 1898–1975 1911 strike that was defeated with police brutality and aligned itself strikebreakers. with others in advocating for the In the 1930s militancy grew unemployed. The New York City among other groups of city work- Teachers Union worked with com- ers. Bricklayers and other building munity groups to improve public trades workers struck over wages schools by supporting increases in on projects funded by the feder- funding, the hiring of African-Amer- al Works Progress Administration ican and Puerto Rican teachers, (WPA). Many of the more militant the introduction of African-Amer- public-sector unions were Commu- ican history and culture into the nist led. A union of city relief workers, curriculum, and a ban on racist and the Association of Workers in Public anti-Semitic textbooks. Relief Agencies (AWPRA), demand- In 1936 the AWPRA joined ed the right to bargain collective- the American Federation of State, ly, led demonstrations and sit-ins, County and Municipal Employees challenged civil service exams as (AFSCME), an AFL affiliate. The having an adverse impact on African AFSCME’s primary mission at its Americans, and protested anti-union founding was to expand and en- retaliation. Informal negotiations be- force the civil service system. New tween the AWPRA and agency offi- York AWPRA leaders VVW Flax- cials resulted in a 1935 departmental er and William Gaulden became disciplinary procedure that included AFSCME vice presidents, making union representation, a review of the Gaulden one of the highest-rank- discipline by a neutral board, and a ing African Americans nationally in ban on discrimination based on race, union leadership. creed, or union activity. Following the creation of the Social unionism, which links Committee for Industrial Organi- workplace issues with broader social zation (CIO), the AWPRA and its justice causes, grew as well during members formed the nucleus of a the Depression Era. The AWPRA competing CIO public-sector union, opposed race discrimination and the State, County and Municipal

Abram Flaxer, 1937 Photograph by Harris and Ewing

Abram Flaxer, a leader of public relief workers, became an important figure in the city’s emerg- ing CIO union politics during the 1930s.

145 Workers of America (SCMWA). Afri- strikes. The initial rejection of strikes can Americans and women, including stemmed from the CIO’s alliance Ewart Guinier, Mary Luciel McGorkey, with President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Eleanor Goding, were among who opposed militancy by govern- the SCMWA’s leaders. It took decades ment workers, but recognized the before other public-sector organi- legitimacy of public employee zations had integrated leadership. self-organization. The SCMWA’s po- The SCMWA’s founding princi- sition on strikes fluctuated through- ples focused on bargaining, legis- out the 1940s. The union was lation, education, and antidiscrim- successful in negotiating collective ination. Strikes and picketing were bargaining agreements in the late prohibited. The union’s moderate 1930s and 1940s with public em- tactics were remarkably different ployers in other states including New from the CIO-led industrial sit-down Jersey, Michigan, and West Virginia.

City Worker Unionization in the 1940s and 1950s or the next decade the SC- O’Dwyer’s unsuccessful campaign in MWA, the AFSCME, the Civil 1941 to deny La Guardia a third term. Service Forum, and other The SCMWA also organized state Forganizations competed to represent workers in the city, creating locals city workers, department by de- in state departments in competition partment. This competitive form of with the Civil Service Employees plural representation required each Association (CSEA). The SCMWA organization to have a presence in successfully lobbied Governor the workplace, and regular personal Herbert H. Lehman in 1939 to issue contact with department workers. a memorandum directing state The SCMWA’s strongest base of agency grievance procedures with support was among welfare and a right to representation. But a bill hospital workers. supported by the SCMWA to require In 1941 New York City Depart- each city department to create a ment of Sanitation workers quit the similar grievance procedure and to Civil Service Forum and joined the grant city workers the right to a join AFSCME. The move took place in a union died in the City Council. the face of an organizing campaign Collective bargaining in New York’s by the CIO’s Sanitation Workers public sector was slow in coming. Organizing Committee led by the The delay can be attributed to three SCMWA’s Flaxer. Mayor Fiorello La factors: lack of support from civil Guardia and Sanitation Commission- service organizations, legal imped- er William F. Carey thwarted the CIO iments, and opposition from politi- campaign to organize the 10,000 cians, including Mayor La Guardia, workers by granting the AFSCME who objected to negotiating lim- exclusive representation rights in the itations on his authority. Indeed, La department. Collective bargaining Guardia opposed SCMWA-supported rights for city workers and political collective bargaining legislation. He favoritism in the Sanitation Depart- also refused to negotiate with the ment were issues raised in William CIO’s Transport Workers Union of

