It's unclear whether the sharp increase in 1998 in public employment and public sector unionism is a reversal of that trend or, as seems more likely, an aberration. Public sector unions adamantly oppose privatizing public services and they are fighting back. This is almost twice the federal minimum wage. So far, these ordinances have been passed in Chicago, Baltimore, Boston, and other cities. They thwart privatization by forcing private employers to pay inflated wages, thus making private sector jobs no more attractive to politicians than the in-house bureaucracy.
Work stays in the public sector.
As the competition heats up between privatizers and living wage activists, public officials may harden their feelings toward public sector unionism. That fear was based more on the political power of private sector unions. But if union membership continues to fall, politicians will fear the political consequences of resisting public sector unionism far less. The decline of unionism in America is a reflection of changes in society. We are increasingly a society of organizations with specific, narrow agendas rather than broad umbrella organizations.