The New Politics of Workers' rights

As New Deal-era labor law has become a case of “policy drift” amid major economic change, millions of workers have become more vulnerable to exploitation -- especially those in low-wage industries and precarious, non-standard jobs. In response, a new politics of workers’ rights has emerged in new venues (state and local levels), focusing on new governing institutions (employment law), and adopting new organizational forms (“alt-labor”) and new strategies. This project theorizes the links between labor law’s “drift” and these developments, tests hypotheses, critically analyzes original quantitative and qualitative data, and considers their implications for the changing shape of workers’ rights.