Posts tagged part-time
Isabel Soto: Biden’s war on freelancing affects the American dream
March 26, 2024 // The left’s war against self-employment is not a reform. It is paternalism: disconnected elites telling 70 million of happy, hurried Americans who don’t know what’s good for them. (It’s also cronyism, since the war on freelancing is fundamentally a project of the big unions, who hate competition.) And as always, when the government targets the proverbial “needy,” the real needy in our economy—women, minorities, and low-income communities—feel the pain. Half of Latinos are self-employed, 40% of African Americans, half of young workers, and more than half of low-income workers. An analysis by The LIBRE Initiative found that until 26% of independent workers are Hispanic and 14% of independent workers are black
Everything You Need to Know About the Department of Labor Independent Contractor Rule
March 12, 2024 // The DOL does not provide an analysis of how many independent contractors will actually become employees. Let’s say a company is contracting with 100 photographers, all of whom are affected by this rule: how many of those photographers will become employees? It’s clearly not all 100 of them. To unpack the potential benefits (and costs) on workers, we need some analysis into how many of those 100 freelance photographers would become employees. Another consideration for the benefits side of the equation is whether most independent contractors are currently working with small businesses or larger ones. This matters because, as I point out in a previous post, many small businesses do not provide healthcare insurance, retirement benefits, or maternity benefits to their employees. This means that the “benefits” differences between an independent contractor and an employee at a small business are smaller than expected.
PLAYERS’ ASSOCIATIONS WARN SPORTS ILLUSTRATED ON UNION BUSTING
March 7, 2024 // The AFL-CIO Sports Council, which launched in 2022 to assist athletes in unionizing, released the statement Monday. The warning doesn’t mention any specific consequence that could arise. However, players in those leagues could refuse to conduct interviews with SI writers and podcasters, decline to attend SI parties and otherwise boycott creation of SI content. For the storied publication, which for decades influenced the sports industry like no other, a loss of access to players and their unions would make reporting more difficult, and it would both diminish and delegitimize the SI brand.
Collateral Damage in the War on ‘Gig Work’
February 12, 2024 // A new Department of Labor rule regarding independent contractors is likely to hurt overall employment.
22 States Raised the Minimum Wage: What Does This Mean for Low-Skilled Workers?
January 12, 2024 // If an employer must pay someone $16 hourly, the new minimum wage in New York and California, whom will they pay? Would it be a higher-skilled college graduate or a less-skilled worker with only a high school diploma? You can deduce which hire is the safer option. When the cost of obtaining more education or skills is higher than the cost of relying on government unemployment benefits, dependence becomes the more appealing choice over labor-force participation.
Costumer waits for work to pick up post-union strikes
January 1, 2024 // NY1 spoke to Quanci in May, when the writers strike began and her work was impacted. Both the Writers Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA, which began striking in July, were fighting for protections around better pay and residuals, as well as regulated use of artificial intelligence. Now, in this time of flux, she says she and her husband, who works as a camera operator, have had to take on side jobs. “For me, that means taking on a part-time job as a sales associate at a local boutique, which has been a great structure builder for me,” she said. She doesn't know how long the side jobs will be needed before she can get back to her profession in earnest, but says she continues to do what she has to to make ends meet. She hopes her industry picks up again in the new year.
Amazon, Starbucks worker unions are in limbo, even as UAW and others triumph
December 29, 2023 // More than two years have passed since the first Starbucks stores voted to unionize in Buffalo, N.Y. Close to 380 Starbucks stores have since followed. But not one has a contract. Starbucks and Workers United, the union representing the vast majority of unionized Starbucks stores, have each accused the other of not bargaining in good faith.
Opinion: After pandemic ‘labor hoarding,’ hospitality jobs may be cut
December 13, 2023 //
From Hollywood to auto work, organized labor is flexing its muscles. Where do unions stand today?
November 9, 2023 // There are also limits for organizers under current labor law. That means that what worked in auto workers' labor campaign, for example, may not look the same or be possible in other industries. Larger, more established unions typically have more bargaining power — and that's reflected in new contract wins seen today. “We have a labor law that was designed in the era in the 30s and 40s, when auto plants of 10,000 workers (were organizing)," he said. Starbucks is “split into these small coffee shops of 15 workers. ... They need to join together to have any kind of bargaining power against a big employer. But our labor law isn’t structured to help them do that,” Colvin said. Service jobs can also be hard to organize due to part-time work and high turnover rates. The same can be said for Amazon warehouses, where there have been pushes for unions.
Did AFT Actually Add 30,000 New Members This Past Year? Well, Not Really
October 18, 2023 // In 2023, the union added more than 11,500 retired members, accounting for almost two-fifths of the reported gain in total membership. It now has 471,582 retired members — 27.5% of its total. The other major event for AFT in the fiscal year was the affiliation of the American Association of University Professors. The AAUP has 44,000 members. Previously, about 20,000 AAUP members also belonged to AFT. Now, they all do, accounting for a further increase of 24,000 members to AFT’s total this year. Mergers and new affiliations with existing unions are a fun way to pump up raw membership totals, but they do nothing to increase the share of the overall workforce that is unionized.