When you do become part of the seemingly enviable free workforce, you find that freedom is actually very expensive. The most straightforward is that you no longer have all the benefits available to full-time workers: no more stable health insurance; no sick leave for illness, no income if you don’t work; no more paid vacation, and one more day off is one less day of money. The difference in treatment between freelancers and regular employees is even more pronounced in times of corporate downsizing, especially in times of economic crisis, with the latter receiving up to $400 a week in government unemployment benefits for those with high annual salaries and thirteen weeks of benefits at a time for those with longevity, while freelancers are immediately out of pocket.
Secondly, the most enviable free time that freelancers get is the one that you don’t actually get much of when you do become a freelancer. Many people, because they lose the guarantee of a basic salary, are in turn busier and more overworked than when they worked full-time. My good friend Julia and I left the lingerie company where we worked full time and became freelancers by coincidence. She is single, New York’s consumption is high, living in a large number of difficult, there is always one day a month when you open your eyes there is a large amount of rent beckons. There was a time when she had to catch three jobs in one week, running between three companies. Although she was exhausted, she didn’t dare to give up any of the jobs, fearing that one day she might not have a job to do. When we met when we were just free, one of the things she asked me most often was, “What if there are no more projects to do tomorrow?”
Yes, often times a freelancer feels like a “call girl” and is always waiting passively. It’s not easy to wait for a “good guy,” but it’s sometimes not easy to wait for a random customer who is similar. If no one (job opportunity) comes to greet you for a few days, you will have a strong sense of insecurity; and this insecurity is often magnified several times because you always have to face it alone. As a result, many freelancers suffer from a certain degree of mental illness, loneliness, reticence, and a gradual loss of social skills and aspirations. Without a strong sense of self-discipline and a strong anti-blowout nerve, it is very unlikely that they will be able to continue to do so, and it can be very difficult, in fact, very “vulnerable”.
For this “vulnerable” group, a freelance coalition was formed in New York in 1995. However, over the years, the nonprofit has had limited benefits for freelancers, so there has not been enough cohesion. For example, health insurance is the biggest concern for freelancers, but the individual health insurance premiums offered by the Alliance can be as high as $500, $600, or even thousands of dollars a month, so there have been few participants; in a vicious cycle, the fewer people participate, the higher the premiums become.
At the moment, the Freelancers Union is nowhere near as strong as the unions, and it’s like a small grain of sand, too small to make a big splash like the MRT strike. For example, the boss can order us designers to work overtime – designers are white-collar workers and cannot join the union; but For example, bosses can order us designers to work overtime – designers are white-collar workers who cannot join a union, but unionized turners must first ask for their consent and must be paid one and a half times their overtime. Who wouldn’t be tempted by a union that protects the interests of blue-collar workers in this way, and even we regret that we are not eligible to join. The Freelancers Union seems to have a long way to go before it can have the power of a union and truly become a representative organization for freelancers. In January, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg proposed a tax cut for freelancers, and the Alliance is now actively promoting it and using its influence to encourage all freelancers to vote. If this plan passes, it will do a real favor for freelancers.