Deepening and broadening the demand for sectoral bargaining

Abstract

In recent years, a growing number of labor activ-ists and their allies have called for reforms to make it easier for U.S. workers to bargain on a sectoral basis. With the 2020 release of Clean Slate for Worker Power: Building a Just Economy and Democracy, the final report of the Clean Slate Project chaired by Ben Sachs and Sharon Block of Harvard Law School, the call for sectoral bargain-ing gained renewed momentum. If we are to redress the forces that weaken workers’ voices on the job, the report argued, “we need to enable collective bargaining between unions and industries, not just unions and firms.”