Heightened threats to federal labor law enforcement and coverage gaps for gig workers have spurred a renewed push from union-friendly legislatures against the limits of states’ private-sector labor governance.
The efforts have yielded big wins for ride-hail drivers for Uber Technologies Inc. and Lyft Inc. and unions. New laws in California, Illinois, and Massachusetts provide state-supervised systems to collectively bargain for roughly 1 million drivers by union estimates — an option federal law denies them as independent contractors.
The laws are part of a longer-term campaign to expand the universe of workers who can unionize and create state-level backstops against eroding protections under the National Labor Relations Board. Lawmakers have considered related proposals in Minnesota, New Jersey, and Washington. State labor authority expansions have to contend with federal preemption attempts, but laws covering workers excluded from the National Labor Relations Act such as Uber drivers and farmworkers enjoy safer legal footing.
“There is some recognition by states that the federal government is failing workers and working families right now by not enforcing the statute as Congress intended,” said Jennifer Abruzzo, NLRB general counsel during the Biden administration and co-author of a new model bill empowering state-sanctioned sectoral bargaining. “They’re stepping in to protect their citizens’ rights.”
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