146 UNION CITY: 1898–1975 Members of the New York City Teachers Union protest Board of Education interrogations and firings of alleged communists, 1950

America (TWU) after two bankrupt 1947 with draconian anti-strike pen- private subway lines were unified alties for public workers. with a municipal line to create an The passage of the Condon- extensive public system, although he Wadlin Act coincided with the begin- did agree to a grievance procedure ning of the , a dark and re- with union representation. pressive period in public employment. The tide began to turn in the The UPWA tried to remain vigilant, O’Dwyer administration. After suc- leading demonstrations at Welfare ceeding La Guardia in 1946, William Department offices concerning staff- O’Dwyer aligned himself with the ing levels and relief payment increas- TWU and its president, Michael J. es, and bargaining contracts at The Quill, to support negotiations for New School (a Manhattan University) transit workers. O’Dwyer rewarded and trade schools. The UPWA and its the SCMWA by ending the AFSC- activists were subject to city and fed- ME’s exclusive representational role eral investigations, targeted by city in the sanitation department. Later officials, and purged from the CIO in that year, the CIO merged the SCM- 1950, claiming the organization was WA with another of its public-sector dominated by Communists. unions to form the United Public Meanwhile, public school teachers Workers of America (UPWA). active in the New York City Teachers But tensions remained high. Union, a UPWA affiliate, were inves- Public workers in New York State tigated and fired under the Fein- were part of the nationwide strike berg Law. (This 1949 civil service law wave that followed World War II. amendment prohibited the employ- Upstate strikes and threatened ment of teachers and others in public strikes by the TWU resulted in a schools and colleges who advocated strong political backlash in Albany. or taught “the doctrine that the A teachers’ strike in Buffalo for high- government of the United States er wages precipitated the legislature or of any state or of any politi- to pass the Condon-Wadlin Act in cal subdivision thereof should be

Public Workers 147 overthrown or overturned by force, AFSCME losing more than two-thirds violence or any unlawful means.”) of its city membership. The biggest The attacks on the UPWA and loss came in 1951 when the United its activists by the CIO and gov- Sanitationmen’s Association (USA), ernment officials led to the union’s under the leadership of John J. demise. The UPWA’s destruction did DeLury, affiliated with the Interna- not end worker militancy or efforts tional Brotherhood of Teamsters. to attain legal protections for self- The following year, Henry Feinstein organization and collective bargain- received a charter to form Team- ing. Instead, it opened space for sters Local 237 with hundreds of expanded organizing by rival labor former members of AFSCME District organizations, some of which hired Council 37 (DC 37), who were au- former UPWA activists such as Jack to-engine men and a small group of Bigel, who, years later, became a key hospital workers. Feinstein’s depar- labor advisor during negotiations ture provided the AFSCME’s Jerry that helped the city avoid bankrupt- Wurf with an opportunity to rebuild cy during the mid-1970s fiscal crisis. DC 37 using trade union strategies In the early 1950s, leadership and tactics. and tactical disputes resulted in the

