Sara Horowitz, who has deep family ties to traditional labor organizing, has resurrected and modernized a nineteenth century form of labor organizing—the mutual aid society—and updated it for today’s freelance workers. Through advocacy, education, and the provision of services (particularly health insurance), the Freelancers Union offers a path forward for workers who lack established identities and benefits derived from being employees of a particular firm.
Freelancers Union
Freelancers Union promotes the interests of its 300,000 members nationwide through advocacy, education and services. We bring members together through social purpose platforms to pool resources, access affordable, portable benefits, and build a strong political voice. Our national Freelance Isn’t Free campaign introduced landmark legislation in NYC to protect freelancers from nonpayment, which is positioned to pass in 2016. Freelancers Union produces an annual report, Freelancing in America, commissioned in partnership with Upwork, which estimates that 55 million Americans are freelancing, making an annual economic contribution of $1 trillion.