We have to celebrate the small victories.
In New Jersey, for instance, the state Legislature has finally passed what has been called the “Temp Workers’ Bill of Rights,” a set of protections for the 140,000 or so temporary workers toiling in various New Jersey businesses.
The legislation imposes new record-keeping requirements on the agencies that hire temporary workers, focusing on wages paid and hours worked, and makes sure that temps have access to basic information about their jobs and recourse should they feel their rights are being violated.
The law also will prevent temp workers from being forcibly used to break strikes, and bans abusive and dangerous transport arrangements.
"Winning this bill lets the agencies know the power we have as workers and saying ‘no more’ to injustices and discrimination,” Germania Hernandez, a member of New Labor, said in a statement. “For workers this is about filling us with hope and having a baseline to demand our rights as workers. We're all here to work and create a better life and circumstances than we're in now. Together si se puede!”
New Labor, which has offices in New Brunswick, Newark, and Lakewood, NJ, serves primarily low-wage workers, most of whom are undocumented immigrants. Many work as temps, or in other low-wage industries, such as home care and domestic work. Louis Kimmel, executive director of New Labor, said there has been a lack of oversight of temp agencies over the years.
“This shouldn't be a race to the bottom just to be able to move the goods we get shipped to our houses,” he said.
Temp agencies would disagree. My students reported on the debate over the bill last fall, and representatives from the New Jersey were critical. They argued that they “understand the wants and needs of our employees as well as our clients.” Temps, they told us in an email, were necessary to address “fluctuating economic conditions” that “add to an already fragile balance to accommodate the needs and wants of consumers.” Any mistreatment, they say, is the fault of “bad actors” and do not represent the majority of agencies.
They argue that the often obscenely lower wages paid to temps (my characterization) are warranted, because these are temporary and not full-timer permanent workers. And they say they are needed to keep costs lower for consumers. This is nonsense. Many temp workers are what are called “perma-temps,” hired to keep costs down and because they are the most vulnerable workers in the workforce. The money saved does not necessarily flow to consumers in lower prices, but stays with the agencies, warehouse firms, and larger corporations who rely on this rigged system.
The bill passed Thursday — along a party-line 21-15 vote, with four Democrats not voting — will not upend this system, but should address some of its worst aspects.
State Sen. Joe Cryan (D-Union), a primary sponsor of the bill, called the workers the bill is designed to help “an invisible workforce that has been left vulnerable to exploitation and mistreatment.”
Workers deserve to be paid for the work they do and paid the same as others doing the same work. Temp agencies he temp-agency model that exists at the moment is unsustainable, but replicated across our economy in other industries. Similar bills have been proposed in New Jersey would address concerns of domestic workers and adjunct college instructors. Across the country, we are witnessing other efforts — a California law regulating gig workers was beaten back a few years ago — and workers are angry. At Starbucks, Target, Amazon, in the tech industry and academia, we are witnessing a wave of organizing, of strikes, and while union density remains low, the anger is not. And it is the anger, funneled into productive action, that can shift the power balance in workers’ favor.
The temp workers’ bill is a victory worth celebrating, but also a reminder that there remains a lot of work ahead of us.