By Mike Hall
Just like their colleagues in the Philadelphia Inquirer's downtown newsroom, some 175 reporters and photographers who cover the news in the city's suburban bureaus are assigned stories and deadlines by managing editors. But for many years, the Inquirer defined the city reporters and photographers as full-time employees, while classifying the suburban workers as "independent contractors"—who did not qualify for health or pension benefits and were responsible for their own taxes. It wasn't until they joined the Newspaper Guild/Communications Workers in 1997 that they were classified as Inquirer employees.
In Delaware, Maryland and Virginia, hundreds of chicken catchers employed by Perdue Farms became "independent contractors" when Perdue reclassified them in 1992. The chicken catchers no longer receive overtime pay or any of the medical and pension benefits, vacation or profit-sharing options they once received as Perdue employees. In January, former chicken catcher Clarence Heath told National Public Radio's All Things Considered, "I'm told that I don't work for Perdue, but I climb into a truck that has his name on the side. I pick up chickens that belong to him. I put them in a pallet that belongs to him which is moved out by a forklift that's owned by him. And put on a truck, a trailer that's owned by Perdue."
| |  | | | | | | The new workforce: Poultry workers and their allies testified before a bipartisan group of congressional lawmakers who traveled to Maryland in March to hear how the chicken catchers lost all benefits, overtime and vacation after Perdue reclassified them as "independent contractors." | |  | | |
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From the high-tech computer industry to home construction to academia to blue-collar industrial and factory jobs, Corporate America is cutting costs and fattening its bottom line by ducking its responsibility to workers and their communities. The result: Corporations are reshaping the full-time workforce to boost profits by saving billions in health and pension benefits, workers' compensation, taxes and the costs of obeying vital workplace laws.
In 1997, almost 30 percent of the U.S. workforce was in nontraditional jobs—part-time, temporary, independent contractor or on-call employees—according to the Economic Policy Institute in The State of Working America, 1998-1999. And the trend is growing. In California's Silicon Valley, the advocacy group Working Partnerships says 40 percent of that area's workforce is involved in nonstandard work arrangements. Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics figures show that from 1989 to 1997, the number of workers employed by temporary agencies almost doubled, from 1.3 million to 2.4 million. And independent contractors—workers defined as those who obtain their own clients and customers to whom they provide goods or services—account for 8.5 million workers, according to a 1997 BLS survey. While corporate apologists claim most part-time, temporary workers are satisfied with their status, BLS found that 59 percent of temporary workers would rather have full-time jobs.
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From America@work, May 1999. |
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Eric Giest, director of field operations for the Newspaper Guild/CWA and active in the long Philadelphia Inquirer fight, says more and more news organizations—like other industries—are attempting to classify employees as independent contractors. Under current law, employers can cut these workers' hours or simply stop using them, in effect legally firing them for trying to organize—creating a huge fear factor among the workers, Giest says.
"But that's not much different than 50 or 60 years ago, when workers in factories and plants didn't have any rights under the law. But people found a way to fight back and win."
Nationwide fight-back campaign
Working families are fighting back. The AFL-CIO and its unions have launched a national campaign to work for federal legislation that would make it more difficult for employers to misclassify workers as independent contractors.
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| | | | In 1997, almost 30 percent of the U.S. workforce was in nontraditional jobs—part-time, temporary, independent contractor or on-call employees. And the trend is growing. | |
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At the same time, unionists are battling employer-backed legislation in the Senate (S. 344) that seeks to make it even easier to turn full-time employees into independent contractors. Under current federal tax laws, a complex and subjective 20-factor formula determines whether a worker is classified as an employee or independent contractor—a process easily abused by unscrupulous employers. The union-backed bill calls for defining workers as employees unless they meet three criteria: Their employers have no right to control them, they can make their services available to others and they have the potential to generate profit and bear significant risk of loss.
The union bill also would repeal a section of the 1978 Revenue Act that employers frequently use to misclassify workers. In addition, the Independent Contractor Classification Act, introduced in April, would require employers to reclassify as full-time employees many workers currently considered independent contractors.
| | | | | | | The Workforce of the Future? - Almost 30 percent of the workforce holds nontraditional (part-time, temporary, independent contracting or on-call) jobs.
- Only 3 percent of workers classified as independent contractors receive health or pension benefits.
- The number of temporary workers almost doubled (rising from 1.3 million to 2.4 million) from 1989 to 1997.
- Fifty-nine percent of temporary workers want full-time jobs.
- Misclassification of employees as independent contractors costs the federal government $4 billion a year in lost tax revenue.
Sources: Bureau of Labor Statistics; Economic Policy Institute
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The union movement also is developing a package of additional bills to help bring equitable wages and benefits to part-time workers and ensure that all workers, regardless of their status, are covered by federal employment standards such as wage and hour laws.
From academia to poultry farms
In other national campaigns, the American Federation of Teachers is challenging the erosion of full-time teaching positions at the nation's colleges and universities. In a 1998 survey, AFT found the number of part-time faculty members jumped 226 percent from 1970 to 1995 and could outnumber full-time faculty by 2001. While working to maintain full-time positions, the union also is fighting for equal pay and benefits for AFT members who have been forced to work as part-time professors, who are paid by the course and rarely provided health benefits.
Meanwhile, Clarence Heath, along with hundreds of other members of the Delmarva Poultry Justice Alliance (a coalition of unions and civil rights, religious and community groups), joined with the Public Justice Center to back a federal lawsuit on behalf of the chicken catchers. "Companies like Perdue aren't going to start treating people right just out of the goodness of their heart," Heath says. "You've got to get the workers and the community people, the civil rights folks, the churches together, like we're doing here. Show them you're strong and you're not going away."