The Beginning of Collective Bargaining for City Workers

he dawn of public-sector col- Department Commissioner Robert lective bargaining in New York Moses, and City Hall intervention, DC came with the 1953 election 37 won the right to represent park Tof Mayor Robert F. Wagner Jr., who workers after an election. received support from the labor Another turning point came in movement. Following his inaugura- 1957, when the city implemented tion, Wagner gave a green light for nonexclusive dues deduction check- the holding of representation elec- off for all city unions. Dues checkoff tions and collective bargaining for was a goal of many unions, because transit workers, leading to the first it is a more efficient alternative to formal public-sector agreements in collecting dues directly from mem- New York. He also issued an interim bers in the workplace and after work. order in 1954 that recognized the Dues checkoff had been part of deals right of city workers to join a union reached a decade earlier between without retaliation and to have rep- the TWU and transit officials, and resentation under agency grievance between the UPWA and the City of procedures. Governor Thomas E. Yonkers, to avoid threatened strikes. Dewey issued a similar executive Finally, after years of study, in order a few years earlier, at the urg- March 1958, Wagner issued Exec- ing of the CSEA, for state workers. utive Order 49 (EO 49), referred to DC 37 put the interim order to as the “Little Wagner Act,” which use and campaigned to organize created the largest public-sector 5,000 New York City Department collective bargaining program in the of Parks employees. Following a country. Yet EO 49 had its limita- well-publicized battle with Parks tions: it created a representation

148 UNION CITY: 1898–1975 system dominated by Wagner and his appointees, with a cumbersome array of citywide and departmental units based on occupational classi- fications; it also lacked a neutral im- passe procedure. Still, it introduced public-sector collective bargaining in New York. The UFA was the first union cer- tified as the exclusive representative for a bargaining unit, which included officers of all ranks within the fire -de partment, except the chief and dep- uty chiefs. The USA was the second, and the first to negotiate a contract workers, city motor vehicle drivers, AFSCME leaders with the city, covering 10,000 sanita- and others. welcome Lilllian Roberts (second tion department workers. Wagner, in 1963, lifted the orig- from right) after her From then on, collective bargain- inal exclusion of police from cover- release from jail, ing between unions and the city grew age under EO 49 (although in lifting 1968 rapidly, and so did strikes. A short the ban, he disqualified any union teachers strike for recognition in 1960 that admitted employees other than DC 37’s Lillian Roberts was jailed under the led to a representation election won police force members or advocated Taylor Act for leading a by the United Federation of Teachers in favor of strikes). His extension of strike by workers in New (UFT) over other teacher unions. In collective bargaining to the police York State mental hospi- tals. A judge released her 1962 the UFT and the Board of Edu- department resulted in five bargain- after she served 14 days cation negotiated a first contract for ing units based on rank and rep- of a 30-day sentence. a unit of more than 35,000 teach- resented by separate unions, with ers, but only after another one-day police officers being represented strike. During this period, there were by the PBA. other short strikes by sanitation

Civil Rights, Collective Bargaining, and Strikes ven as they fought for bar- Anti-Mike Quill gaining rights, a number of button, 1966 municipal unions also pursued The 1966 transit strike Ebroader social goals. DC 37, the UFT, sparked a backlash of and other city unions supported the commuter resentment. growing Civil Rights Movement and provided it with financial support. Thousands of their members partic- ipated in the 1963 March on Wash- ington for Jobs and Freedom. In 1965, the Welfare Department and the Department of Hospitals, two former strongholds of the UPWA, became the focus of increased

Public Workers 149 TWU President Mike militancy and organizing. Eight 20,000 hospital workers after a de- Quill tears up a tem- thousand Welfare Department cade of interunion rivalry. Two Afri- porary strike-barring injunction issued by workers represented by the Social can Americans, Local 237’s Bill Lewis State Supreme Court Service Employees Union (SSEU) and DC 37’s Lillian Roberts, played Justice George and DC 37 participated in a month leading roles in the bitter campaign. Tilzer, December 31, 1965 long strike that was settled after the Subsequent DC 37 victories in de- Photograph by Paul city accepted a fact-finding panel’s partmental elections resulted in the DeMaria recommendations for substantial union gaining majority support and wage and health-benefit increases, the right to negotiate on a citywide workload limitations, and increased basis for a unit of all clerical workers staffing. Mayor Wagner also agreed and a unit of employees under the to appoint a panel to recommend Career and Salary Plan, a city classi- changes to the city’s collective bar- fication system of mostly white-col- gaining program composed of labor lar titles and occupational groups. representatives led by DC 37’s Victor Additional election victories by DC Gotbaum, city officials, and neutral 37 made it the largest and most public members. powerful municipal union in the city. Later that year, DC 37 scored But DC 37 was not the only a major victory over Teamsters militant union. After decades of Local 237 in an election to represent strike threats, on January 1, 1966, the

