Date: Mon, 25 Mar 2013 20:10:28 -0400
From: mark <whitroth at 5-cent.us>
To: undisclosed-recipients:;
Subject: [WSFA] Tackling Concerns of Independent Workers
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>

I'm absolutely sure that everyone reading this makes too much money to
worry about looking into the possibility of a low-cost medical plan, at
least. Yup, you're all working, well-paid, and so are all your friends.

Note to the list: I really haven't proselytized before... but there are
so many I though might find this interesting. I *KNOW*, for example,
having been regularly refused, that if I didn't have medical coverage
through my work, I cannot buy any in the US (or at least until the
Health Reform Act kicks into high gear next year.

Feel free to bitch at me *offlist*.

Excerpt:
SOON after landing a job at a Manhattan law firm nearly 20 years ago,
Sara Horowitz was shocked to discover that it planned to treat her not
as an employee, but as an independent contractor.

  "=C2=80=C2=9CI saw right away that something wasn=C2=80't kosher,"=C2=80=
=C2=9D Ms. Horowitz
recalls.
Her status meant no health coverage, no pension plan, no paid vacation "=C2=
=80=C2=94
nothing but a paycheck. She realized that she was part of a trend in
which American employers relied increasingly on independent contractors,
temporary workers, contract employees and freelancers to cut costs.
Somewhat bewildered, somewhat angry, she and two other young lawyers who
were also hired as independent contractors jokingly formed what they
called the "=C2=80=C2=9CTransient Workers Union,"=C2=80=C2=9D with the fa=
cetious motto, "=C2=80=C2=9CThe
union makes us not so weak."=C2=80=C2=9D

Ms. Horowitz"=C2=80=C2=99s grandfather was a vice president of the Intern=
ational
Ladies"=C2=80=C2=99 Garment Workers"=C2=80=C2=99 Union, and her father wa=
s a labor lawyer. So it
was perhaps not surprising that she responded to her rising outrage by
deciding to organize a union. What she organized, however, was a
newfangled version. The Freelancers Union, with its oxymoronic name, is
a motley collection of workers in the fast-evolving freelance economy "=C2=
=80=C2=94
whether lawyers, software developers, graphic artists, accountants,
consultants, nannies, writers, editors, Web site designers or sellers on
Etsy.

Today, the Freelancers Union is one of the nation"=C2=80=C2=99s fastest-g=
rowing
labor organizations, with more than 200,000 members, over half of them
in New York State. Ms. Horowitz, who has never lacked audacity, says she =

expects to expand the organization to one million members within three
years. For some perspective, the United Automobile Workers union
currently has 380,000 members. Of course, while hundreds of thousands of =

auto jobs have disappeared, the country is awash in freelancers and
other independent workers. Studies by the Bureau of Labor Statistics and =

the Government Accountability Office show that there are more than 20
million of them. Many companies, including The New York Times, employ
these workers.
--- end excerpt ---

<http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/24/business/freelancers-union-tackles-con=cerns-of-independent-workers.html?pagewanted=all>

I contacting them today. I want to know what else they offer, and where.

         mark