[Coalition of Immokalee Workers]AP Photo/Chris O'Meara * Labor leaders say traditional unions might not be around much longer, and collective bargaining will look a lot different in the future. * Due to weakening union power and membership, non-union worker organizations have began to spring up around the country. * Farmers and domestic workers don't have the right to unionize under the National Labor Relations Act, so they've created non-union organizations to advocate for better pay. * Visit Business Insider's home page for more stories. Traditional unions might be on their way out, but workers are only getting started. David Rolf, a labor leader who helped pass the $15 minimum wage in Seattle, recently said the old union model "isn't coming back" at the Fulcrum Future of Work conference in Detroit, Michigan. Union membership has declined from 30% of the working population in the 1950s to just over 10% in 2010. While Rolf said we shouldn't be too "rosy" in thinking we've found the new labor movement, there are some worker organizations on the fringes that have begun to organize outside the union model. Many of these workers aren't represented under the National Labor Relations Act, a 1935 law that set the rules for union bargaining in the US. Domestic workers, for instance, aren't covered — yet many nannies and homecare workers have successfully organized and lobbied for better pay and protections. From tomato farmers to Uber drivers, here are 8 examples of worker coalitions leading the new labor movement: THE COALITION OF IMMOKALEE WORKERS, ORIGINALLY FOUNDED BY TOMATO FARMERS IN FLORIDA, HAS GOTTEN FAST-FOOD GIANTS LIKE MCDONALD'S AND TACO BELL TO IMPROVE WAGES AND WORKING CONDITIONS. AP Photo/Chris O'Meara The Coalition of Immokalee Workers is a farmworker organization with roots in Florida's tomato fields. The NLRA explicitly excludes agricultural laborers from forming unions, as they are not technically employees. Despite the exclusion, Florida farmhands begun organizing in 1993 and went on month-long hunger strikes to demand higher wages, according to the CIW website. In the early 2000s, CIW staged farmworker boycotts and hunger strikes to pressure Taco Bell into improving wages and working conditions for the farmers that grew tomatos and other produce for the chain. The organization has since lobbied other businesses, like McDonalds and Chipotle, to guarantee protections for farmers that make produce for the chains as part of the Fair Food Program. THE NATIONAL DOMESTIC WORKERS ALLIANCE HAS GOTTEN NATIONWIDE ATTENTION FOR THEIR ADVOCACY FOR NANNIES AND OTHER HOME-WORKERS. AP Photo/Richard Drew Like farmers, domestic workers are explicitly written out of union protections under the NLRA. Domestic workers, many of whom are immigrant women of color, are paid just over $11 an hour on average and have few legal protections against workplace abuse, as MONEY Magazine's Jennifer Calfas reported. The National Domestic Workers Alliance has worked to get these employees better pay and protections since 2007. NDWA has lobbied local and state governments into passing the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights, a set of standards that guarantee overtime and sick pay and protect against harassment. After passing the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights in states like New York and Illinois, Senator Kamala Harris and Representative Pramila Jayapal introduced the bill into Congress this July. THE INDEPENDENT DRIVERS GUILD, A COALITION OF GIG WORKERS FROM UBER AND LYFT, SUCCESSFULLY NEGOTIATED A $15 MINIMUM WAGE FOR DRIVERS IN NEW YORK CITY. AP Photo/Mark Lennihan Uber and Lyft drivers might be leading one of the country's most visible labor movements. Like agricultural and domestic workers, gig workers can't legally unionize under the NLRA. Workers like Uber and Lyft drivers are not technically employees but "independent contractors," or people performing work for a company at-will without getting benefits like healthcare or overtime. The Independent Drivers Guild is a union-affiliated worker organization that represents 65,000 for-hire drivers, including Uber and Lyft workers, in New York City. The organization successfully lobbied the city government to pass a $15 minimum wage for gig drivers, making New York the first municipality to guarantee fair pay. SEE THE REST OF THE STORY AT BUSINESS INSIDER SEE ALSO: * 20 countries with the highest teacher salaries compared to the cost of living * 30 countries where much (or most!) of the population lives in one city, like Israel, Japan, and Greece * A labor leader who helped win the $15 minimum wage in Seattle says unions aren't coming back. Here's what the future of labor could look like. SEE ALSO: A LABOR LEADER WHO HELPED WIN THE $15 MINIMUM WAGE IN SEATTLE SAYS UNIONS AREN'T COMING BACK. HERE'S WHAT THE FUTURE OF LABOR COULD LOOK LIKE.
 |
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.businessinsider.com |