Presidential Candidates Set for Union Forum

[Double A]

Presidential Candidates Set for Union Forum as Building Trades and CWA Members Head to the Hill

by Mike Hall, Mar 26, 2007

Congress will get an earful from union members in lobbying visits and a Capitol Hill rally this week. In addition, several presidential candidates will get a chance to make their pitch for the job when they address more than 3,000 delegates from the AFL-CIO Building and Construction Trades Department (BCTD) and the Communications Workers of America (CWA) annual legislative meetings.

Some 2,500 BCTD members kicked off their three-day conference today. Tomorrow they will head to Capitol Hill to attend House hearings on several important issues, including a House Education and Labor Committee panel looking at employer misclassification of construction and trades workers as independent contractors. BCTD calls the practice a:

   thinly veiled, and illegal, attempt to boost profits, deny workers health, retirement, workers compensation, and unemployment benefits, and deprive state and federal governments of hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenues.

After the hearing, BCTD members will “Rally for American Workers� on Capitol Hill, calling for the passage of the Employee Free Choice Act and other congressional action to stop the squeeze on the middle class.

Wednesday’s presidential forum includes Sen. Joseph Biden (D-Del.), Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), former Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.), Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y), Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.), Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson (D-N.M.).Meanwhile, some 600 CWA members opened their three-day legislative conference yesterday with Biden addressing participants. Other candidates scheduled: Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), who will speak today, and Clinton, Edwards and Obama tomorrow.CWA members also will head for the Hill today and tomorrow to talk with lawmakers about the Employee Free Choice Act, universal high-speed Internet access, health care and other important working family issues.

[Conan71]

Hagel???

He called a press conference out in Nebraska a few weeks ago to announce he was dropping out, as if that was really newsworthy.

I had always thought the acid test on the independent contractor issue was pretty well spelled-out.

I'm interested to hear more about the worker mis-classification issue.  I'm just curious where you split the hairs on independent contractors.  If a worker is arriving at a shop in the morning and driving out to a construction site in a company vehicle- calling him/her an IC is illegal as all hell.  However, if they are providing their own transportation, tools, etc. it's a lot harder to prove they are an employee rather than an IC.