Democratic presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg on Friday released a set of economic proposals that would strengthen the collective bargaining rights of U.S. workers, including people working in the “gig” economy of ride-sharing and other services and employees at fast-food franchises.
Mr. Buttigieg said he wants to restore “fairness and balance” to the U.S. economy.
“Our economy is changing, and too many Americans are working full time, some working two or even three jobs, and still finding it impossible to make ends meet,” said Mr. Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana. “Things continue to get more expensive, but paychecks aren’t getting any bigger.”
Mr. Buttigieg wants to make it harder for companies like Uber and Lyft to label drivers independent contractors who aren’t necessarily guaranteed minimum wage and other benefits.
He would increase federal funding to crack down on employers who are misclassifying their workers as “contractors,” rather than employees, and work to make sure fast food and custodial workers can collectively bargain with companies that control their wages and hours.
“Companies like Google should not be able to hire contractors – from janitors to food service workers to managers to software engineers – that look like employees, but who cannot bargain with Google because they technically work for a staffing firm or other intermediaries,” his plan says.
The plan also calls for “multimillion-dollar” penalties for companies if they improperly interfere in union elections, and called for unionized employees in the same line of work to be allowed to band together in multi-employer collective bargaining.
Mr. Buttigieg would also support legislation that would give federal contracting preferences to companies that are unionized.
He also called for minimum paid sick and family leave benefits for employees, an increase in the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour, and protections for illegal immigrants who report labor violations.
Mr. Buttigieg would also propose legislation to make large companies disclose their pay gap between male and female employees, which mirrors a proposal Sen. Kamala Harris has advocated.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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