[Excerpt] As private sector labor union membership in the United States dwindles, the number of worker centers continues to grow. In 1985, there were just five worker centers in the United States.' Today there are more than 200 such centers. Worker centers are often broadly defined as "community-based mediating institutions that organize, advocate, and provide direct support to low-wage workers." Given worker centers' focus on low-wage workers largely engaged in service sectors of our postindustrial economy and their relatively recent entrance into the field of United States labor relations, scholars and commentators are increasingly debating the applicability of the eighty-year-old National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) to the worker organizing activities of these emerging organizations.