Korean Journal of Policy Studies
Graduate School of Public Administration, Seoul National University
Article
The Role of Public-Sector Unions During Privatization
Jungin Kim1
1Jungin Kim is a senior researcher at the Korea Human Resources Research Center. Her research interests include human resources policy, affirmative action, civil service reform, and equal employment opportunities. E-mail:
jungink@gmail.com.
© Copyright 2010 Graduate School of Public Administration, Seoul National University. This is an Open-Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Received: Sep 02, 2010; Revised: Oct 21, 2010; Revised: Nov 16, 2010; Accepted: Dec 07, 2010
Published Online: Dec 31, 2010
Abstract
This paper reviews the historical and institutional backgrounds of public- and private-sector unions, internal and external trends involving publicsector unions, union representation in the public sector, union affiliation with citizens, and the relationship between privatization and public unions. Using these characteristics to reflect on the fundamental rationale of public-sector unions as the negotiators for public employees and as the promoters of political affiliation with citizens, the nature of the labor-management relationship emerges as a key factor in determining the effectiveness of unions in these roles.
Keywords: public-sector unions; privatization; representative power
