Introduction

Volume 27 of Advances in Industrial and Labor Relations (AILR) contains five papers featuring original research on several aspects of employment relations. Consistent with previous AILR volumes, these papers contain a variety of disciplinary perspectives and feature quantitative and qualitative research methods. Also consistent with previous AILR volumes, some of these papers were originally presented at a Labor and Employment Relations Association annual meeting.¹

In the paper titled “A Differentiated Model of Work Regulation?,” David Jacobs analyzes what he regards as the contemporary departure from long-established unitary approaches to industrial and employment relations – approaches reflected in such concepts as job consciousness and industrial relations systems and in such legislation as the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). In doing so, Jacobs emphasizes multiple spheres of labor policy characterized by political dynamics that yield varied approaches to industrial and employment relations, especially as reflected in recent actions of US state governments. Jacobs imaginatively uses state-level data on private and public sectors unionism, the minimum wage, right-to-work laws, and Medicaid expansion to bolster his argument and concluded that varied labor policies rather than a universal labor regime now dominate the regulation and practice of work in the United States. Whether such variation will continue to differentiate the so-called blue states from red states or evolve beyond this dichotomy to yield shades of gray in terms of state-level labor and employment policies remains an open question. An answer to this question is key to ultimately assessing the future viability of a unitary approach to national labor relations standards reflected in Federal government regulation of private sector employment relationships as well as state-level regulation that initially replicated such regulation.