In advance of Labor Day, Sharon and I have a short piece up at Time laying out the case for state labor law reforms to facilitate sectoral bargaining. The op-ed also reports on some of the work we’ve been doing at the Center for Labor and a Just Economy, including our new model state sectoral bargaining law. The model law, the product of a great team of academics and practitioners, including labor leaders and former government officials, should be a resource for states interested in figuring out how to fill some of the gaps (chasms?) left by the increasingly eviscerated federal regime. From the Time piece:
The model law would give workers the right to petition a State Labor Standards Board for recognition of a bargaining sector, grant organizing and access rights once minimum support thresholds are met, and create a process through which workers and employers can negotiate sector-wide agreements covering wages, benefits, working conditions, and the use of artificial intelligence and other workplace technology. Every employer in a covered sector would be bound by the resulting agreement, and workplace-level collective bargaining agreements may exceed—but never fall below—the sector-wide standards.
States that act now could immediately ensure that workers ignored by federal law can raise standards for themselves. More broadly, states have an opportunity to build the infrastructure of worker power that this country will need in the years ahead.
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