Work Force Turning Into Involuntary Independent Contractors.

[TheMastersNemesis]

If you read Robert Reich's latest article on Huffington Post, the US work force is being turned into independent contractors. And that means less pay and rampant job insecurity. It is a way for employers to have NO employees of record.

Now in 1981 when the Reagan revolution began it was obvious that the US work force was going to be screwed in the end. And when I was at DOL my hair was on fire continuously until I retired in 1998. From where I was it was obvious where things were going. The media would not tell the truth, corporations were misleading workers, and business model was changing to privatization and contract schemes.

Most workers do not realize how bad it really is these days. And a few years ago I wrote a series of emails to a friend that I have shared with Ed Schultz, Thom Hartman and others about the "No Job Jobs Of The 21st Century". Sadly I am seeing what I understood 35 years ago and what I voiced about 8 years ago coming true. Uber, Fed Ex, Port LA, trucking, warehousing, et al are just some examples of employees being turned into private contractors responsible for all their own taxes and expenses. They are paid either a fixed price or must work on a piece rate basis. In reaL terms they are employees but the are not counted that way.

Workers' contempt for unions and federal labor laws plays right into the hands of business. The new business model is to race to the bottom where profit is king. And workers are nothing more than an expendable commodity.

Workers and voters themselves are responsible for their fate because they will not consider progressive working conditions. Or anti workers politicians are still voted into office even when what they will do is obvious. Governor Walker is one of the best examples as are other GOP governors.

Reich confirms what I have been protesting for all these years. Look at your job. Some day you will be doing that job as an "independent contractor" with no rights at all.

[Skittles]

1. agreed

I never thought I'd see the day when I was GLAD to be older but the way it's headed.........stinks.....it's been a long downward spiral

[raccoon]

10. Same here, I'm glad I'm old when I see some trends like this one.nt

[olddots]

2. when they started using terms like associates

Instead of employee the shit was hitting the fan .The big business constant expansion model fails civilization by making us wage slaves with no stake in things .

[merrily]

3. The fruits of union busting are being reaped. Right to work, my ass. nt

[SheilaT]

4. "Workers' contempt for unions and federal labor laws plays right into the hands of business."

15 words that sum up the essential problem.

The war against unions has been going on for a very long time, and the truly scary thing is how many rank and file workers haven't a clue how unions benefitted ordinary workers in the past, and could do so in the future. Except that they've come to believe that all unions are evil, and that union dues are a terrible price to pay.

I've been aware of this since at least the Reagan years, and it has angered me all along that workers fall for the lies of management.

The other thing that management has been amazingly successful at is getting workers to resent any group whose benefits or working conditions are better than theirs, rather than thinking the better conditions and benefits should be the norm. We see it in the condemnation of the pensions of state or municipal workers. Those pensions are portrayed as undeserved, as a drain on the taxpayers. That they may have sacrificed pay for those pensions is never a consideration.

The willingness to cut back on every possible social program is part and parcel of this.

[freshwest]

5. Our story on how workers turned GOP for Reagan is identical.

I begged union coworkers to not fall for it. There were all kinds of appeals to egotism. Then PATCO came, the slashing of OSHA, EEOC, etc. and the direction we'd been traveling on for years was reversed.

The same ones squalled about how their working conditions went in the ditch, but kept blaming women, minorities, et al. There was no turning back for them or the rest.

Those who became the Reagan Democrats didn't care that future workers wouldn't get a good deal, the kind they had from decades of struggles, as they had theirs. I agree, some workers have only themselves to blame when they vote for these guys, but in doing so, they condemned others who were innocent.

They have not learned a thing either, having fallen for the notion they are superior as they have the benefits created by poor people who organized unions, yet now they hate the poor. They got theirs and pulled the ladder up behind them.

[pansypoo53219]

6. you mean sharecroppers?

[LittleGirl]

7. Story of my spouse and me

He is an immigrant and we came to the states in 09 to live the American Dream. He became a citizen in '12.

Some dream. His job was eliminated in one state in late '12 and we moved to another state out west. His boss didn't care for my spouse even if he worked 80 hrs a week and checked his smart phone constantly while we had vacations and weekends. Made my spouse a living wreck of a stressed out mess. He found a job last fall in Europe and we moved back here to get some sanity in our life. He doesn't worry about checking his phone 24/7 and the job is still high pressure but weekends are OFF. We are planning our first vacation this spring and I can't wait to see him relax for the first time in 3 or more years. He gets 5 weeks of vacation (every year) and I am going to make sure he takes every damn day of it this year.

[nationalize the fed]

8. No manufacturing jobs=no unions

The destruction of the manufacturing jobs in America through off-shoring has reduced the power of the unions and destroyed the Democrats independent source of campaign funds.

You now have two parties with the same head and reporting to the same masters. There is no longer any countervailing power. You no longer have the Democrats supporting workers against the Republicans supporting business. Both parties represent Wall Street...
http://www.gordontlong.com/Financial_Repression.htm

Combine no manufacturing jobs with a 5+ Trillion Dollar war and "Homeland Security" which alone costs >$8 million dollars per hour. Add the destruction of the Bill of Rights and Constitutional limits. That's the future this generation will pass on to the next.

[HereSince1628]

9. SO's daughter became a secretarial assistant as a contractor

Of course, no benefits, but also it allowed the business' owners to work around their lease which limited the number of "employees" that could work in the residence/office in Greenwich Village

She agreed to get her first full-time job but really had no idea how to 'be a business' and she quickly got into difficulty with income taxes.