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

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 depe ndent 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 coalit ions that may include clients, other public sector workers in the agen cy, the agency's managers, politicians, etc. during the collective act ion. This hypothesis was tested by examining case studies of public se ctor union strikes throughout the United States. It was discovered tha t strike success was dependent on the union being able to form success ful strike coalitions but not on the ability of the union to frame its demands in terms of the public interest. Therefore, partial support w as found for Johnston's hypothesis.