As the summer winds down, 2025 legislative sessions have now adjourned in over 40 states. Despite slim prospects for progressive labor law reform passing at the federal level anytime soon, policy efforts to protect workers’ rights and labor standards have continued to advance at the subfederal level.

Since the launch of “Building Worker Power in Cities and States: A Toolkit for State and Local Labor Policy Innovation” one year ago today, CLJE has continued to track policy and legal developments aimed at building worker power at the state and local levels. Below is a summary of notable and ongoing developments at the state level across three areas: protecting the right to collective bargaining, defending labor standards, and advancing worker representation and support structures. We encourage you to check out the toolkit for more information and ongoing updates.

Protecting the Right to Collective Bargaining 

This session, Washington and Oregon joined New York and New Jersey in becoming the latest states to extend unemployment insurance eligibility to workers on strike. Oregon will also be the first state to extend UI benefits to striking public sector workers when the laws go into effect on January 1, 2026. Legal challenges have been leveled against the policy, though in May of this year, a New Jersey state appeals court ruled that extending UI benefits to striking workers is not preempted by the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), stating that “the Board’s determination regarding unemployment benefits does not attempt to regulate conduct governed by the [NLRA].” 

Last November, the Biden NLRB decided in Amazon.com Services LLC that captive audience meetings constitute an unfair labor practice under Section 8(a)(1) of the NLRA. But as Ben notes, there remains a compelling case for states to keep captive audience bans on the books, given the likely reversal of Amazon Services under the Trump Board (whenever it may materialize). Earlier this year, Rhode Island became the 13th state to ban captive audience meetings.

As John, Ted, and Anjali have closely tracked and documented, threats to the NLRB have continued to escalate in the courts. California, Massachusetts, and New York have introduced trigger laws that, upon the NLRB becoming incapacitated (the specifications for which vary by bill), would enable the state to assume jurisdiction over private sector workers under existing public sector labor relations schemes. The New York bill passed both chambers of the legislature and now awaits Governor Kathy Hochul’s signature.

Defending Labor Standards

In line with the Trump Administration’s widespread deregulatory agenda, the Department of Labor has recently proposed slashing (or in some cases summarily rescinded) over 60 regulations related to workplace health and safety, minimum wage, and overtime protections.

States are considering proposals to preserve workplace health and safety protections in the event of rollbacks at the federal level. In August, Illinois passed the Illinois Workers’ Rights and Safety Act into law, which directs the state Department of Labor to replace any repealed federal standards under the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA), the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), and the Coal Mine Health and Safety Act (CMHSA) with an equivalent state standard.

With 2025 on track to be one of the hottest summers on record, states have stepped in with their own heat safety standards in the absence of a federal OSHA standard. Heat standards are currently on the books in seven states and 18 states (including New Jersey and Illinois) introduced heat safety bills this session, although none have passed yet. Though the heat rule proposed under the Biden DOL evaded the deregulatory chopping block this summer and has continued to advance through the OSHA rulemaking process, the federal rulemaking process is slow and arduous even in the most supportive administrations. Following historic trends of heat-related workplace injuries and deaths, dozens more workers’ lives may be lost while we wait.

Advancing Worker Representation and Support Institutions

In 2022, the Department of Labor awarded $18 million to seven states to partner with community and worker organizations, including labor unions, to reduce barriers to accessing unemployment benefits and other public services. The Unemployment Insurance Navigator Grants, which was a one-time federal program authorized under the American Rescue Plan Act, is similar to a Ghent system of public benefits administration that incorporates unions in delivering government services. Findings from a Center for American Progress study evaluating the implementation of Maine’s UI navigator program indicate that the program not only improved uptake rates of UI benefits, but also increased recipients’ interest in workplace collective action. In June, Maine Governor Janet Mills signed into law a permanent community-based workforce navigator program modeled after the state’s three-year, ARPA-funded pilot program.

Interest in industry-wide labor standards boards like the California Fast Food Council and the Minnesota Nursing Home Workforce Standards Board has remained high, with bills introduced (though ultimately not passed) in Oregon for agricultural and long-term care standards boards. Domestic workers’ bills of rights passed into law in New Jersey and Rhode Island last year, and a bill in Washington state passed the Senate this year. In March, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro announced a pilot program to deploy the use of generative AI tools in the public sector that includes oversight by a worker board. The Commonwealth is partnering with SEIU Local 668, which represents social services and benefits provisions workers, on the implementation of this program.