Winning Without Bargaining: Unionization & the Federal Workforce

Federal employees’ unions are prohibited from bargaining with federal agencies over wages and benefits, are legally barred from striking, and are precluded from collecting agency fees. Nonetheless, they are perceived to be politically powerful, and, in many ways, represent the future of other public sector unions. Political scientists Rachel Potter and Alexander Bolton will investigate what attributes make federal employee unions strong and how union strength affects workplace outcomes such as employee benefits. They will analyze data on federal bargaining units from 1998 to 2020 and whistleblower reports as well as data from Equal Employment Opportunity Commission reports for their study.