150 UNION CITY: 1898–1975 TWU Local 100 members on strike, 1966 Photograph by Paul Slade

TWU pulled the trigger with a strike first term. Virtually all the municipal of 35,000 members that shut down unions had endorsed Lindsay’s op- the transit system for 12 days. The ponent, Democrat Abraham Beame, strike began the same day a new in the 1965 campaign, and they mayor, Republican John V. Lindsay, remained suspicious of Lindsay’s was sworn into office, a harbinger of aloofness and his labor agenda. labor conflicts to come during his

Union Rights Granted to All New York Public Workers and Strike Penalties Increased

he 1966 transit strike led to tripartite panel appointed by Wagner new calls for replacing the issued a report with its own recom- Condon-Wadlin Act, which mendations for improving city-labor Thad proven ineffective in deterring relations. Those recommendations, the strike. Governor Nelson Rocke- which were opposed by the SSEU feller appointed a committee of and other unions, formed the basis experts, headed by George Taylor, a for the New York City Collective professor at the Wharton School of Bargaining Law (NYCCBL). Business, to propose legal chang- Opposition to the proposed Tay- es to improve labor relations and lor Law substantially delayed its pas- avoid strikes. The Taylor Commit- sage in Albany and the enactment of tee’s March 1966 report broke new the NYCCBL by the city council. Mu- ground by recommending collective nicipal unions vehemently opposed bargaining rights for all state and the Taylor Law’s anti-strike provi- local government workers, along sions and held a May 1967 rally at with new penalties and procedures Madison Square Garden to condemn for strikes. In the same month, the them. Local governments opposed

Public Workers 151 the expansion of collective bargain- city collective bargaining program ing rights to employees of counties, consistent with the Taylor Law, cities, towns, and villages beyond replacing EO 49. A neutral tripar- the five boroughs. On the other tite municipal agency, the Office of hand, the CSEA strongly supported Collective Bargaining (OCB), was the law because it would expand formed to determine representation collective bargaining geographically issues, consolidate the unwieldy sys- and continue the ban on public- tem of bargaining units, and admin- sector strikes. ister procedures to resolve contract On September 1, 1967, the Taylor grievances and bargaining impasses. Law and the NYCCBL became The Taylor Law’s new strike pen- effective. Besides extending collec- alties did not deter the UFT, led by Al tive bargaining rights throughout Shanker. The UFT organized a three- New York State and increasing strike week strike of 45,000 teachers short- penalties, the Taylor Law codified ly after the law became effective. The dues deduction checkoff, established strike concerned wages, class size, bargaining-impasse procedures, and the power of classroom teachers permitted card-check certification, to remove disruptive students. and banned unions that discriminat- In 1968, there were major and Day three of the ed based on race, creed, color, or divisive strikes by sanitation workers sanitation workers strike, 1968 religion. The NYCCBL created a new as well as teachers. The sanitation

152 UNION CITY: 1898–1975 Supporters of strik- ing New York City teachers, City Hall, 1968

UFT supporters rallying during the divisive 1968 teachers’ strikes.

workers walked off the job after contract for a unit of 120,000 rejecting an agreement with the city workers. The agreement enhanced negotiated by their leader, John J. the employee pension plan and DeLury. The strike angered many made further changes, concerning city residents as thousands of tons hours, overtime, and other working of garbage remained uncollected conditions. In February 1969, the for nine days. city signed contracts with DC 37 for At the beginning of the 1968–69 more than 40,000 clerical and hos- school year, the UFT led a series pital workers, resulting in substantial of strikes over community control wage increases and a minimum of the schools and tenure rights in salary of $6,000. Ocean Hill–Brownsville, shutting By the end of Lindsay’s first down the school system for months. term, New York City’s new system of The strike created a major wedge collective bargaining had begun to between the city’s labor movement work. There were newly negotiated and Civil Rights Movement, and be- contracts, a decline in strikes and tween elements of the African-Amer- contract impasses, the consolidation ican and Jewish communities. The of bargaining units, fewer interun- Ocean Hill–Brownsville conflict pitted ion rivalries, and a greater voice for the UFT, which had a large Jewish city workers in workplace policies. membership with tenure and other Outside the city, there was a massive contract rights, against African- wave of organizing by numerous American leaders and parents who unions seeking to represent state insisted that their communities should and local government workers with control the hiring, firing, curriculum, bargaining rights under the Taylor and administration of schools in their Law. The organizing led to a prolifer- neighborhoods. ation of new collective bargaining re- In the same year, after two lationships, contracts, impasses, and years of negotiations, DC 37 and a large increase in strikes, which did the city reached a first citywide not dissipate until the late 1970s.

