Working with a Net

IT'S A MESSAGE one doesn't necessarily expect from a former labor lawyer, born to a family of labor activists, and head of one of the fastest growing unions in the country.

"I don't care about employers!" Sara Horowitz MPA 1995 says, repeatedly. "I don't think that's where the action is."

The action, or at least a lot of it, is over at the Freelancers Union, the Brooklyn, NY,-based union that Horowitz founded after her graduation from the Kennedy School and now numbers more than 40,000, growing at a rate of 500 a week.

"I had to really get to the idea of what is the essence of a union."

Horowitz focused on independent workers: freelancers, temps, and the self-employed, working in fields that include finance and media. Comprising roughly 30 percent of the workforce, they are emblematic of a fraying social safety net, Horowitz says, constantly struggling to find work, often unable to save for retirement or pay for their own health insurance.

The union's first success was to offer affordable health care insurance. Other benefits followed, such as job placement information, as well as virtual forums for members to discuss their challenges, and Horowitz is now tackling the problem of retirement accounts.

But aside from the practical help and peace of mind the union has offered thousands, its innovative approach to how people can organize together may become its most lasting contribution. It's an idea that has garnered Horowitz national attention, including a MacArthur Foundation "genius grant," and one which has its roots in her time at the Kennedy School.

'I came with a very generalized sense that the laws and regulations didn't fit with the ways workers were working," she says, and was immediately challenged by a rigorous intellectual atmosphere that pushed her to question fundamental beliefs.

"It really made me question, what did I believe in and why, and what was I holding on to that really didn't make logical sense anymore?," she says. "I had to really get to the idea of what is the essence of a union."

At that core she found two basic elements: the ability to generate revenues and perpetuate themselves economically; and the ability to offer people a way to come together and solve their problems.

"Once you hold on to those two ideas, that enables you to be free to open up to the possibility of what could work, pragmatically," she reports.

And the practical problems have been huge.

Because the union is not involved in collective bargaining, its efforts have concentrated on providing benefits to members and advocacy. But those paths have often been blocked by structural obstacles. In areas from health insurance to life insurance to pensions, Horowitz's union is treated differently from corporate employers. For example, the group can't create a retirement plan that would allow members to pool assets in order to lower the cost of financial services.

"You'd say, 'Why aren't Fidelity or Vanguard just beating down our door?' and it's because the laws aren't aligned to enable the market to really reach people and groups," Horowitz says.

And it's that idea of groups that Horowitz, through her innovative approach and advocacy, hopes will be the lasting impact of her work."This is the group that's really pioneering the next safety net for everybody," says Horowitz. "I hope that, if we have one success, it is that we really start envisioning the best ways that people can organize into groups, beyond the ways they have done in the past — rather than just moving into a society of just a lot of individuals." — RDO