TESTING THE JOHNSTON "PUBLIC SECTOR UNION STRIKE SUCCESS" HYPOTHESIS: A QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS

VICTOR G. DEVINATZ

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DOI: 10.2190/JFJT-0VQY-UFWM-CVDP

Abstract

In his path-breaking book, Success While Others Fail: Social Movement Unionism and the Public Workplace, Paul Johnston hypothesizes that the success of any collective action held by public sector unions is dependent on 1) the ability of the union to frame its demands in terms of the "public interest" and 2) the ability of the union to form coalitions that may include clients, other public sector workers in the agency, the agency's managers, politicians, etc. during the collective action. This hypothesis was tested by examining case studies of public sector union strikes throughout the United States. It was discovered that strike success was dependent on the union being able to form successful strike coalitions but not on the ability of the union to frame its demands in terms of the public interest. Therefore, partial support was found for Johnston's hypothesis.

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