SYLVIE DOUGLIS, BYLINE: NPR.
(SOUNDBITE OF DROP ELECTRIC SONG, "WAKING UP TO THE FIRE")
ADRIAN MA, HOST:
Here in the U.S., labor negotiations almost always work in a bottom-up fashion, right? Employees at a particular company or worksite, they get to talking and say, let's form a union. And then, they try to negotiate with management. And if they're successful, boom, you got a contract.
WAILIN WONG, HOST:
But last week, California passed a law that essentially flips that dynamic on its head. The law is called the FAST Recovery Act because it applies specifically to most fast-food restaurants. And instead of the grassroots approach, the law calls for the formation of a fast-food council.
MA: Actual name.
WONG: Sounds delicious. And this 10-member council will bring together representatives from companies and workers. And after some negotiation, they'll decide on wage and working standards for hundreds of employers and half a million workers, both union and not union.
MA: This, by the way, is a first-of-its-kind law in the U.S.; a top-down approach to labor relations that has some worker advocates very excited, some business owners very exasperated and both sides muttering this wonky-sounding phrase - sectoral bargaining.
This is THE INDICATOR FROM PLANET MONEY. I'm Adrian Ma.
WONG: And I'm Wailin Wong. So advocates and academics think sectoral bargaining could be the next big thing for American labor, a way to address decades of declining union power. Today on the show, we...
Congress leaders Harshwardhan Sapkal and Nana Patole, Nationalist Congress Party (SP) legislator Rohit Pawar, and Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) leader Priyanka Chaturvedi said PM Modi's sp...