Worker freedom has been under assault for the past few years as policymakers seek to destroy flexible work in America.
The strongest pushback has been from independent contractors—freelancers, self-employed professionals, and gig workers—whose financial security and livelihoods are at risk.
Independent Women has spent years elevating those stories and fighting to ensure that every man and woman can choose when, where, and how to work.
Yesterday, the stories of two women profiled by IWFeatures were cited in a congressional hearing examining the need for reforms to a federal labor board.
What Happened
Vinnie Vernuccio, president of the Institute for the American Worker (I4AW), testified at a hearing held by the U.S. House Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions titled “Restoring Balance: Ensuring Fairness and Transparency at the NLRB.”
His testimony highlighted the ways that the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has overstepped to remove opportunities, freedoms, and rights of workers, rather than protect them.
He noted in his statement:
Instead of empowering workers with meaningful choices, the current system obscures information, restricts employer communication, and too often stacks the deck in favor of an outdated one-size-fits-all collective bargaining model—regardless of worker preferences.
Speaking of the one-size-fits-all policy, Vernuccio also discussed how, over time, “administrative overreach and shifting legal interpretations” by the NLRB and other federal agencies have eroded flexible opportunities for workers by forcing everyone into traditional work models.
… this popular model for workers is regularly endangered by legislation and regulation at the state and federal level. For example, in its 2023 Atlanta Opera case, the Biden administration’s NLRB tried to make it more difficult for individuals to work as independent contractors under the NLRA by creating a burdensome analysis that deemphasized a workers’ entrepreneurial opportunity.
From legal decisions to regulations by administrations, worker status under federal law has become a ping-pong ball, leaving flexible workers in a fog of uncertainty brought by each new president.
This is pushing groups like I4AW and Independent Women to step up and fight. One of the ways we have engaged is that we, as he positioned it, “showcased examples of workers thriving as independent contractors and the risk of poor policies can have on their careers.”
He cited two examples: Cynthia Clampitt and Sheryl Myers.
The Independent Women’s Forum (IWF) spoke with freelance writer Cynthia Clampitt, who left a corporate job after a decade. Her freelance career faced a major setback when Illinois passed a law forcing companies to reclassify independent contractors as employees. Her main client offered to retain as employees some of the freelancers it contracted with, but at what amounted to lower pay rates. Cynthia remained a freelancer, valuing the flexibility to travel for speaking engagements and research, and to care for loved ones.
You can read Cynthia’s full story here.
Secondly, as part of the series “Behind the Wheel: Women Truckers Fight for Their Independence,” Vernuccio shared a snippet of Sheryl’s story:
Another was Sheryl Myers, an owner-operator truck driver. She and her husband transport cargo for the likes of the Department of Defense and Smithsonian museums. Myers told IWF about independent contracting, “It has been a real blessing to lay out our business strategy the way we chose, and it’s worked well for us.” They had crisscrossed the country for years, but when California approved the disastrous AB5 law to limit independent contracting the Myers chose to avoid California like many other independent contractor drivers.
Read Sheryl’s stories and other female truckers here.
We applaud Vernuccio for making a strong defense of worker freedoms, from their choice of whether to join a union to their right to work independently.
Bottom Line
Congress is poised to make reforms to agencies like the NLRB. Vernuccio provided a great blueprint of where to start.