The Labor Party will fully repeal the Taft-Hartley Act to restore the right to strike, picket, and organize freely without government or corporate interference. This law has weakened unions, enabled “right-to-work” laws, and restricted solidarity actions. Repealing it will:
Restore the right to solidarity strikes, secondary boycotts, and general strikes.
Ban all state-level “right-to-work” laws, ensuring strong, well-funded unions.
End federal intervention in labor disputes that undermine workers.
Strengthen organizing by guaranteeing automatic card-check recognition and first-contract bargaining within six months.
National & Local Labor-Focused Governance
Government Contracts Favoring Union Jobs – Ensure taxpayer dollars go to union employers and ethical businesses.
State & Local Union Coordination – Support state and local policies that empower workers and strengthen unions.
Worker Representation in Policy Decisions – Include labor leaders in economic and trade policy discussions.
Protecting Public Healthcare & Education Workers – Ensure fair wages and protections for teachers, nurses, and public employees.
Core Economic & Labor Rights
Fair Wages & Collective Bargaining – Support for strong unions, collective bargaining rights, and a national living wage indexed to the cost of living.
Universal Healthcare Access – Ensure every American can access affordable healthcare without fear of medical bankruptcy.
Unionization for Tech & Gig Economy Workers – Expand labor protections for workers in tech and gig economy jobs.
Protecting Public Sector Workers – Prevent privatization of essential public services and support strong public unions.
Pension & Retirement Security:
Protect and expand Social Security, pensions, and retirement savings.
Institute employer-funded pension requirements.
Paid Leave & Work-Life Balance – Federally guarantee paid family leave, sick leave, and fair scheduling.
Federal Mandate: Require every employer to provide paid sick leave that accrues reasonably for all employees, including part-time, seasonal, contract, or other contingent workers.
Closing Loopholes: Prohibit scheduling or classification practices designed to circumvent sick leave eligibility.
Coverage & Accessibility: Ensure that accrued sick leave can be used for personal health, caregiving responsibilities, or other critical life events without threat of retaliation.
Enforcement & Penalties: Impose meaningful penalties on employers who fail to comply and establish a streamlined process for handling worker grievances and remedies.
Public Awareness: Transparency in posting sick leave rights in workplaces and a public information campaign are required to ensure all workers know their entitlements.
Overtime & Wage Theft Protections – Enforce penalties for wage theft and ensure fair overtime pay and notification requirements are met.
Abolish At-Will Employment Nationwide – Implement just-cause termination laws to protect workers from arbitrary firings and ensure job security.
Abolish Non-Compete Clauses – Ban exploitative agreements that restrict worker mobility.
Gig Worker & Independent Contractor Protections
Ensure gig economy workers have full labor rights and benefits.
Require stricter classification laws to prevent companies from mislabeling employees.
Portable Benefits for All Workers – Ensure healthcare, retirement, and paid leave benefits follow workers regardless of employer or employment status.
Expand Farmworker & Domestic Worker Rights – Strengthen labor protections for historically excluded industries.
Expanding Cooperative & Employee-Owned Businesses – Provide government support for worker cooperatives, employee buyouts of failing businesses, and policies that promote workplace democracy.
Direct Grants & Financing: Establish federal grants, low-interest loans, and tax incentives to support start-up and expansion costs for worker cooperatives and employee-owned businesses.
Dedicated Federal Agency: Create a specialized office within the Department of Labor or Commerce to advise on cooperative transitions, employee buyouts, and financial planning.
Mentorship & Education: Partner with universities, labor unions, and community organizations to offer training on best practices, governance, and legal frameworks for cooperative enterprises.
Incentives for Conversion: Provide tax breaks or forgivable loans to traditional businesses that convert to majority worker ownership, ensuring a just, worker-led transition.
Equitable Access: Prioritize co-op grants and mentorship programs for disadvantaged communities, promoting inclusive economic development and workplace democracy.
Revised Bankruptcy Laws: Reform business bankruptcy laws to facilitate worker-led acquisitions of privately owned businesses. This ensures employees can transition into ownership without undue financial hardship or legal barriers resulting from prior business decisions or liabilities. This includes implementing policies that prioritize worker cooperatives and employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs) in bankruptcy restructuring, providing access to no and low-interest loans or grants for worker buyouts, and shielding new worker-owners from inheriting unsustainable debts or legal entanglements unrelated to their direct operations and requiring vendors to engage in good-faith dealings with the newly reformed worker-owned business.
Right to Disconnect – Establish worker protections from off-hours employer contact, preventing burnout and unpaid labor.
Ban Temporary “Permatemp” Labor Exploitation – Prevent companies from keeping workers in temporary roles indefinitely to avoid providing benefits.
Equal Pay for Equal Work
Enforce Transparency in Pay Structures – Require employers to disclose salary ranges for all positions and provide clear, standardized criteria for raises and promotions.
Make anonymized pay data publicly available to expose and reduce disparities in compensation.
Strengthen Penalties for Wage Discrimination – Impose significant fines on employers found to discriminate.
Allow employees to pursue legal remedies without fear of employer retaliation, including class-action suits.
