The Trump administration continues to brazenly attack workers and their unions, undermining federal labor laws and emboldening corporate union busters. Amid this escalating worker rights crisis, states across the country are stepping up to strengthen threatened labor standards, level the playing field for unionizing workers, and expand pathways to collective bargaining.
Originally held Thursday, February 19, 2026
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MORE ABOUT THE HOLDING THE LINE SERIES
Federal worker protections are under attack
Long-standing U.S. worker rights and protections are under acute threat. These include attempts to roll back standards that set a national floor for minimum wages, health and safety, nondiscrimination, unemployment insurance, and other rights and protections long taken for granted in most U.S. workplaces.
The crisis calls for urgent action. At a minimum, states must be equipped to maintain and enforce basic protections should at-risk federal standards disappear. The crisis also presents opportunities for states to do much more to:
- remedy longstanding gaps and exclusions in weak or outdated labor and employment laws;
- advance new policies that address the pressing challenges of eroding worker power, growing income inequality, persistent racial and gender wage gaps, and declining job quality; and
- position states over the long term to assume more expansive, effective roles in enacting and enforcing key protections that form the bedrock of an economy that works for all.
Holding the Line: State solutions for the workers’ rights crisis provides a roadmap to defending and strengthening protections at the state and local level.
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