The National Labor Relations Board has removed an obstacle that has made it very difficult for temporary workers to join unions. Whether you work on contract through an agency or independently, the decision could affect your career.

What the NLRB's Ruling Says

In a decision that took effect August 30, 2000, the NLRB ruled that workers can join unions without first getting permission from the temporary agencies that give them the assignments. If temporary workers have peers at the same business who are permanent employees of the company and belong to a labor union, the door is now open for them to join the union and receive benefits commensurate with those of the permanent employees.

The ruling may face future challenges in court, but for now it's the law of the land.

Reaction is Mixed

Unions and other labor organizations are pleased with the ruling. "It is a long-awaited and welcome decision," says Catherine Ruckelshaus, litigation director for the National Employment Law Project in New York. The ruling, "states clearly that the labels put on a worker don't matter. What matters is that there's an employment relationship between the worker and the employer," which enables the worker to join a collective bargaining unit, says Ruckelshaus, whose organization advocates for contingent workers.

"This is really about addressing the power imbalances between workers and corporations," says Marcus Courtney, cofounder and organizer of Washington Alliance of Technology Workers, a Seattle-based union. Temporary workers and agency contractors "want to seek redress and representation on issues that concern them," such as health care and retirement benefits, Courtney says.

Temporary-employment agencies see the NRLB ruling in a different light. The decision is in many ways irrelevant to the future of his business, says John Chuang, CEO of Aquent, a Boston-based agency that specializes in matching companies with creative, Web and technical talent. "In the new economy, temps are not labor workers," says Chuang. "Increasingly they're accountants, lawyers, graphics designers, programmers, consultants. They're not really interested in unions. A lot of them get benefits anyway from their agencies."

How the Decision Could Affect Free Agents
Will this ruling have much of a real-world effect on temporary workers and agency contractors? It depends who you ask.

"I don't think it's going to have any impact," says Courtney. "This decision isn't aimed at controlling the number of temps that companies hire." But Ruckelshaus disagrees. "It certainly is going to change the economic incentives. If this ruling says that temps have the same rights to bargain collectively, then that takes away one incentive for employers to outsource jobs." It might also motivate companies to consider hiring independent contractors in place of agency contractors, since the independents are the least likely to pursue union representation and the attendant benefits.