• Angela B. Cornell, Cornell Law SchoolFollow

Book Chapter

2026

United States. National Labor Relations Act

Collective Bargaining | Labor and Employment Law | Unions

The labour movement in the US experienced a powerful upswing under President Biden, but even with a labour-friendly administration thousands of new bargaining units labour without collective bargaining agreements years a#er being organised. The many limitations and weaknesses of the collective-bargaining framework under the private-sector statute, the NLRA, contribute to this very unfortunate outcome including enterprise rather than sectoral bargaining, a lack of meaningful remedies for serious bargaining violations, very little interest arbitration when the parties cannot reach agreement and the extremely limited right to strike. Millions of American workers are deprived of the right to bargain collectively because of the narrow coverage of the NLRA and the definition of employee in the private sector. Furthermore, in the public sector, many states severely restrict which public-sector workers are covered by their state laws and permitted to bargain collectively, with some prohibiting it altogether for public employees.

Employer obstruction and widespread disregard for the NLRA’s statutory mandate make the legal enforcement of labour law essential for meaningful bargaining – but sorely lacking. !e level of employer noncompliance undermines the integrity of the regulatory framework. Although a public statute, much of its functionality is dependent on voluntary compliance and a private dispute resolution mechanism. Ideological opposition by a signifcant swath of the business community to the fundamental tenets of freedom of association, including meaningful collective bargaining, has undermined labour rights and been a driving force for alternatives that fall outside of the private sector statute.

The labour movement has long been exploring innovative alternatives to the dysfunctional NLRA. In different periods of time, the labour movement has found success at the state and municipal level using state boards or commissions to bargain on behalf of precarious workers and those excluded from coverage under the private-sector statute. There are several success stories in recent years; though imperfect, these examples in Minnesota, California, and New York have lifted low-wage workers and given labour a seat at the table to bargain over working conditions. In times when the federal government is hostile to the labour movement, innovations at the state and municipal level may be the only path forward for many workers.

Angela B. Cornell, “Collective Bargaining in the USA: Union Success Within and Outside of the Flawed Legal Framework,” in The Law and Collective Bargaining: Sources and Patterns of Regulation in the Modern World of Work, ed. Paolo Tomassetti, Alexis Bugada, and Anthony Forsyth (Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2026), 175–188.

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