Temporary insanity

by Kristen Lombardi

DANNY LEBLANC: "Workers are getting rooked right and left," says the Merrimack Valley Project staff director. "We intend to let agencies know that at least they have to answer to us."

The document, in essence, asks firms to treat workers in ways once taken for granted -- pay them overtime, don't charge them for government-mandated safety equipment, don't force them to pay $8 for daily transportation. "Workers are getting rooked right and left," says MVP staff director Danny LeBlanc. "We intend to let agencies know that at least they have to answer to us."

Today, the MVP and the CCW are readying for a public crusade. They will circulate petitions, target client companies, and visit politicians -- all in effort to force temp agencies to buy in to what amounts to a we-agree-to-do-good pact.

Ultimately, NAFFE sees legislative change, especially at the federal level, as the best solution to contingent workers' problems. "We want to level the playing field for everyone in contingent jobs, [rather than] rely on situation-by-situation and state-by-state answers," explains Maureen Ridge, a CCW member and director of Service Employees International Union (SEIU) District 925 in Quincy.

One proposed federal bill would prevent businesses from paying temps less than full-timers who do the same job. Another would amend the tax code so that employers cannot classify long-term workers as contractors, thus denying them access to benefits like health and stock-option plans.

Success is sure to hinge on whether NAFFE can generate momentum among the masses, building up the clout needed to pass legislation. "Real change," Gonos says, "depends on the force of these organizations."

And for NAFFE, strength comes down to heightening awareness among permanent employees. "Full-timers don't see depth of the problem," CCW member Rick Colbeth-Hess says. "They don't see how their standards decline as contingent work grows." For the more that companies have trimmed core work forces and relied on contingents, the more that full-time employees have had to put in longer hours, give up weekends, and cut back on perks like vacation time.

In light of those links, organized labor might seem like NAFFE's most logical and significant ally. In an era of dwindling power and shrinking memberships, however, not every union and AFL-CIO chapter has embraced the fight for contingent workers' rights. SEIU District 925 director Ridge says this uneven response probably results from "unions' feeling the need to protect their own members first."

But more and more traditional unions are reaching out to temps. Last April, the building-trades unions launched a national campaign to organize day laborers. And in 1999, in Los Angeles, 74,000 home health aides joined SEIU after 10 years of pushing the county to act as their employer for collective-bargaining purposes.

More and more Americans are also sympathizing with contingent workers -- either because they know a temp or because they used to be one. People are especially bothered by wage inequality between permanent and contingent labor; both NAFFE and government surveys report that 60 percent of Americans favor laws mandating that temps get equal pay for equal work.

Perhaps most significant, the temp industry is growing more and more defensive. Last June, right after NAFFE was publicly unveiled, the American Staffing Association released a report that lifted phrases right from the mouths of workers'-rights activists, rejecting their arguments as "baseless" and "exaggerated." Even ASA vice-president Lenz admits that the report sounds defensive. "But if we do," he says, "it's only because we've been attacked relentlessly by a small group of people."

All this suggests a bright future for NAFFE. Although its members aren't naïve enough to think they can immediately fix what's called "this problem of corporate America ripping off workers," they do think they'll end up winners -- eventually, anyway.

And the movement, no doubt, has tapped into some very real frustrations. It's identified such real needs that it could be just a matter of time before NAFFE sparks the next great revolution in the workplace.

As CCW member and long-time temp Raheem Al-Kaheem puts it, "What we're doing is so right, it's more American than what those in power are doing to workers."

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Kristen Lombardi can be reached at klombardi[a]phx.com.