PRECARIOUS WORKERS BRIGADE

Hello Whitechapel Gallery, we notice that you have recently advertised unpaid internships

Hello Whitechapel Gallery,

We notice that you have recently advertised unpaid internships in Design and Production, Publications, and Events under Job Vacancies on your website. In addition, we notice volunteers are currently being recruited to train and work as therapists on the forthcoming ‘Spirit of Utopia’ exhibition. We salute you for taking the time and effort to mentor and train people wanting to work in the arts sector particularly through your paid HLF Traineeships and apprenticeships.

We understand the pressures publicly funded, non-profit arts organisations such as yours are under. However, we are concerned that by not making these internship and volunteer positions paid, only those who can afford to work for free will be able to benefit from these schemes. As internships are becoming more prevalent than graduate jobs, those who are unable to take up these unpaid ‘opportunities’ are less likely to enter the sector. While we recognise that you have put in place time limits, fair advertising, expenses and some ‘in kind’ recompense for this work, such positions nevertheless seem unfair and exclusionary. The positions require applicants who are already skilled in design software, copyright negotiation, marketing, invoicing, and so on. We don’t understand why this work would not be paid?

Arts Council guidelines on Internships in the Arts make a clear distinction between internships and volunteering. Volunteers are not entitled to payment or benefits in kind, and are not classified as workers as there are no contractual obligations (such as designated working times) between the volunteer and the arts organisation. The guidelines stress that the majority of interns are classified as workers and should be paid the National Minimum Wage. We know that it is possible for many arts organisations to avoid legal problems with National Minimum Wage legislation through using the exemption designed for charity volunteers. Surely, however, such weak legal frameworks for our sector do not act as our only ethical guide on such matters?

Like the Whitechapel exhibition the ‘Spirit of Utopia’, we are excited by envisaging other economies, prototyping and imagining another world. Pointing out problems of free labour and trying to do something about it, of course feels rather drab and everyday in comparison. Yet, for us, these two must be connected. The disconnect we live with today reminds us of the oft-quoted Fred Jameson meme, that sometimes it seems easier for us to imagine the end of the world, than doing anything to bring about the end of capitalism. Similiarly, it seems easier for us in the art world to imagine utopias, than figure out how to pay interns and volunteers minimum wage.

There is lots of information out there that might help you develop another approach to working with interns. Here are a few links:

Art Council England’s guidelines Internships in the Arts:

http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/publication_archive/internships-arts
Intern Aware: http://www.internaware.org/about/why-unpaid-internships-are-wrong/
Artquest’s Intern Culture report: http://www.artquest.org.uk/articles/view/intern_culture

The Carrotworkers’ Collective’s Counter Guide to Free Labour in the Arts: http://carrotworkers.wordpress.com/counter-internship-guide/

We would like to flag this up and ask the gallery to consider the ethics of offering unpaid internships and volunteer placements in your organisation.

Thank you for your time and we look forward to hearing from you.

From

Precarious Workers Brigade

Open Letter to Calvert22 from Precarious Workers Brigade

Dear Calvert22,

We notice that you have recently advertised an unpaid gallery volunteer placement for your forthcoming exhibition “…how is it towards the east?”

Whilst we acknowledge that you are aiming to take the time and effort to train young people who want to work in the arts, we are concerned that the tasks described in your volunteer placement sound very much like work that should be paid: ‘invigilating the exhibition’, ‘assisting with Front of House duties’ and ‘working in the Calvert Café’, as well as ‘the option to help out with our diverse talks and events programme’. We are curious as to why this work is not paid? We know that it is possible for arts organisations to avoid legal problems with volunteer positions through using the exemption to the National Minimum Wage legislation designed for charities. We would hope however, that such weak legal frameworks for our sector do not act as our only ethical guide on such matters.

We are concerned that by not paying people to carry out these jobs, only those who can afford to work for free will be able to benefit from your placement scheme: such placements contribute to producing a cultural sector in London that is increasingly reserved for the privileged. Surely such exclusionary employment practices are in direct contradiction of your constitution as a charity, and to the Foundation’s stated mission of connecting the gallery to histories of political radicalism and activism in the local area of East End? We also note that the exhibition ‘examines modes of self-organisation’ focusing on the histories of those on the left who have struggled for worker’s rights, specifically on the 1st May 1886, when they called for 8-hour working day – a date which coincides with the opening of the exhibition. We find that the use of unpaid labour in this context to be particularly paradoxical.

