Labor Relations Law in State and Local Government

Labor law in state and local government is often characterized as a patchwork of inconsistent and contradictory statutes. The purpose of this book is to present the labor law in state government in a concise and understandable manner. To date, there has been no systematic treatise on the subject that is generally applicable. The authors have collected and analyzed the laws of each state that have enacted collective bargaining statutes. Comparisons are drawn with the National Labor Relations Act and the evidence suggests that there is a significant area of consistency, suggesting that many jurisdictions have modelled their statutes after the federal law; making only those modifications necessary to local conditions. Rather than focus on minute details of specific statutes, the authors have presented a general analysis of the major aspects of the state collective bargaining laws.

The book begins with an introduction and overview of the states' labor laws. An analysis of why states must act if collective bargaining rights for public employees are to be protected is presented together with an analysis of the political and economic reasons for inconsistent treatment of public sector employees collective bargaining rights. The discussion then turns to the structure and functions of administrative law agencies, the rights of employers and employees, the scope of bargaining, bargaining in good faith, impasse resolution and its impact, and contract enforcement and administration.

DAVID A. DILTS is Professor of Labor Relations and Economics at Indiana University at Fort Wayne. He is also a member of the National Academy of Arbitrators. He has authored or co-authored over 60 articles concerning labor relations matters in journal such as Management Science, Journal of Labor Research, Industrial Relations, Arbitration Journal, Labor Law Journal, and Journal of Collective Negotiations in the Public Sector. He has co-authored six books concerning labor relations.

CLARENCE R. DEITSCH is Professor of Economics at Ball State University. Professor Deitsch is an arbitrator with nearly twenty years experience and serves as permanent arbitrator on the panels of the United States Postal Service. He has co-authored five books and over 30 articles in such journals as Journal of Collective Negotiations in the Public Sector, Arbitration Journal, Journal of Labor Research, and Labor Law Journal.

ALI RASSULI is Associate Professor of Economics and Chairman of the Department of Economics and Finance in the School of Business Management Sciences at Indiana University at Fort Wayne Professor Rassuli has published extensively in labor relations and labor economics topics. His articles have appeared in journals such as Journal of Post-Keynesian Economics, Toledo Law Review, and Journal of Collective Negotiations in the Public Sector.