[Excerpt] When public sector officials and union leaders are willing to enter into cooperative arrangements, the evidence in this volume and elsewhere suggests they usually find that cooperation results in improvements in both the delivery of public services and the quality of work life. Certainly there have been instances when cooperation has failed to produce desirable results, but this volume includes ample testimony to its potential beneficial effects and depicts successful experiences with cooperation at the federal government level, in a number of state governments, in Indianapolis, and elsewhere. Also, we know that in places such as Los Angeles; Phoenix; Portland, Maine; Toledo, Ohio; Cincinnati, Ohio; and numerous other locales the cooperative approach has achieved positive results (U.S. DOL 1996). Yet cooperation in the public sector remains the exception rather than the rule.