Furthermore, we note from your website, Calvert 22’s partnership with VTB Capital.  Whilst we find there to be an incredible contradiction between your partnership with the investment banking sector, and the stated aims of artistic programmes such as the “…how is it towards the east?” we would at least hope that these kinds of partnerships would ensure that everyone who works on the programme is paid at least a Minimum Wage.

We raise these issues with you, not to single out Calvert 22 for such practices, but as our friends at Artleaks have succinctly expressed, to draw attention to concrete situations that:

”[…] underscore the precarious condition of cultural workers, and the necessity for sustained protest against the appropriation of politically engaged art, culture and theory by institutions embedded in a tight mesh of capital and power.’

Like Artleaks, we are concerned that:

“By co-opting cultural activity, these sponsors obtain social credibility, which they then proceed to mis-use: by refusing decent conditions for cultural workers through oppressive measures – the same workers whose labor makes their subsistence possible.” 

The normalisation of practices of free labour through volunteer positions such as this, contributes to a situation where it is acceptable to abstractly question the role of sponsorship and free labour on panel discussions, but unacceptable to concretely act against them. Volunteers, speakers and artists are often subtly frozen out of the sector if they challenge this non-payment or under-payment, and thus feel coerced to prop up the system further.

We have been organising around issues of free labour and precarity in the arts and culture for several years, analysing corporate cynicism and the increasingly intense contradictions in our sector. In this climate of enforced austerity, brought about by investment banks, we encounter over and over again a culture of resignation and silence in art schools and art institutions. Do programmes such as “…how is it towards the east?” simply perpetuate the damaging paradox of providing a subject of discussion that is clearly not to be acted upon? Do they not in effect, simply add to this silencing? We wonder what Calvert 22 want to achieve in this exhibition and programme, what the motivations of the foundation are? We wonder what position the foundation wants to take in relation to its own workers, its own work culture and the community in which it is situated? 

There are many guidelines available today that might help you develop a new and more equitable approach to work. Please see the links below: 

Art Council England’s guidelines Internships in the Arts: http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/publication_archive/internships-arts

Counter Guide to Free Labour in the Arts: http://carrotworkers.wordpress.com/counter-internship-guide/

Intern Aware: http://www.internaware.org/about/why-unpaid-internships-are-wrong/

Artquest’s Intern Culture report: http://www.artquest.org.uk/articles/view/intern_culture

Interns: Volunteer or Employee? volunteernow.co.uk/news/item/61

We would like to ask the foundation to consider the ethics of offering unpaid volunteer placements in your organisation, and to hear your response to this open letter.

With best regards,

Precarious Workers Brigade

precariousworkersbrigade.tumblr.com

The cleaners at the Barbican step up the campaign for fair wages and occupy and bring the sound of resistance to the Barbican!

IWGB vs. MITIE, Barbican Centre and Corporation of London.
(David vs. Goliath/Goliat)

We began with negotiations. We then moved to protests. We then organised the first strike in the history of the Barbican Centre on 21st March 2013. Then we organised the first occupation in the history of the Barbican Centre yesterday, 27th April 2013. It can all be over if the Barbican, MITIE the cleaning contractor, and the Corporation of London, the boss of it all, stop treating the cleaners like the dirt they clean and start treating them with respect and pay them a fair wage. Meanwhile, we’ll be back as many times as we have to be until we get justice.

(source: Cleaners Branch, https://www.facebook.com/cleaners.branch)

Curzon cinema workers are organising - please support!

“Short staffed and short-changed, the young workers propping up these cinemas are stagnating on poverty wages and zero-hour contracts. They man the box offices, staff the bars, clean the screens, support Q&As and cash up – but they can’t afford the wasabi peas they serve. On £6.62 an hour, it would take them the best part of two days to afford a bottle of one of the finer wines behind their counters.

