Washington, D.C. — As the Trump administration and conservative courts threaten to gut the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), a new analysis from the Center for American Progress outlines how cities and states can safeguard workers’ rights.
The report explains how union trigger laws would allow states to step in and enforce organizing and bargaining rights if the NLRA, the federal law that has protected private sector workers’ right to organize for nearly 90 years, is struck down or ceases to be enforced.
“States cannot sit idle as federal labor protections are dismantled,” said Karla Walter, senior fellow for the American Worker Project at the Center for American Progress. “Union trigger laws give workers a path to organize and bargain even if federal enforcement collapses.”
CAP finds that while these laws are a critical backstop, they must go further to counter employer union-busting tactics and build worker power in a changing economy. The report recommends that states:
- Strengthen workplace-level bargaining by banning coercive anti-union practices, increasing penalties for lawbreaking, and allowing workers to enforce their rights through a private right of action.
- Cover all private sector workers, including farmworkers and domestic workers, and close loopholes that allow companies to avoid bargaining through misclassification or subcontracting.
- Create pathways for industry-wide bargaining in sectors where workplace-level organizing is nearly impossible.
- Leverage state spending to support workers’ rights by giving preference to unionized bidders and requiring companies receiving public funds to comply with labor standards.
New York and California have already enacted versions of these protections, and several other states, including Massachusetts, are considering similar legislation. These policies, CAP finds, would help states maintain essential labor protections if federal enforcement collapses and would expand access to collective bargaining in industries where workers have long been shut out.
Read the full analysis: “Union Trigger Laws 101: How States Can Protect Workers if Federal Labor Law Falls” by Karla Walter and David Madland.
For more information or to speak with an expert, contact Christian Unkenholz at [email protected].