The US enterprise-based collective bargaining regime creates substantial limitations for organizing workers in an economy in which supply chains are increasingly disaggregated in ways that reduce worker power. Federal labor law generally preempts state and local policies that directly address private-sector bargaining. State and local governments, however, are not preempted from setting general labor standards. The authors examine four cases of recent experiments using sectoral standards at the local level. The cases show that sectoral standards have the potential to expand new forms of social bargaining through state and local public policy in areas of the country where worker organizations are already strong. Sectoral standards can do so in ways that promote worker organization and build institutional power, especially when combined with robust worker organizing. In presenting these cases, the authors show both the potential power, and limitations, of federalism in US workplace regulation.

美国以企业为基础的集体谈判制度对在一个经济体中组织工人造成了很大的限制，在这个经济体中，供应链越来越以减少工人权力的方式分解。联邦劳动法通常优先于直接解决私营部门谈判问题的州和地方政策。然而，州和地方政府并没有被阻止制定一般劳工标准。作者检查了最近在地方一级使用部门标准的四个实验案例。这些案例表明，在工人组织已经很强大的国家地区，部门标准有可能通过州和地方公共政策扩大新形式的社会谈判。部门标准可以通过促进工人组织和建立机构权力的方式来实现，尤其是与强大的工人组织相结合时。在介绍这些案例时，作者展示了联邦制在美国工作场所监管中的潜在力量和局限性。