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Freelancers Union — Why I’m Already in Love And Why You Should Be Too
If you live in NYC and ride the subway, you’ve seen the advertisements for the Freelancers Union. Their tagline is, "A federation of the unaffiliated." and they define the service as, "a nonprofit organization that represents the needs of America’s independent workforce though advocacy, information, and service." The Freelancers Union claims that over 30% of the entire U.S. workforce are indie workers. Most of the services the Freelancers Union provides are available nationwide.
There are no fees to be a Freelancers Union member and frankly anyone who works for themselves (blogger, web developer, designer, writer, etc.) should be a member. The benefits the group offers are just awesome. Health insurance is the number one benefit in my opinion.
When I lived in Atlanta my health insurance for a good plan ran about $140/month. The same plan in NYC was 10x more or $1,400/month (no I am not kidding). An even better plan (also with Blue Cross) with the Freelancers Union runs around $210/month. Please note that these are single rates. There’s also a dental savings plan that normally is $7.50/month but with FU it’s $3/month.
Another awesome benefit is for Zipcar rentals. In NYC the normal Zipcar rates for an average car are $10.50-12.50/hour Mon-Thurs and $12.50-$14.50 Friday. When you join the Freelancers Union, that rate drops to $8.00 on all weekdays. This has already saved me a good bit of money and you get a wider selection of cars. From my testing this morning, discounts in other cities that Zipcar serves are similar.
There are a ton of other discounts including Web services Harvest (our coverage) and FreshBooks (our coverage). The Staples corporate pricing is pretty sweet.
There are also a variety of networking events/meetups, educational courses and a job/gig board.
To become a member you need to demonstrate income over $10,000 within the past six months. Seriously, even if you just use it for the Zipcar discounts, the Freelancers Union membership is very much worth the cost (which is free).
Hi Allen – glad you’re enjoying membership! I work for Freelancers Union, and I just wanted to clarify something for your readers, which is that not only is membership free, you only have to demonstrate that you’re a freelancer if you choose to apply for certain insurance benefits. Absolutely anyone can join, and as you’ve explained, just that gets you access to discounts and a community and our advocacy work.
Cheers!
Carolyn
You should also point out that, while many (most) of the discounts are NYC-centric, insurance, membership, and a whole mess of other benefits are not.
yea you can get the insurance anywhere in the country and i’d say 60% or more of the other discounts are nationwide
yes i would agree that "union" could be archaic.
Personally I think they should maybe choose a name other than ‘union’. The FU doesn’t take your money or tell you how to vote or cause you to lose your job with archaic makework rules, and as long as they don’t intend to start doing that they should take a name that (in my opinion) doesn’t carry that ridiculous legacy.
question is, how does the FU make money aka where do the discounts come from and how are they refinanced? once a FU member, do clients/customers have to pay a fee to the union directly? if so, this might a reason not to join. also, are there restrictions once you hire someone or once you have a half day job at kroger to bridge some financial gap?
unions aren’t for everybody by default.
Great Post!
We (FreshBooks) are super proud of our association with the Freelancers Union and hope to be partners for ever and ever…..it is true….We love them!
Saul Colt
Head of Magic
FreshBooks