AFL-CIO Leaders Call for Labor Law Overhaul

Several months ahead of the anticipated introduction of legislation to revamp federal labor law, two top AFL-CIO officials Aug. 14 advanced economic and workers’ rights arguments for modernizing the National Labor Relations Act.

The labor federation’s President Richard Trumka and General Counsel Craig Becker wrote in a Pacific Standard article that the statute “must be reconstructed to recognize changes in work and the employment relationship and to once again effectively permit workers to organize and designate representatives to bargain with their employers.”

The 1935 law, which they called “outdated” and “ineffective,” has contributed to a steep plunge in union membership ...