But now there is something of a revolution underway. Just as interesting as any film showing is the story of how these workers are starting to get organised. Almost half of all staff – about thirty workers - have joined the Bectu union in the last few months.”

read the full article here: http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2013/03/no-spirit-45-workers-liberal-intelligentsias-favourite-cinemas

SIGN THE PETITON:

http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/curzon-cinemas-pay-workers-the-london-living-wage-and-recognise-their-union-membership

OPEN CALL! to current interns, volunteers and casual workers…

Open Call by RAGPICKERS:

Intern Aware’s new campaign: Write for your Rights

Intern Aware (www.internaware.org) are launching a new campaign drive, and need help:

The problem: National Minimum Wage legislation means that most unpaid internships are illegal, but HMRC (whose job it is to enforce this law) are not doing their job when it comes to interns. Employers get away with not paying their interns because the government is not doing enough to prevent this happening.

The solution: ‘Write for your Rights’ - By writing to your local MP you can help us persuade the government that this is an issue that needs to be addressed as a matter of priority. We want MPs to write to HMRC themselves to ask them to do their job when it comes to interns.

It’s effective, and it’s easy – we’ve even written template letters for you: http://www.internaware.org/write-for-your-rights

Check out the Anti-Raids Network’s new and improved website

PWB has been working with the Anti-Raids Network, which now has a new and improved website: Know Your Rights cards translated into 14 languages, What to do in case you witness a raid, coverage of the recent raids and info on how to get involved. Spread the word! https://network23.org/antiraids/

A version of the Know your Rights card has been seen plastered on walls in South London:

Solidarity with the cleaners at the Barbican and British Library on strike today!

Demonstration at 1pm, Barbican, Silk Street, 21 March 2013

via https://www.facebook.com/events/434654463282879/

The Industrial Workers of Great Britain (IWGB) which represents the 32 cleaners at the Barbican Centre has called its members on strike on Thursday 21st March 2013.

The cleaners at the Barbican are employed by the sub-contractor MITIE, and are paid a mere £6.19 per hour – they are campaigning for the London Living Wage of £8.55 per-hour.

The Barbican is Europe’s largest integrated arts centre. Owned by the Corporation of London it is the home for the London Symphony Orchestra. The strength of feeling of the cleaners was shown in the strike ballot which saw a 71% turn out with a 100% yes vote - not a single person voted against going on strike.

Since 2012 the cleaners have been campaigning for the Living Wage, demanding respect and dignity at work. Starting work at 05:30am the cleaners have complained of abuse by their management – citing behaviour towards them that is often ‘offensive, intimidating, malicious and insulting’. The IWGB has undertaken an Employment Tribunal of one pregnant cleaner whose ill-treatment was such she was conveyed to hospital after being found collapsed, bleeding in the toilets.

The City of London Corporation revealed in December 2012 that its ‘City Cash’ account holds more than £1.3 billion – ‘for the benefit of London as a whole’. In stark contrast the Corporation states the Barbican cleaners must to wait until 2014 before ‘we’ll apply our pro-LLW policy to that contract’. MITIE the giant facilities company who have the contract are also not short of money to pay the cleaners - announcing their operating profit soared to £52.9 million at the end of 2012

Despite on-going efforts at ACAS the IWGB has not yet made progress to achieve justice for the cleaners. Strike action will begin on polling day for the City of London Common Councilmen elections; it is also the day of the Music Education Expo conference for music teachers at the Barbican Centre.

Hello Chisenhale Gallery, we notice that you have recently advertised unpaid internship positions - and their response:

From: Isabelle Hancock <isabelle.hancock@chisenhale.org.uk>
Date: Mon, 25 Feb 2013 
To: Precarious Workers Brigade <precariousworkersbrigade@aktivix.org>
Subject: RE: unpaid internships

Dear Precarious Workers Brigade,

Thanks for your email. We are of course acutely aware of the ethical problems surrounding unpaid internships, and we are already working towards changing our systems. We have been reviewing our options over the past few months and are planning to implement paid Traineeships (1 year training posts paid at London Living Wage) for the next financial year. These will replace our current Exhibitions & Events and Offsite & Education Internships and will come into effect when the current intern positions end at the end of April / beginning of May 2013.

We have also recently taken part in Art Quest’s paid internship programme - we hosted an intern paid at a rate of £9 per hour for three months last Autumn and we are considering taking part in the second year of this scheme which will launch this coming summer.

