National Labor Relations Act: Can Freelancers Act as a Union - Research Paper Example

National Labor Relations Act: Can Freelancers Act as a Union? The National Labor Relations Act was an act instituted by the United s in 1935. The act was designed to limit the extent that employers can adversely respond to employees that organize and unionize. In addition to unions, the act extends to private sector employees that start or become involved in collective bargaining and strikes. The law itself was not extended, however, to agricultural employees, domestic employees, supervisors, federal, state or local government workers, and independent contractors.

Still, there is room to consider whether it would be possible to for freelancers to organize and act as a union. This essay considers the ability of these workers to do so. While in the past freelancers were regarded in large part as limited off-shoots of the American economic system, recent years have seen a shifting of economic trends to where they are making crucial contributions to individuals and corporations daily business practices. While the National Labor Relations Act indicates that independent contractors do not fall under the auspices of the act, it does indicate that the underlining intensions of the act understand that, “employers who are organized…tends to aggravate recurrent business depressions, by depressing wage rates and the purchasing power of wage earners in industry and by preventing the stabilization of competitive wage rates” (‘Findings’).

In these regards, the National Labor Act, in addition to ensuring the right to unions, is on a more fundamental working to prevent business depressions through uneven employment practices. When considering this understanding of the labor act, it’s clear that the intentions of the act would indicate that freelancers be able to unionize. While the intentions of the act indicate that freelancers should unionize, the act still indicate that it does not apply to independent contractors. Still, the act also indicates that it works, “by protecting the exercise by workers of full freedom of association, self-organization, and designation of representatives of their own choosing, for the purpose of negotiating the terms and conditions of their employment or other mutual aid or protection” (‘Findings’).

In these regards, while the act does not support individual contractors, it does seem to indicate that these individual freelance contractors would be able to unite under an organization or union and within this union develop collective bargaining agreements with corporate entities within the United States that hire out their services. Even as the issue is still in a slightly ambiguous area, the National Labor Relations Act ultimately does seem to support freelancers first organizing, and then establishing collective bargaining agreements in response to American corporate entities.

In conclusion, this essay has considered whether freelance workers can unionize under the rights afforded by the National Labor Relations Act. The essay considered that the underlining intentions of the act would support such unionization. The essay also argued that while the act restricts independent contractors from unionizing, it does seem to indicate that a freelance ‘organization’ would be able to collectively bargain with American corporate entities and businesses. References ‘Findings and Declaration of Policy’ Cornell.

http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/29/usc_sec_29_00000151----000-.html