LAWYERS AND COLLECTIVE-BARGAINING IN THE CANADIAN PUBLIC-SECTOR

Collective bargaining within the legal profession is a relatively new phenomenon, both in Canada and the United States. There is nothing par ticularly surprising in this, given that public sector bargaining itse lf only began to take hold in the late 1960s. It has been suggested th at lawyers and other ''traditional'' professionals, such as doctors, a ccountants, and engineers, are less amenable to the entreaties of unio n organizers than are other occupational groups. Attitudes among salar ied lawyers in the public sector are changing, however, as their custo mary earnings parity vis-a-vis their private sector colleagues erodes. Another catalytic factor may be the increasing ''deprofessionalizatio n'' experienced by lawyers employed in the public sector. In Canada, u ndoubtedly, legislative barriers have slowed the diffusion of collecti ve bargaining by lawyers in the public sector although, as the Ontario experience shows, the absence of enabling legislation may not always prove to be an insurmountable obstacle.