Is this what freelancers want, to have Histadrut clerks tell them how many hours to work, at what pay, against whom to compete and against whom not to compete, when to stop working, when to take vacations, etc.? Will there be separate sections for FrameMaker users and for Word users? Will a Word user who wants to start using FrameMaker have to apply for permission? And since there will always be a significant number of freelancers who will not join, those who do will be tying their hands behind their backs while the others do as they please. If this is the kind of work environment someone wants, why not just take a job with one of the big bureaucracy-heavy public companies, where there will always be somebody to tell you what to do and how to do it and how much sugar to put in your coffee?

Is this why someone becomes a freelancer, to replace the boss who is paying him/her with a boss s/he is paying?

--Alex

I think you are overestimating the power of technical writers. I don't think that any "union" can tie the hands of anyone in this field, for many reasons. First off, there are not enough technical writers for critical mass, secondly, technical writers are not that important to the economy.
Most important is the realization that freelancers are independant workers often bordering on "employeedom". Even the electricians union(s) is absolutely powerless to stop non licensed (never mind non-union) workers from working in this critical and dangerous field. What power will a group of whimpy Anglo technical writers wield?
As I understood the press release, the purpose of the union was stated as to ensure that freelancers are dealt with according to the labour laws, not "fighting for rights".
The truth is (as understood from the first postings on this topic that I read on the Techshoret list), most freelancers do not even know their rights as put forth by law.
As such a union that will collect fees from members for the purpose of correlating these rights, empowering the independent freelancer with knowledge of what is rightfully hers\his, and making legal council available for consultation and even representation, would be quite welcome.
The line between the "freelancer" and the "independent contractor" seems blurry to us, yet from what I understood from my experience with the labour laws, the line is defined, and most freelancing independants that I know working as technical writers are in fact considered employees by law, and many benefits are theirs by law, contract or not.
labour law is labyrinthine at best, an organization capable of suppling the above mentioned services would do a lot of good.

As for me? I am an independent writer (and engineer), I have no intention of joining any union, I know the line between employee and independent and I have chosen to be independent. I will not take a job that will risk my independence. I will never have a single supplier of work. I will never become an employee, I have been burned too often, and I am too old to worry about getting rehired; therefore, I can never have issues as a freelancer. If I don't like the terms, I won't accept the job.

From: Shlomo Ramon
> To: Ayelet Kramarz
> Sent: Monday, October 22, 2007 6:57 PM
> Subject: Re: [Norton AntiSpam] [Techshoret] Re: ADMIN: Freelancer thread
>
>
> Hello all,
> As a past Histadruth member who resigned, I can see absolutely no
advantage in joining the union as freelancers. I can see though many
disadvantages, all based on past personal experience.
> In general, most of listmemebers are probably too young to remember
or even to know that this country was practically run by the
party/histadrut. Far from me to admire the present day politicians,
yet during that distant and tough to survive period one could not
practically exist without becoming a member of the Histadrut:
> jobs, health care (Kupat holim), buying a flat, (not say breathing)
all were next to impossible for the few non-members, (except if they
were very well to do).
>
> Personal experience:
> While serving as a permanent in the IAF, I have discovered that I
can resign from the union to save the membership fee ( which was heavy on my small salary and budget), and just keep pay for the memberhip for Kupat Holim for my family, for a much smaller fee. I did that, only to discover a couple of years later that I cannot register an appartment purchased at lots of sweat, because only members of Histadrut were entitled to that. I had to crawl and beg to be re-accepted, of course against a back payment of "accumulated" fees.
>
> Thank God, these days are gone. I have no wish to see the Histadrut
hacks getting their greedy hands again into my hard earned income .
> I cannot remember a single instance of having been helped in any
matter at all, either as an employee (of many years, starting with
hard labourer on construction sites, through all attempts to learn a
trade/ get a degree), or as even an an employer (president of a
corporation, started from zero, ending with 150 employees) - all the
employees knew that they were getting a better deal without the
"help" of Histadrut, so they have rejected all union efforts to become "organized".
>
> Thus, as free-lancers, by definition, we really cannot expect
anything good from being "organized", except for paying exorbitant
membership fees to feed some free loading parasites. Getting yo know
our basic lawful rights depends only on personal intelligence, I find
it hard to believe that a person capable of writing tech docs is
uncapable of finding out what hisd/her right are.
> If the reason for joining is that to get around in Hebrew forms a
barrier for the Anglos, then I do not see how the Anglos can exercise
the basic profession by extracting subject matter from the SMEs -
most of which speak only Hebrew, Russian, plus very imperfect English
that may become very misleading to writers without technicaal
education/bacground. .
>
> Unless we wish to see the Stalinists reestablished in power, let us
not help them - there is no help in sight for us free lancers from
these guys
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Ayelet Kramarz
> To:
> Sent: Monday, October 22, 2007 6:02 PM
> Subject: [Norton AntiSpam] [Techshoret] Re: ADMIN: Freelancer thread
>
>
> Hi All,
> As someone who was actually at the Histadrut meeting, I wanted to
comment on a couple
> of things that were said. I was quite surprised to see some of the
negative reactions. The
> Freelancer's Union has no intention of telling people what to do
(I know I became a
> freelancer to escape that), nor are they looking to standardize
people's working hours or
> hourly rates. The meeting was really just to discuss the fact
that, as freelancers, we do
> have certain rights by law and there are many of us who really
don't know what they are
> and even necessarily where to find them (or how to interpret
them). As a large body, the
> Histadrut has access to lawyers and other relevant people, as well
as as agreements with
> insurance companies and the like which may be of great help
considering we don't have
> companies paying for pension plans and other benefits. Really the
meeting was just to
> discuss what labour-related issues freelancers might have that
they feel they have no one
> to ask about.
>
> Best regards,
> Ayelet Kramarz
> Graphic Designer
> www.graphica-web.com

As a former trade union activist (NALGO - if that means anything to anyone
on this list) who led a successful fight for a pay rise for part time
workers, I learned that the strength of organised labour is contingent on
the sector of the economy where they are employed. We see in Israel how long
the country can put up with teachers or university lecturers being on strke,
compared with say the dockers or electricity workers. Lets be realistic. The
prospects of having an effective TWs union is about as realsistic as a union
of Israeli politicians - if such a group goes on strike, who cares? At best
some bad feelings can be engendered but there is nothing to be gained by
either side. The only way to effectively improve conditions is by making
your qualify of work such that your employer recognises your value and
wishes to retain your services; thus you have a degree of bargaining power.
Regarding more general issues that can be seen as achievements of organised
labour (at least in the UK) e.g eight hour day, these are not relevant to
freelancers who usually want to work as many and more hours than they are
offered.

Just my opinion.

Shimon
Shimon Frais
Senior Technical Writer
WritePoint