The Fight is On! Tell congress to leave independent contractors and class action lawsuits out of the political agenda

As you may have heard, there is a massive $3.5 trillion dollar ‎‎“infrastructure” bill being negotiated in Congress right now. While it is ‎being called an infrastructure bill, it is really a vehicle for the ‎Congressional majority to make significant changes to employment law ‎and our social safety net. ‎

What little the government has revealed about the contents of this bill is ‎very concerning – the bill of course includes an increase to the corporate ‎tax rate, from 21% back up to about 26.5%. However, other more ‎troubling provisions are also present. It appears that the House Majority ‎are using the reconciliation bill to pass portions of the politically infeasible ‎PRO Act, which stalled out in the Senate earlier this year. The markup out ‎of the House Education and Labor Committee included a provision, ‎detailed below, which would effectively ban the use of Independent ‎Contractors and would remove the ability of employers to use arbitration ‎agreements.‎

The provision in question would create new civil penalties (up to $50,000 per violation) for a set of “unfair labor practices” (ULPs), which would now include misclassifying workers as independent contractors. The bill would make it unlawful to “communicate or misrepresent to an employee… that such employee is excluded from the definition of employee”. In other words, the law would make it a crime, punishable by a $50,000 fine, simply to communicate to an employee that they are not an employee. Business executives and directors could be held personally liable for these alleged ULPs. Additionally, the law forbids the use of employee agreements designed to prevent class action lawsuits.

This provision attempts to do the same thing the PRO Act was designed to achieve: make the penalty for IC misclassification so high ($50,000 per IC) that employers are scared to use ICs, which then allows unions to try to unionize the drivers who are made employees due to the employer’s fear of the penalty. Today, we ask that you directly contact your Congressional representatives to stress how bad this change to our longstanding legal frameworks would be. We know that Independent Contractors are an important part of the US workforce, and in general, they prefer being ICs to traditional employment!

Please use the information below to impact the government’s plans and help our industry survive the impacts of this shortsighted “infrastructure” package!

Tell congress to leave independent contractors and class action lawsuits out of the political agenda

As you may have heard, there is a massive $3.5 trillion dollar ‎‎“infrastructure” bill being negotiated in Congress right now. While it is ‎being called an infrastructure bill, it is really a vehicle for the ‎Congressional majority to make significant changes to employment law ‎and our social safety net. ‎

How to have an impact – CALL these Congressional offices TODAY!

• Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) 202-224-2541
• Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) 202-224-6542
• House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA-12) 202-225-4965
• House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA-23) 202-225-2915
• Additionally, you can find contact information for your own specific legislators at https://www.usa.gov/elected-officials/. We encourage you to call your own Senators and your Representative as well as the Congressional leaders listed above; a constituent’s voice is always heard most clearly on the Hill.
• Calling is the most effective way to make your voice heard in Washington and has an outsized impact on the Congressional decision-making process.

Use the language below to succinctly make our case.

Introduction: My name is ______ and I am an employee/owner of _____. My company is part of the courier industry, and we rely on Independent Contractors as an important part of our workforce. Our drivers like having the choice to work as Independent Contractors and most prefer it to employment. We also rely on Arbitration agreements to quickly and fairly resolve legal issues.

Make the ask: I am asking you for your help to ensure that any reconciliation bill which passes does not include any provisions that would jeopardize the ability of Independent Contractors to find work in their industry or to increase Class Action lawsuits by killing arbitration agreements.

• The proposed plan from the Education and Labor committee to make unfair labor practices punishable by a personally liable $50,000 per IC fine is completely without precedent. It puts a shadow of financial ruin over the heads of any business in our industry which offers their drivers the opportunity to work as Independent Contractors.
• The elimination of arbitration agreements will accelerate Class Action Lawsuits against small and mid-sized businesses that are unable to fund them, thereby driving the businesses out of existence.
• This is clearly an attempt to use the National Labor Relations Act to scare employers away from using ICs – even those business owners who work hard to achieve legal compliance will be taking an unjustifiable personal risk by using ICs.
• The economy is already teetering on the brink of collapse – more meddling can only have dangerous consequences for my business and thousands like mine across the country. This will also have a very serious negative impact on the thousands of drivers who like being Independent Contractors because of the flexibility and higher pay that it affords them!

Conclude: Thank you for your attention to this problem. I hope Congress will not act to remove choice from America’s logistics drivers!

Please circulate this call to action to your colleagues and enlist their support. With more people contacting Washington, our chances for success increases.

Thank you for your assistance and support in this matter. CLDA Government Affairs staff will continue our work to represent your interests in Washington and will keep you informed of our progress.