Uncommon Law

This site is intended to illuminate the “common law” of public sector collective bargaining and whether that law creates two tiers of protection: one for police and one for everyone else. The Common Law of public sector collective bargaining are those rules – established by state statutes and case decisions - defining who gets to have a union, what the union gets to negotiate over, and what happens if the union and the government can’t agree. This site is designed to provide state-by-state information to uncover this largely ignored system of bargaining rules and show how those rules expand bargaining rights for police beyond what is provided to everyone else. These different sets of rules creates two, distinct systems of bargaining, allowing police departments outsized ability to avoid external oversight or other reform efforts.