Issue Brief: Strengthening Workers’ Rights and Labor Protections through Interstate Cooperation

This Issue Brief by State Futures and the NYU Wagner Labor Initiative lays out a bold, practical roadmap for how states can join forces to protect workers’ rights in the face of federal retreat on workers’ rights. It offers a playbook for how states can coordinate policy, enforcement and visibility - using tools like interstate compacts and tactics like joint enforcement, resource pooling, and coordinating legislation to amplify impact across borders.

The brief shares existing examples of state cooperation and outlines new proposals such as:

• Regional mediation services to replace the dismantled Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS); 

• Shared databases of labor violators to coordinate debarment and enforcement; 

• Augmented joint enforcement against corporations that violate laws in multiple states; 

• Joint “drop dates” for labor legislation across states to build visibility and momentum; and 

• Interstate Compacts to raise labor standards and align procurement