The management is government/parliament. Public sector jobs are much harder to negotiate anything because it tends to come with hard rules for every minute detail.

If what your saying about no true counter party was to be true, we would see well paid NHS staff. Where as in the UK its been recorded that nurses are using food banks. A similar story for those working in finance, leaving university with an economics degree, people can enter the private sector which pays very well or go public like my ex partner had which pays much less.

We also see unions in public education, again in the UK, teachers and teaching assistance haven't seen real wage increases since before the 2008 recession.

In short I disagree, I believe we need strong fighting unions in our public sector more than ever.