Editor75:
Do you know the difference between an independent service contractor and a full-time employee? It is clear that you do not
1) as an independent service contractor you are not salaried; yes, you will be represented on the payroll when money is owed for work performed but, you are not salaried
2) as a nonsalaried independent service contractor, you are not entitled to healthcare or any other benefits
You work at will and only if admin believes you capable of undertaking a certain project.
You do not have fixed working hours.
You do not have a set of duties to perform
You are not exclusive.
You are not entitled to form a union. This is not a "workers of the world unite; you have nothing to lose but your chains" world. Some freelancers are indispensable and they tend to be happy and not make the stupid arguments you are forwarding here. Others are very very dispensable.
Form your own little union of wannabe writers/definite twits. You will never have any legal standing and won't ever be recognized in those countries where employees have rights.
Let's stop tiptoeing around the real problem here and let's be honest for once (irrespective of how un-PC it may be). Thanks to the EW, AR, etc bunch, the industry is flooded with non native speakers who are barely educated and have no business writing in English (don't get me wrong, there are some excellent non-native writers out there - truly excellent). This group knows nothing of the Western education system (let alone the differences between them), has little, if any respect for Western values and culture and yet, wants our market and our legal entitlements. In the age of globalization, no problem BUT first get to understand and respect the market you want to enter and, at the very very least, respect its values.
As it is, this is nothing but a greedy, vampirish, parasitical proposal.
Go form your union. Before doing do, find gainful employment. Maybe we'll then be spared your nonsensical drivel.
Are you serious?! Healthcare?! Don't you want retirement benefits as well?
Work, make money and take out your own private healthcare plan - on your penny, not ours.
This is not a "money for nothing and the chicks for free world."
Get real or seek professional help.
Major - for the first time ever, I disagree with you. Only the good writers - the true pros - deserve respect. All others deserve to be permanently banned from the industry.
Why should we respect writers who show customers (and the company which took them on) the utmost disrespect through the provision of shoddy, plagiarized or barely legible work?
Why should we respect writers who were quite healthy a couple of hours before a deadline but are suddenly hospitalised?
Why should we respect writers whose hard disks constantly breakdown at the last minute?
We all know the excuses ... do these writers deserve respect?
The professional ones do. Professional writers actually inform admin when they can't complete a paper (do so only rarely) and are honest about it. These are the ones who deserve our respect and whom we MUST respect.
I am really not doing very well in this season of good will and brotherly love :(
Sorry about that :(