10.2190/1UQR-YEGX-RQQY-W7LF 1UQRYEGXRQQYW7LF 0 PUBLIC SECTOR IMPASSE PROCEDURES REVISITED 20020509 20020509 20020509 20020509 http://baywood.metapress.com/link.asp?target=contribution&id=1UQRYEGXRQQYW7LF 4 MICHAEL W. HIRLINGER AND RONALD D. SYLVIA This article examines public sector work stoppages that occurred between October 1979 and October 1980. The data were controlled for the types of impasse resolution procedures that the fifty states had in place at the time. The research examined the effectiveness of the procedures for preventing work stoppages. The study also examined the types of issues over which the strikes occurred and the effectiveness of the procedures for ending work stoppages once they began. The research found that the procedures (mediation, fact finding, and arbitration) in their various combinations were ineffective at avoiding or ending work stoppages. The article concludes by recommending that public employees be given the alternatives of the right to strike or to submit impasses to mutually binding arbitration with the voluntary consent of both parties. The mutual-consent requirement is deemed necessary if labor and management are expected to accept and implement the arbitrator s ruling.