Abstract
This article reports on some new survey and case study research that shows what can be achieved when existing workers’ organizations have the capacity to take advantage of the opportunities offered by private compliance initiatives. However, the same research also illustrates the limits of private regulation. While it adds to the existing evidence that market incentives can encourage employers to modestly improve certain measurable outcomes like hours of work and health and safety standards, it also shows that such incentives have little discernible impact on the capacity of workers to pursue improvements in wages and conditions of work for themselves via collective action.