
Freelancers Union: Going It Alone, Together - pragmatictester
https://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/24/business/freelancers-union-tackles-concerns-of-independent-workers.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
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kls
_American employers relied increasingly on independent contractors, temporary
workers, contract employees and freelancers to cut costs._

I think the article approaches the story from a particular vantage point. But
for me personally, as freelancer and a substantial earner, I tend to not
identify with the idea that we are part and parcel abused. It may be what I
came from (poor farm family) that gives me a different perspective. But I have
found corporate America to be fairly generous, you just have to ask. Which
brings me to the above quote, while I do belive employers utilize independent
contractors in some instances to cut cost, what I have found in many of the
situations I have been in, is that it is a tool used to identify cost up front
and to mitigate risk, usually companies are willing to pay a small uptick in
cost to reduce a huge downsize risk and employees and employes health both
represent substantial risks to a company.

I think where we as individuals go wrong is in charging rates similar to those
of employees and then taking on the risk the companies does not want to
shoulder on top of it. When the reality is, we should be asking to be
compensated for that risk (just as insurance companies are) and we should be
willing to walk away from a company that unreasonably expects up to take on
their downside bet with no upside of our own.

What I don't believe that high earning potential people need is collective
bargaining. That being said, what the article discusses sounds like they are
more of a health care co-op than a employment union bargaining with employers
and I am all for that. Health care co-ops help us offload that risk onto a
proper entity, employers where never really the correct entity to deal with
that risk in the first place.

