Labor Pains: Because Being in a Union can be Painful

Category Archive: Gig Workers

  • Should Sectoral Bargaining Come to the U.S.? New Report Says "No."

    Posted on Mar 23, 2021 by LaborPains.org Team

    Sectoral bargaining is gaining support among top Democrats, including President Joe Biden, as a way to set wages, working conditions, and benefits for entire industries, often by union-controlled boards ─ even for those companies whose workers have rejected unionization. It’s also the latest policy being pushed by organized labor and its allies in academia and […]

  • PRO Act Would Threaten The Freedom of Millions of Independent Contractors

    Posted on Mar 05, 2021 by LaborPains.org Team

    Congress is currently considering the latest iteration of the Protecting the Right to Organize Act (PRO Act) — a bill that reads more like a labor union wishlist than a serious piece of legislation. Still, unions are hopeful that a Democrat-controlled Congress and President Biden — who has expressed support for the bill — will finally […]

  • New DOL Rule Gives Workers a Say in How They Earn a Living

    Posted on Jan 11, 2021 by LaborPains.org Team

    The Department of Labor (DOL) rang in the New Year by finalizing a rule on independent contractor classification. The rule provides another way forward for freelancers after California’s disastrous AB 5 law decimated the incomes of hundreds of thousands of independent contractors in the state. Unlike AB 5, the new DOL rule doesn’t assume that […]

  • Labor-Backed Attorneys Target Uber and Lyft in Lawsuit

    Posted on May 06, 2020 by LaborPains.org Team

    This week, the state of California filed a lawsuit against ride-share companies Uber and Lyft. The lawsuit claims these gig companies are misclassifying workers as independent contractors under the state’s AB5 law. The suit was filed by California Attorney General Xavier Becerra; city attorneys from San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego joined in. Since unions can’t […]

  • SEIU-Backed Worker Center Targets Postmates

    Posted on Apr 27, 2020 by LaborPains.org Team

    The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is in the midst of a corporate campaign against Chipotle. Last year, New York City-based SEIU local 32BJ ramped up its Fight for $15 movement to organize workers at the burrito chain’s locations in the city. And that’s just the latest iteration of the union’s partnership with the Fight […]

  • The Gig Worker "Strike" That Wasn't

    Posted on Mar 30, 2020 by LaborPains.org Team

    To listen to Vice tell it, Monday’s planned gig worker “strike” was the country’s biggest labor action since the 1936 General Motors workers sit-down in Flint, Michigan: Instacart shoppers are planning a nationwide mass revolt over the grocery delivery app’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. … The March 30 walkout will build on a wave […]