29
An administrator should profit fully
from the guidance he may obtain from
collective consultation with his em
ployees or their representatives with re
spect to conditions of employment and
the good of the service. An informal
negotiation, or understanding can thus
result, and this cooperative arrange
ment may be kept in good faith without
its being binding on the legislature or
the administrator. There is ample lati
tude for negotiations and arrangements
which remain advisory in character, al
though fully respected because they re
present reasonable solutions of issues
confronting the units involved.
Should a government agency require
employees to be members of an associa
tion?
In private employment, organizations
of workers generally seek the rule that
all workers affected by the terms of a
labor agreement shall become or re
main members of the organization. The
provision appears in several forms. In
a few cases unions have obtained the
"closed shop,” which in recent years
has been identified as a requirement
that no one can be employed who is
not already a member of the organiza
tion. In the majority of cases the or
ganizations have obtained the "union
shop,” definable as one which requires
all employees to become members of
the union, usually after a short proba
tion period.
W ith regard to the closed shop, in
the specific way defined above, few
public-minded citizens can be found
to defend the inclusion of such a clause
in a government agreement with an
employee organization. To require any
applicant for a job first to become a
member of an employee association is
so opposed to public policy that the
proposal hardly requires «further dis
cussion.
It might be reiterated here that in
public employment the recognition of
a group must be suited to the nature of
the operations of the agency involved
and does not carry with it inevitably
the acceptance of all the organization
devices and procedure which labor
groups in private industry happen to
have developed. In public employment,
when the principles of the merit sys
tem prevail, employment standards are
maintained by statutes publicly pro
claimed.
Should government employee organ
izations have the right to strike?
The right to strike has been expressly
renounced by some public employee or
ganizations. Others merely deplore it
but reserve it as a possible means for ob
taining a favorable hearing when other
methods have been exhausted.
(Continued on Page 30)
N. N. (Max) Landon
Nagle Lumber Co.
Real Estate
Insurance
Sweet Home, Oregon
Phone: Res. 254 — Office 253
1845 Franklin Boulevard
Eugene, Oregon
WHITE VULCANIZING WORKS
VULCANIZING and RECAPPING
345 V an Buren Street
Eugene, Oregon