ILPC 2026

In recent decades, the practice of misclassifying workers as “independent contractors” has undermined state fiscal policy and substantially harmed a vast swath of the American working class. We recount the institutionalization of this unique form of precarious labor which dates back to political efforts began during the late 1970s. The undoing of a legally-defined relationship between employer and employee is consistent with the broader trend of workforce casualization under neoliberalism. As researchers continue to document this practice from a scholarly remove, unions and labor advocates are successfully organizing to combat worker misclassification in several sectors—most notably, in the construction and port trucking industries.  In both sectors, labor unions have formed coalitions with community leaders, local economic development organizations, legal advisers, and immigrant labor advocates to combat the practice of worker misclassification at the local and state levels.  This paper analyzes two successful organizing campaigns against misclassification: an IBT-led port trucking campaign and the UBC-led initiative within the construction industry.  We conducted interviews with the leaders of these campaigns in order to trace how political-economic and sectoral conditions shaped organizing strategies.  While organizational strategies varied according to unique sectoral conditions, both case studies offer new insights that can be leveraged to combat precarious working conditions.