Byline: By richard siklos section: Section C; Column 5; Business/Financial Desk; Pg. 1 Length
January 27, 2007 Saturday Late Edition - Final Labor Union, Redefined, For Freelance Workers BYLINE
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January 27, 2007 Saturday Late Edition - Final Labor Union, Redefined, For Freelance Workers BYLINE: By STEVEN GREENHOUSE SECTION: Section A; Column 1; National Desk; Pg. 11 LENGTH: 924 words Herding freelancers is a bit like herding cats. Both are notoriously independent. Nonetheless, Sara Horowitz has figured out a way to bring together tens of thousands of freelancers -- Web designers, video editors, writers, dancers and graphic artists -- into a thriving organization. Ms. Horowitz has founded the Freelancers Union, offering members lower-cost health coverage and other benefits that many freelancers often have a hard time getting. A former labor lawyer, Ms. Horowitz intends to form a forceful advocacy group for freelancers and independent contractors, the most mobile members of an increasingly mobile work force. In addition, she is trying to adapt unions to a world far different from yesteryear, when workers often remained with one employer for two or three decades. ''This really is about a new unionism,'' she said, ''and what it means is to bring people together to solve their problems.'' Having signed up 40,000 freelancers from the New York area, she is now planting her group's flag across the nation, hoping to herd far more of the nation's 20 million freelancers and independent contractors into her union. ''These workers are the backbone for so many industries vital to our nation's economy -- I.T., financial services, the arts, advertising and publishing,'' she said. ''Yet these same workers are not afforded simple job protections or a social safety net.'' By creating a new type of union for nontraditional workers, Ms. Horowitz hopes to help revive the labor movement. Its membership has slipped to just 7.4 percent of the private-sector work force, down from one-third in 1960. Unlike traditional unions, the Freelancers Union has no intention of bargaining with employers. Still, Ms. Horowitz says her group's main goal is identical to that of all unions -- providing mutual aid, in this case health benefits, to their members. ''More and more people are not going to get their benefits from an employer,'' Ms. Horowitz said. ''Our ultimate goal is to update the New Deal. It is to create a new safety net that's connected to the individual as they move from job to job.'' Jennifer Lebin joined the Freelancers Union while living in Manhattan after seeing one of its subway ads that say, ''Welcome to Middle-Class Poverty.'' Ms. Lebin, a political consultant, bought the group's health coverage and paid $20 to attend a union-sponsored seminar offering tax advice to consultants and independent contractors. Ms. Lebin, who has moved to Chicago, expressed disappointment that she could no longer use the union's health plan -- doctors in Illinois are not part of the network. ''If there is a way that the Freelancers Union could offer the same benefits to members outside the New York area, I'd sign up in a heartbeat,'' she said. The Freelancers Union, which sells benefits a la carte, hopes to offer health benefits in 10 states by the end of this year. It is already offering its discounted disability and life insurance nationwide. More than 14,000 freelancers in the New York area have bought its health insurance, generally for about $300 a month, some 40 percent below what they would normally pay elsewhere. The organization has also used its group purchasing power to help freelancers obtain discounted dental, disability and life insurance. Membership in the Freelancers Union is free. To finance itself, the group uses an entrepreneurial model: it earns modest commissions on the benefits that its members buy. Robert Bruno, a professor of labor relations at the University of Illinois at Chicago, praised the group's innovative approach, although he said it could not replace traditional unions. ''This needs to be part of labor's repertoire,'' Professor Bruno said. ''To the degree it helps to reshape what we've come to understand what a labor organization is, it's all to the good.'' Ms. Horowitz, 44, won a MacArthur genius award in 1999 after she established Working Today, a group based in Brooklyn that focused on providing benefits to New Yorkers in flexible work arrangements. She founded the Freelancers Union in 2003, with a more ambitious vision. The group intends to do advocacy work just like a labor union. In New York, it is backing legislation to let freelancers obtain unemployment insurance. Even if freelancers are laid off after working for an employer for two years, they cannot receive unemployment benefits because they are considered independent contractors. Some members do not expect the group to play the role of a traditional union. ''Unions represent members in negotiating wages and benefits,'' said Barbara Scott, an artist in Berlin Center, Ohio. ''I don't see the Freelancers Union functioning that way. I see it as a networking tool.'' Bobby Ambrose, a graphic designer in Chicago, disagreed. ''I was hoping that they would be like a labor union,'' Mr. Ambrose said. ''There are a lot of situations that freelancers face regarding pay rates and job hours, like when you're doing full-time work when you're only hired to be part time. It would be nice if they could push to make things better.'' Several traditional unions are studying the freelance union's progress, perhaps to borrow some ideas on organizing nonunion workers and offering benefits. ''The labor movement,'' Ms. Horowitz said, ''went from guilds through mutual aid societies through craft unions and through industrial unionism. You're not going to persuade me that there is not going to be a new form of unionism. The story's not over on what we're creating.''
Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company 1188 of 1258 DOCUMENTS The New York Times
Late Edition - Final Business of Fun Is Transacted on the Convention Floor BYLINE: By CHRIS DIXON SECTION: Section D; Column 1; Sports Desk; ACTION SPORTS; Pg. 4 LENGTH: 691 words DATELINE: SAN DIEGO, Jan. 26 Wandering the teeming halls of the San Diego Convention Center on Friday afternoon, the former professional surfer Peter King said of the goings-on at an action sports trade show, ''I'd say it's a lot more fun than a Dell computer convention.'' It is easy to see why. On Thursday and Friday, scores of bikini-clad models, tattooed and scarred skateboarders and tanned surf bums plied their wares or promoted their sponsors' brands. From Thursday to Sunday, more than 18,000 people are expected to pass through the convention center's doors for an event that helps shape the future of the billion-dollar industry. To some, like King, the 26-year-old show is a ''bro-fest'' that offers a chance to catch up with old friends and talk about future video or broadcasting projects. To others, like Tina Novak of Freestyle Audio, it is a chance to share business cards and sell the waterproof Billabong Soundwave MP3 player. ''It's got 40 hours of battery life and can go 10 feet underwater,'' she said, demonstrating a line of wet-suit and life-preserver tops that hold the music machine. When asked why a surfer would want a music player, she said that runners have been listening to their headphones for years. ''It's like starring in your own surf video,'' she said. A few booths away, Jeff Kelley, founder of the Sanuk sandal company and a lifetime San Diego surfer, showed off a new line of shoes from an elaborate booth, along with pictures from celebrity magazines showing his company's Sidewalk Surfer shoe being worn by Julia Roberts's husband, Danny Moder, and Brad Pitt. Sanuk made a splash a few years ago with a turf-covered shoe. ''It's the ultimate white-trash sandal,'' the shoe's sales tag read. ''Made outta real indoor-outdoor carpet. Just like your lawn.'' ''That's our flagship,'' Kelley said. ''People were like, 'What the heck are you thinking?' But folks like Fred Siegel and Louis Boston picked it up.'' In addition to surfers and professional climbers, Kelley also sponsors the ultimate fighting champion Jason Miller, known as Mayhem. ''He text-messaged me today,'' he said, pointing to his cell phone, ''and said that his girlfriend told him, 'Look honey, Brad Pitt's wearing your shoes!' '' In the skateboarding corner, a series of ramps and rails beckoned new-school pros who skated alongside old-school heroes like Tony Alva. Near the halfpipe, the entrepreneur Jim Bell showed off his skateboard ramp kit. ''My dad told me, 'I can't believe you're making a living doing this,' '' he said. ''Next week, I'm going in to hook up with the guys from the 'Pimp My Ride' TV show. We're going to build a skateboard ramp off the back of a Hostess bread truck.'' Out among the surfers, the most obvious change to the sport has been the new surfboard designs and materials since the 2005 closure of Gordon Clark's Clark Foam surfboard blank factory -- a day the surf journalist Ben Marcus termed Blank Monday. In the absence of Clark's low-cost and reliable blanks, which were rough polyurethane foam boards later shaped and sanded, traditional surfboards have become more expensive. But a myriad of new materials -- like carbon fiber, epoxy and a portable inflatable model by C4 Waterman of Hawaii -- are rapidly filling the void. Matt Biolos, founder of San Clemente's Lost, proudly displayed new epoxy blanks, which cost several hundred dollars, and new machine-molded carbon fiber shapes that sell for $1,200. ''Since the loss of Clark Foam there's been some confusion,'' Biolos said. ''Some surfers don't really know what to buy into. But there's so much that the cream is going to rise to the top in the next 24 months.'' In the Hobie booth, Robert August, 61, a surfing legend, said he had shaped more than 30,000 boards in his lifetime. Covered with foam dust, he said there was still something special about the hand-shaped polyurethane and fiberglass surfboards. ''The Surftech is a great product,'' he said, ''but you get a nine-foot Robert August model and there are 245 other guys riding exactly the same board. It's got no personality. With a hand-shaped board, no two machines are ever the same.''
Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company 1189 of 1258 DOCUMENTS The New York Times
Late Edition - Final On Your Toes, You Blokes. Here Come 2 Highnesses. BYLINE: By ERIC KONIGSBERG SECTION: Section B; Column 1; Metropolitan Desk; Pg. 3 LENGTH: 886 words It has been just over a year since their Wellington boots last sloshed about on these shores, and it's not as though that trip -- billed as their first official overseas tour since being married in April 2005 -- came off so smashingly that they, or an adoring American public, ought to be crying out for another. ''They'' would be Their Royal Highnesses, the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall -- Charles and Camilla. During that trip, in early November 2005, The New York Post ridiculed Charles for failing to make eye contact with his wife throughout a 9/11 memorial event in Lower Manhattan (''maybe they've just grown accustomed to sneaking around''); and in The Washington Post, Tina Brown, ostensibly praising Camilla, wrote: ''She's smaller, prettier, more delicate than all those cruel horseface snaps would have you believe.'' Even so, the royal couple haven't had enough of the United States, it would seem. They have arranged another American publicity tour and will be spending today, the first day of this jaunt, in Philadelphia (Liberty Bell, Commodore Barry statue, National Constitution Center). Tomorrow, it's on to New York, where they will tour the Harlem Children's Zone, a nonprofit educational organization in Upper Manhattan, and attend a black-tie reception at the Harvard Club in the prince's honor. At that event, Al Gore will present him with the Global Environmental Citizen Award, and Charles, according to a schedule put out by the British Consulate in New York, will deliver a speech ''on environmental issues.'' In and around Greenwich Village, where a good number of Brits work in the fields of fashion, media and design (having taken glamorous and low-paying jobs from their American counterparts), the prince's countrymen viewed the royal visit -- not to mention H.R.H. himself -- with something less than awe. ''I actually didn't know he was coming,'' Guy Chetwynd, the deputy general manager of the expat club Soho House and a native of Warwickshire, said the other day. ''I don't read the court circular as much as I did in London. That's the thing in the paper that tells you what the royal family's engagements are. ''Basically, I don't have anything against him,'' Mr. Chetwynd went on. ''He has some very strong beliefs that I personally don't feel that bad about. He's done a lot with the Duchy of Cornwall. He's made that area into sort of a thriving purveyor of organic produce. They make quite nice shortbread.'' Rufus Albemarle -- the 10th Earl of Albemarle, not to mention a fulltime resident of Chelsea (the one in New York, not London) and an entrepreneur who is soon to launch a new line of men's dress shirts -- also chose to focus on the prince's agricultural experiment. ''He's basically saying, 'Why don't we produce our own lamb, instead of buying it from New Zealand?' '' Mr. Albemarle said. ''We love organic. Over all, I think he's doing a fine job.'' He proceeded to deliver a brief lesson on the organization of the House of Lords, of which he is a former member. Back on the subject of Charles, he added, ''My second cousin is married to him.'' Camilla? ''Yes, or is that first cousin? I can never remember.'' At the Lower Fifth Avenue boutique of Paul Smith, the English clothier, Clive Williams, a sales clerk from Tottenham who was smartly turned out in a getup that screamed Reggie Kray -- red shirt, slim black tie, high-lapel sports jacket -- said he found it easy to see Charles as a tragic figure. ''He's a victim of circumstance,'' he said. ''It's not clear that he's going to be the next king -- you know, all that.'' ''I hope he comes in here,'' said Michael Hendricks, a young American clerk. ''Because he's cute. And he's royal blood. We occasionally get people with English accents in here, but not with that royal blood.'' A stop at Myers of Keswick, the shop on Hudson Street that sells all manner of British food -- Batchelor's Bigga Marrowfat Peas, Colman's Bread Sauce, traditional Scottish haggis in a can -- did turn up somebody who was aware of Prince Charles's visit. Becca de Beauport, originally from London, also said she sensed a poignancy in the prince. ''I think we should have let him marry this woman years ago, but we didn't because she was beyond child-bearing years,'' she said. ''He's better now he's happy.'' To much of the British public, Charles, old-fashioned and aloof, has had little success in his attempts to present himself as a man of the people. ''There was a horrible thing in the London papers in advance of this trip'' when it came out that he was considering flying a private jet to bring 20 people to New York with him, said Nicky Perry, who owns Tea and Sympathy, a British tea shop on Greenwich Avenue. ''They went on and on about the preposterous size of his carbon footprint. It was cruel.'' Ms. Perry couldn't help giggling. ''It was quite funny, actually. They called him 'Chazza.' '' Charlotte Nicholson, an English painter who lives in Brooklyn, said that despite the debatable relevance of the monarchy in this day and age, she finds solace in the ventures to New York. ''I have to say, every time they come, I feel a bit of, 'Ah, England's here,' '' she said. ''Also, I have had Charles's bacon product. It's antibiotic free, as bacon gets. It's very good, actually.''
Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company 1190 of 1258 DOCUMENTS The New York Times
Late Edition - Final Paid Notice: Deaths ZWEIG, SOL SECTION: Section B; Column 3; Classified; Pg. 7 LENGTH: 128 words ZWEIG--Sol, was born in Brooklyn, NY, in 1916, and met Harriet, his beloved wife of 59 years at a USO dance during World War II. Sol served as a captain in Panama after attending City College in New York in the 1930s. He was most fond of the Shelter Rock Tennis Club in Long Island, NY, before settling in Boca Raton, FL. Sol was an entrepreneur, a Grand Mason, a gymnast, an artist and a world traveler. With a sense of humor, he approached life with passion. Sol died Thursday at his home in Boca Raton. He is survived by his son, Peter, his wife, Linda, and granddaughters, Julie and Lea. He was preceded by his wife, Harriet, and his son, Richard. A memorial service will be held on Sunday, January 28, 2007, at 1pm, at the Boca Lago Pines Clubhouse. (561) 479-0493. URL: http://www.nytimes.com SUBJECT: DEATHS & OBITUARIES (91%); ATHLETES (70%); WORLD WAR II (88%) Terms not available from NYTimes ORGANIZATION: LONG ISLAND UNIVERSITY (57%) GEOGRAPHIC: NEW YORK, NY, USA (91%) NEW YORK, USA (94%); FLORIDA, USA (90%) UNITED STATES (94%) LOAD-DATE: January 27, 2007 LANGUAGE: ENGLISH DOCUMENT-TYPE: Paid Death Notice PUBLICATION-TYPE: Newspaper Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company 1191 of 1258 DOCUMENTS The New York Times
Late Edition - Final 'BECKET' BYLINE: By DAVE KEHR SECTION: Section E; PT1; Column 3; Movies, Performing Arts/Weekend Desk; The Listings: Jan. 26-Feb. 1; Pg. 31 LENGTH: 281 words With this year's Oscar contest including a showdown between a lovably dysfunctional family squeezed into a yellow minivan and a pair of undercover agents with peach fuzz on their cheeks and Jack Nicholson on their hands, it is necessary to look to the past for the kind of high-toned entertainment that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences once considered worthy of its awards. Peter Glenville's ''Becket'' was nominated for 12 Oscars in 1965, pitting Peter O'Toole (as a petulant King Henry II, above right) and Richard Burton (as Thomas a Becket, the king's best friend, who takes his patronage job too seriously when he is appointed Archbishop of Canterbury, above left) against each other in the best-actor category. But in the end, only the screenwriter Edward Anhalt went home with a statuette, for adapting Jean Anouilh's internationally successful stage play. Mr. Glenville (''The Comedians'') was no filmmaker, and the only cinematic aspect of the film is the use of Canterbury Cathedral. But when the legendary drinking buddies Burton and Mr. O'Toole get together for their verbal duels, the king's English flows in great, sonorous quantities. ''Becket'' was independently produced, by the veteran Hollywood entrepreneur Hal Wallis (taking a break from his Elvis films) and Mr. O'Toole's own company, and it has been slipping in and out of distribution for years. (VHS copies can still be found on eBay.) But the film has now been acquired by Slowhand Cinema and will open today in a new 35-millimeter print for a one week engagement. (Film Forum, 209 West Houston Street, west of Avenue of the Americas, South Village, 212-727-8110, filmforum.org; $10.50.) DAVE KEHR URL: http://www.nytimes.com SUBJECT: MOVIE REVIEWS (90%); CHRISTIANS & CHRISTIANITY (84%); MOVIE INDUSTRY (78%); DRAMA LITERATURE (76%); MOTOR VEHICLES (73%); RELIGION (69%); FILM (90%); ARTISTS & PERFORMERS (76%); VISUAL & PERFORMING ARTS (76%); BRITISH MONARCHS (75%); PROTESTANTS & PROTESTANTISM (69%); ACTORS & ACTRESSES (76%) Terms not available from NYTimes ORGANIZATION: ACADEMY OF MOTION PICTURE ARTS & SCIENCES (57%) LOAD-DATE: January 26, 2007 Directory: ~hesterj -> Entrepreneur Entrepreneur -> Byline: By armand limnande section: Section mm; Column 0; T: Men's Fashion Magazine; Pg. 76 Length Download 4.36 Mb. Share with your friends:
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