The Pew Research Center says that among millennials who head households, more live in poverty than do households led by previous generations — and that national support for unions is largely driven by millennials.
Co-published by The American Prospect
Uber? That’s so 2015. A new report finds that we don’t know as much about the sharing economy as we think we do.
What if millions of American workers were being denied health insurance, job security and the most basic legal protections, from overtime pay to workers compensation to the right to join a union?
Self-employed independent contractors in the Golden State can neither form unions nor negotiate collective bargaining pacts, but part of those conditions could soon change, according to Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez (D-San Diego). Gonzalez, Chair of the Assembly Select Committee on Women in the Workplace, introduced Assembly Bill 1727 on January 28 as an amendment to the state’s Labor Code. Gonzalez’s bill, which will be updated today, is called the California 1099 Self-Organizing Act. It would allow independent contractors to form employee associations that could negotiate working conditions and pay, though not to form labor unions.
“All workers should have the right to organize and collectively bargain,” Gonzalez said in an email to Capital & Main. “Our laws need to catch up to the innovation happening in our economy to ensure independent contractors have a pathway to these workplace rights as well.”
Assembly Bill 1727 would not compel employers to classify independent contractors as employees. » Read more about: ‘Self-Organizing Act’ — Cure or Band-Aid for Gig Economy Workers? »