All the best,
Isabelle

—
Isabelle Hancock
Gallery Manager
+44 (0) 20 3328 1963

Chisenhale Gallery
64 Chisenhale Road
London E3 5QZ
+44 (0) 20 8981 4518

————————————————————

Hello Chisenhale Gallery,

We notice that you have recently advertised unpaid internship positions.

We understand the pressures publicly funded, non-profit arts organisations such as yours are under.

We salute you for taking the time and effort to mentor and train people wanting to work in the arts sector.

However, we are concerned that by not paying people, only those who can afford to work for free will be able to benefit from your internship scheme. As internships are becoming more prevalent than graduate jobs, those who are unable to take up these unpaid ‘opportunities’ are less likely to enter the sector.

This seems unfair and exclusionary. Demonstrating such unfair employment practices also seems to contradict your constitution as a charitable trust. We wanted to flag this up and ask you to consider the ethics of offering unpaid internships in your organisation.

There’s lots of information out there that might help you develop a new and more equitable approach to working with interns. Here are a few links:

Art Council England’s guidelines Internships in the Arts: http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/publication_archive/internships-arts
The Carrotworkers’ Collective’s Counter Guide to Free Labour in the Arts: http://carrotworkers.wordpress.com/counter-internship-guide/
Intern Aware: http://www.internaware.org/about/why-unpaid-internships-are-wrong/
Artquest’s Intern Culture report: 
http://www.artquest.org.uk/articles/view/intern_culture

From
Precarious Workers Brigade
precariousworkersbrigade.tumblr.com

The Devil Pays Nada: Interns to protest at London Fashion Week

Friday 15th of February
9:30 am
Outside the Strand entrance of Somerset House
 
Students, interns and campaigners will assemble with banners and ‘Pay your Interns’ printed tote bags and t-shirts. This will coincide with the start of London Fashion Week. Representatives of Intern Aware and the University of the Arts London Students’ Union will be available for interviews.
 
On Friday 15th February campaigners will mark the start of London Fashion Week with a demonstration about the growing use of unpaid interns in the fashion industry. This has been organised in conjunction with fair internship campaigners internationally who demonstrated at New York Fashion Week.
 
Intern Aware and University of the Arts London Students’ Union will hand out ‘Pay Your Interns’ tote bags at Somerset House. Interns and campaigners will gather for a photo-opportunity at 9:30am with their bags, and interviews will be available.
 
The bags will contain information for interns about their working rights, information about Intern Aware’s ‘Claim Back Your Pay’ scheme, a guide written by the University of the Arts London Students’ Union, a ‘Bust Your Boss’ card from the Precarious Workers Brigade, and a letter written by Libby Page, a former unpaid fashion intern who now campaigns for fairer internships schemes.
 
In 2011 HMRC began an enforcement drive of National Minimum Wage legislation, warning fashion houses showing at London Fashion Week that they could face prison if they refused to pay their interns. Yet despite this warning HMRC has taken little action and unpaid labour is still widespread. From interns working in the industry, we have heard of placements at designers including Vivienne Westwood, Christopher Kane, Todd Lynn and Peter Pilotto taking place in 2012 and 2013, still unpaid. We spoke to a design student recently who spoke of an unpaid placement at Alexander McQueen (a label who shows in Paris but whose designer, Sarah Burton, and team are based in London) where the interns slept on the floor underneath the workshop table.
 
As all eyes turn to London’s fashion scene, the Devil Pays Nada campaign will bring the issue to the forefront of the event.

https://www.facebook.com/events/465414620180802/

Follow up letter to the SLG with regards to their unpaid internship programme and director Margot Heller’s response to us

[find our initial letter and SLG director Margot Heller’s response to it below]

Dear Margot Heller,

Thank you for your response on February 5th. We are very pleased to hear that you have been reviewing your internship and volunteer opportunities at South London Gallery. We would like to know what the outcome of that review process has been, and the steps you will be taking to address the Arts Council’s guidelines on paying interns.

The tasks described in your recent internship advertisement sound very like work to us: maintaining the SLG’s online presence; managing press cuttings; collating statistics; assisting at private views and special events; conducting research and giving general administrative support. We are curious as to why this work is not paid?

