"We got hopes raised and then they dashed them.”: The Preemption Lifecycle in Two Southern Cities

• In Event: Local Experiences with Paid Sick Leave Laws: Implementation, Enforcement, and Preemption

Abstract

In the last two decades, we have seen a resurgence of successful organizing for progressive, local labor policies essential to improving job quality and health outcomes for workers, such as minimum wage increases and universal paid leave (Blair et al., 2020), in the U.S. South. However, state preemption, or the state's assertion of constitutional powers to strike down local policy, often reverses these policy gains. Particularly in the South, state legislatures with white, Republican super-majorities are preempting policies passed by majority-Black and Brown Democratic cities. Many scholars also argue that the partisan and racial divides between localities and state legislatures lay the foundation for preemption to reproduce racial inequality in the region (Michener 2023; Blair et al. 2020; Lathrop 2022; Melton-Fant 2022). . Research also suggests that preemption creates a feedback loop that can shape how advocates approach future policy innovation (Michener 2023; SoRelle and Fullerton 2024).  Despite the multi-layered, time-expensive, and dynamic nature of the preemption process, case studies typically focus on only one stage of a preemption contestation (e.g., after the passage of the local policy, events in the state legislature, etc.). Furthermore, current preemption research often excludes the voices of local actors (e.g., organizers, policy advocates, policymakers), which are critical to understanding the challenges faced at the frontlines of local policy innovation and preemption. My study bridges these gaps by examining two cases of local labor policy innovation that ended in state preemption in the South—the fight to raise the local minimum wage in Birmingham, Alabama (2015-2020) and the movement to create a citywide paid sick leave policy in Austin, Texas (2018-2020)—through a novel framework I term the "preemption lifecycle". Utilizing a mix of document analysis and interpretive policy analysis, I examine how local actors understand and respond to the phases of the preemption lifecycle.  Preliminary results indicate that factors such as robust support from the city council, the mayor, and local businesses, broad coalition-building, and public awareness aided in the passage of the local policy. Results also highlight Republican super-majorities in the state legislature and lobbying from pro-business organizations as crucial factors that hamstrung organizers. Despite the prevailing role of race in both Birmingham and Austin, advocates in the two cities leveraged racial dynamics differently in their organizing. For example, Birmingham organizers saw their minimum wage preemption fight as a modern-day extension of white supremacist efforts to suppress Black votes. In contrast, Austin organizers made only subtle mentions of race in their advocacy for paid sick leave, even though Latine membership-based organizations primarily led the movement. Finally, interviewees revealed how the preemption of local policies shifted their long-term approach to work-family policy organizing and strategies for circumventing preemption in the future. Overall, my study illuminates the reality of organizing for local policy change in the Deep South and highlights how advocates in ultra-conservative landscapes leverage or struggle against racial, regional, political, and economic dynamics to negotiate local power and shape policy.

Author

• Resha Swanson-Varner, The University of Chicago
  Presenting Author