3030015440 by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-11-30T09:00:25+00:00

128 R. MILKMAN

These legislative initiatives as well as the spurt of alt-labor organizing

efforts that emerged in the Obama years harken back to pre–New Deal

labor movement strategies, in contrast to the NLRA-based union cam-

paigns that dominated in the mid-twentieth century. In the Progressive

Era, when unionization rates were comparable to those of the early twenty-

first century, labor reform groups and their middle-class allies publicized

sweatshops and employer abuses and provided educational and social ser-

vices for immigrant workers in much the same way that worker centers do

today. These reformers also campaigned for progressive legislation, includ-

ing the first state minimum-wage laws. With the failure of EFCA and in an

institutional environment increasingly hostile to unions, the labor move-

ment has returned to its pre–New Deal strategic repertoire.35

ALEC and the other anti-union organizations allied with it have not

stood by idly in the face of these new efforts. They argue that worker centers

are unions in disguise and should be governed by the NLRA. That particular

claim has not gained much traction, but in many states where Republicans

have won political control, they have enacted preemption legislation that

prohibits cities and counties from increasing minimum- wage laws or other

measures benefitting workers. By 2017, 25 states had enacted minimum-

wage preemption laws, 12 of which were passed after 2013, in direct

response to the post-Occupy Wall Street wave of efforts to win minimum-

wage increases at the city and county level. A few states have enacted blanket

preemption laws designed to preclude local legislation on a wide variety of

matters. 36 And a Republican-sponsored proposed federal law, H.R.4219, the “Workflex in the 21st Century Act,” introduced in November 2017,

would extend this logic to preempt all state and local paid leave laws.

ConClusion

Although Obama was far more supportive of unions than any president in

decades, he was unable to deliver lasting gains to organized labor. The

EFCA debacle was only the first blow. For six of his eight years in power,

Republican control over Congress severely constrained Obama’s room for

maneuver, which was essentially limited to administrative actions—

Executive Orders and DOL regulations and policies, as well as appointing

DOL and NLRB officials. With the election of Donald Trump, moreover,

most if not all of what Obama achieved in the labor policy arena will be

reversed. Union power is increasingly confined to “Blue” states and cities;

although some cherish the hope that on the national level, a day will come

THE WORLD WE HAVE LOST: US LABOR IN THE OBAMA YEARS

129

when the pendulum will swing back to the progressive side. As Obama

himself remarked the day after Donald Trump was elected, “The path that

this country has taken has never been a straight line. We zig and zag, and

…. if we lose, we learn from our mistakes, we do some reflection, we lick

our wounds, we brush ourselves off, we get back in the arena. We go at it.

We try even harder the next time.”37

noTes

1. Obama, Barack. 2006. The Audacity of Hope. New York: Three Rivers

Press.

2. Minchin, Timothy J. Labor Under Fire: A History of the AFL-CIO Since

1979. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.

3. Milkman, Ruth and Stephanie Luce. 2017. “Labor Unions and

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