When learning that she would be classified by her employer not as an employee, but as an "independent" contractor, Sara Horowitz decided to do something, not just accept denial of benefits and security from her job.  She grew up in a labor-oriented family and even though her position didn't qualify her to join any existing union, she decided to form her own. 

Horowitz and her work with the Freelancers Union were recently covered in a New York Times article. 

Horowitz said she realized that she was not alone, but part of a trend where American employers defined workers as independent contractors or freelancers to cut the compensation they were expected to pay their workers.  The Freelancers Union was formed to gather together workers in the same situation, which includes a wide variety of America's workers—lawyers, software developers, web designers, graphic artists, accountants, consultants, nannies, writers and editors, among others. The organization now has more than 200,000 members and is one of the fastest-growing labor groups in the country.  Horowitz expects the union to have a million members within three years.

Since the group's members are not covered by the National Labor Relations Act, employers are not required by law to collectively bargain with their independent employees.  So, the Freelancers Union doesn't engage in bargaining and doesn't represent members with grievances.  But Horowitz found that those weren't the top concerns of her members, anyway.  She found that they were more interested in obtaining health care.  So she shifted her attention to meeting that goal.

Horowitz and the union created the Freelancers Insurance Company, which provides insurance for more than 23,000 independent contractors and freelancers and runs a clinic for people on the plan.  Those outside the area of the clinic can see doctors through Blue Cross, which has contracted with Freelancers Insurance Company.  Insurance premiums range from $225 to $603 a month—40% less than comparable individual plans.  Profits the insurance company makes are used to strengthen the company's finances and operations, including a new health clinic that is in the works.

The direction the Freelancers Union has gone in is not unprecedented:

“It reminds me of the old guilds” — the precursors of modern-day labor unions — “that focused on workers’ individual autonomy, trying to build their own careers, with the backing of a collective organization to assist them,” says Janice R. Fine, a professor of employment relations at Rutgers University. “Sara is terrific at adapting old ideas to help today’s work force.”

The Freelancers Union's activities aren't limited to health insurance, though.  Horowitz is working with Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) to have the Bureau of Labor Statistics count the number of freelancers and independent contractors in the U.S.  She also lobbied the New York legislature, although unsuccessfully, to have the state's Labor Department crack down on employers that failed to pay freelancers as promised.  More successfully, the Freelancers Union convinced New York City to lower taxes on independent contractors by more than $3,000 a year.

Horowitz says that the Freelancers Union is based on the simple premise that freelance workers should join together to set up social-purpose institutions to serve their needs.

“The social unionism of the 1920s had it right,” she says. “They said: ‘We serve workers 360 degrees. It’s not just about their work. It’s about their whole life.’ We view things the same way.”