Public Workers 153 Victor Gotbaum, City labor negotiations were job action of 8,000 drawbridge executive director sometimes long and contentious, but and sewer operators to protest the of DC 37 at a press conference during the fruit of the process was a sub- failure of the state to approve further a strike of workers stantial improvement in the econom- enhancements to the pension plan responsible for the ic well-being of municipal workers that had been negotiated with the operation of draw- bridges, 1971 and their families, along with greater city. The strike resulted in major uniformity in city departmental traffic jams as thousands of mo- policies. Internal union bureaucracies torists were unable to cross draw- were established to negotiate and bridges and millions of tons of pursue issues through the grievance untreated sewage was dumped into process. Lindsay took a leading the city’s waterways. role in advocating for legal changes The 1971 strike was the antithe- to require nonmembers to pay an sis of social unionism. Rather than agency fee for union representation trying to build community support, to help ensure labor peace. Satis- the strike had consequences that faction with the improvement in city angered the public, politicians, and labor relations led DC 37, the USA, the press, feeding a growing dissat- and the TWU to support Lindsay’s isfaction with the city’s trajectory. reelection in 1969. Taxpayers, fueled in part by white This did not mean that all was backlash, were resentful over the sal- harmonious in Gotham. Firefighters aries and benefits for an increasingly and police participated in sick-outs African-American and Latino mu- and slowdowns in the early 1970s. nicipal workforce. Financial analysts DC 37 and Teamsters Local 237 questioned the city’s reliance on led a disastrous two-day June 1971 short-term debt to finance budget

154 UNION CITY: 1898–1975 deficits emanating from a shrinking to the growing cost of expanded tax base caused by deindustrializa- municipal services and collective tion and suburbanization, in addition bargaining agreements.

The Aftermath of the Fiscal Crisis and Public-Sector Unionization Today hose dark clouds foreshad- occupational pockets, including the owed the mid-1970s fiscal unlikely pair of police and faculty crisis, which upended, but did unions that have led street demon- Tnot destroy, collective bargaining. strations and other forms of protest The shock of the fiscal crisis opened in support of their respective bar- the door for a new age of austerity gaining demands. that included external controls over Public-sector unions face new negotiated contracts, layoffs, and threats, including the 2018 Supreme less militancy among city workers Court decision striking down the and their unions. The concept of agency shop as unconstitutional, government as the model employer thereby mandating the “right to to be emulated by the private sector work” in public employment. These disappeared from labor-advocacy developments have made pub- Members of the Uni- formed Firefighters and public-policy discussions. lic-sector collective labor rights Association Local The relative weakness of city more vulnerable and has required 94 during a brief unions at the bargaining table, grow- government workers and their (five-and-a-half- hour) strike, 1973 ing out of the fiscal crisis, led them unions to begin to relearn the import- Photograph by Harry to develop more sophisticated polit- ant organizing lessons of the past. Harris ical-action programs, primarily as a rearguard measure to preserve and enhance benefits and protections. Unions developed get-out-the-vote initiatives, such as phone banking and door-to-door canvassing, in support of union-endorsed candidates in primary and general elections. Union density today among all government workers in the New York City metropolitan area is 69 percent. Constructive relationships between the city and its unions continue to form the necessary bedrock for positive labor relations. But the increased prioritization of political action and the centraliza- tion of authority in union bureau- cracies throughout the decades caused membership mobilization about workplace issues to atrophy. Militancy still exists, but only within

Public Workers 155