Ever wonder why union members' salary and benefits, workload agreements, and other aspects of their collective bargaining agreements, or "contracts," often remain unchanged and enforced during the all-too-common periods when public employees labor without a contract? In New York, the answer boils down to an understanding of the Public…

The New York City school teachers strike of 1968 was the outcome of a conflict which had been growing since the establishment of the Ocean Hill-Brownsville experiment in decentralized school administration. This conflict developed over the Local Governing Board's desire to clearly establish its authority to hire and fire employees of the district,…