An imbalance of power: social workers in unions

This paper presents and discusses four basic structural conditions that are likely to influence the ability of any group of workers to achieve their collective bargaining goals. When applied directly to social work practice, the primary finding is that a group of practitioners is unlikely to wield significant power in the face of employer resistance. Implications are analyzed and include assessment of both the form of union and type of collective bargaining goals that might most usefully be sought by the profession. Certain incompatibilities between professional values and group self-interest are seen as less substantive than is commonly perceived.