'It's Not Our Job In Washington D.C. To Tell Workers What They Want': Tommy Tuberville Touts Gig Work

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During a Senate Health, Education, Labor, & Pensions Committee hearing on Thursday, Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) spoke about gig economy jobs.

Transcript

00:00Good morning. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thanks for the witness of being here today.

00:04Regardless what you think about all this, this is a bipartisan issue. You know,

00:09outside the beltway, left-leaning groups and forward-thinking unions understand

00:12the reality that the vast majority of independent workers want to work

00:18independently and they want access to benefits. This is the 21st century, last

00:22time I looked. It's not our job in Washington DC to tell workers what they

00:27want. It's not our job. To that point, I'd like to request to enter into the record,

00:32Mr. Chairman, a couple of letters here, by SEIU 775 and a press release by Teamsters

00:40Affiliated Drivers Union, which includes a statement by Teamsters Local 117 in

00:46Washington State, all in support of portable benefits for gig workers. Without

00:51objection. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Since President Trump's taken office, we have

00:55been seeing consistent job growth, but we can't sustain this growth and bring new

01:00industry to our communities if those companies don't have flexibility to

01:04offer benefits their workers want. They want it. Our labor laws are outdated. In

01:10order to grow and upgrade, American workers must be in charge. The workers. That means

01:16giving independent contractors, freelancers, and gig workers the freedom and

01:20confidence to work how they want and take care of themselves and their families. What an idea.

01:24What an idea. Gone are the days where American workers want to spend 40 hours a day, 40 years,

01:32working on the same assembly line at the same factory. That's over with. Day in and day out,

01:37they can't. That's not going to be sustainable. America's future workforce wants the freedom of

01:44flexibility and the opportunity to still provide for their families while pursuing different jobs

01:48that work for them and their schedules. Republican and Democrat states alike are passing bills,

01:55providing more freedom to independent contractors and their benefits, including my state of Alabama.

01:59Mr. Coleman, there's been a lot of conversation with my colleagues in this chamber over the last few

02:04months about making sure that Medicaid is going to people that really need it. And that sparked a

02:10conversation about how and where Americans get their health care coverage. If businesses were provided

02:16a legal avenue to offer portable benefits to independent contractors, how would that fit into the

02:22landscape of uninsured and insured Americans seeking health care?

02:28Thank you for the question, Senator. Obviously, it would create a positive effect with respect to

02:35insurance. By expanding small businesses' ability to offer affordable health insurance to its workers,

02:43we could hopefully reverse the decline we've seen in the offer of coverage among small businesses.

02:49As I mentioned earlier in my testimony, we have a situation where, you know, back at the turn of the

02:55century, nearly half of small businesses offered insurance to its workers. We're now in a situation

03:01where that has plummeted to 30.1 percent, if memory serves well.

03:06Ms. Kevin,

03:09your will and passion to protect independent contractors is a byproduct

03:12of why we're having this hearing today.

03:14Millions of Americans are facing the same

03:17issue that you have faced. I am proud to

03:19co-sponsor Chairman Cassidy's bill

03:20Unlocking Benefits for Independent Workers Act

03:23to help these millions of Americans.

03:25Can you talk to me about your grassroots

03:26coalition fight for freelancers

03:29and explain what freelance business busting is?

03:34Freelance busting is a term that I came up with while I was doing yard work one day and

03:37listening to a podcast about union busting and they seemed to think that anything that happened

03:42that unions didn't like fell under the term union busting. And I said, well, we need to call what's

03:46going on against us freelance busting because they seem to be trying every which way from Sunday

03:51to figure out how to knock us out of business and cause us harm.

03:55My coalition, which is co-founder, I'm a co-founder, not the founder,

03:59we are fully bipartisan. We have people from every political stripes you can imagine who have

04:06voted for everybody under the sun. We do not believe this is a partisan issue.

04:10We are just people who choose to be our own bosses.

04:14This has been legal in the United States since the day this nation was founded and we are sick and tired of having to

04:20fight our own government keeps trying to take that freedom away.

04:24Thank you. Ms. Onwaka, as far as benefits like health insurance, workers compensation,

04:31retirement benefits, I'm interested to know what the landscape actually looks like. So ballpark,

04:36how many workers currently lack access to employer provided benefits because they are part-time

04:41employees or independent contractors?

04:43Ms. So some of the research that I've seen is anywhere between maybe 20 to 30 percent of those

04:49independent contractors don't have any access to benefits, either because they don't have a

04:54full-time position elsewhere or because they're not covered by a spouse, for example.

04:58Yeah. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

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Transcript

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