Open The Labor Umbrella (Why we Need the Free Choice Act -TomPaine.com)

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2007/02/14/open_the_labor_umbrella.php


Open The Labor Umbrella
Dmitri Iglitzin
February 14, 2007

n 1999, the 50 or so musicians who made up the orchestra portion of Seattle, Washington's Civic Light Opera (CLO), a musical theatre company, decided that they wanted to join the local union affiliate of the American Federation of Musicians, the national union representing musicians. At least 80 percent of these musicians signed authorization cards stating that desire.

They never got their union, however. Nor did they get to vote in an election on the issue. Because of a little-known flaw in the primary federal labor law, the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), employees of theater orchestras which, like the CLO, have a gross annual revenue of less than $500,000, and employees of symphony orchestras which have a gross annual revenue of less than one million dollars, are deprived of the protections otherwise provided by that law, and therefore have no legal right to either form or join a union.

What's more, the CLO, like a lot of employers, uses workers who are employed on a part-time or irregular basis. These workers are categorized as independent contractors, not employees, even though the workers clearly met all of the criteria for employee status. Under federal law, independent contractors not only have no right to unionize, it can be crime for them to even work together collectively to improve their pay and working conditions.

This same story, or a variation on it, is repeated daily in this country. It is not merely relatively small orchestras which avoid the obligations of the NLRA, but all small employers. According to a 2002 report from the United States General Accounting Office (GAO), about 5.5 million employees are excluded from the protections of the NLRA as a result of the “small employer” exception.

Nor is the CLO unique in seeking to avoid its obligations through classifying its employees as independent contractors. Nationally, independent contractors numbered about 8.5 million in 2002. An earlier study by the GAO found that about 15 percent of that number were actually wrongly classified, and should have been treated as employees.

Some workers, it is true, may prefer to be classified as independent contractors because of the short-term tax advantages. The overwhelming majority, however, would be far better off were their employers to provide them with the social security, unemployment insurance, workers compensation and other benefits to which they are entitled. And more and more workers have become aware of that fact.

FULL story at link.