Unpaid positions like this automatically exclude young people and recent graduates who cannot afford to work for free. As the cost of living in London rises and student debt mounts up, we are looking at a cultural sector that will be increasingly reserved for the privileged. This is surely in direct contradiction to your aim to work with ‘people from a broad range of backgrounds’.

We know that it is possible for arts organisations to avoid legal problems with internship positions by avoiding naming previous work experience as a necessity, by steering clear of language that implies definitions of work through obligation, and through using the exemption to the National Minimum Wage legislation for organisations with charitable status. We would hope however, that such weak legal frameworks for our sector do not act as our only ethical guide on such matters.  

We look forward to hearing your reponse.

Best wishes,

PWB

———————————————————————————————————

From: Margot <Margot@southlondongallery.org>
Date: 5 February 2013 16:25:18 GMT
To: Precarious Workers Brigade <precariousworkersbrigade@aktivix.org>
Subject: RE: unpaid internships

Thank you for your email of 1 February.
 
We are aware of the issues you have raised and had already been reviewing our internship and volunteer opportunities, particularly in light of the publication of the Arts Council England guidelines on internships in the arts. We take pride in being a good employer, and in providing training and work experience opportunities to people from a broad range of backgrounds, so take these matters very seriously.
 
Kind regards,
 
Margot Heller


Margot Heller
Director
SOUTH LONDON GALLERY
65-67 Peckham Road
London SE5 8UH

T: +44 (0)20 7703 6120
F: +44 (0)20 7252 4730
www.southlondongallery.org

———————————————————————————————————

here’s the email we had sent them:

Read More

We’re in the process of updating our ‘Alternative Curriculum’ - contributions welcome!

We are in the process of reviewing and updating our ‘Training for Exploitation? Towards an Alternative Curriculum’ resource pack (published in May 2012), for use by teachers and students to address free and precarious labour in arts/design and the creative industries.

We feel that we need to review it in order to address some of the recent developments, such as the increasingly mandatory internships as part of HE degree programmes, the noticeable semantic shift from ‘internship’ to ‘volunteering’, as well as newly established campaigns around unpaid work. We also wish to include material and resources that are relevant to specific segments of the creative sector, for example the media, fashion, …

Contributions to the new pack in any form (eg feedback on what’s there, tools, material and experiences from lecturers teaching professional practice in a critical way, informative statistics, interesting examples of alternative practices, ideas and anecdotes from students and recent graduates…) are most welcome! Please contact us at: precariousworkersbrigade@aktivix.org

We are hoping to publish the updated resource pack in a few months time.

Another day, another unpaid internship ad - this time at the very place that had invited us to hold our People’s Tribunal on Precarity - the ICA! Hello ICA - remember us? :) We notice that you have recently advertised an unpaid internship.

Hello ICA - remember us* :)

We notice that you have recently advertised an unpaid internship.

We understand the pressures publicly funded, non-profit arts organisations such as yours are under.

We salute you for taking the time and effort to mentor and train people wanting to work in the arts sector.

However, we are concerned that by not paying people, only those who can afford to work for free will be able to benefit from your internship scheme. As internships are becoming more prevalent than graduate jobs, those who are unable to take up these unpaid ‘opportunities’ are less likely to enter the sector.

We notice that your internship offer is only for students in further or higher education. The Arts Council guidelines on internships states that:
“students undertaking internships outside of their course (for example, in their holidays) are entitled to the national minimum wage if they fulfill ‘worker’ status, just as with any other individual”.

Many students already have to work in order to support themselves through college or university, so your offer will still be more accessible to those who can afford to work for free.

This seems unfair and exclusionary. Demonstrating such unfair employment practices also seems to contradict your constitution as a charitable trust.

We wanted to flag this up and ask you to consider the ethics of offering unpaid internships in your organisation.

There is lots of information out there that might help you develop a new and more equitable approach to working with interns. Here are a few links:

Art Council England’s guidelines Internships in the Arts: http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/publication_archive/internships-arts
The Carrotworkers’ Collective’s Counter Guide to Free Labour in the Arts?: http://carrotworkers.wordpress.com/counter-internship-guide/
Intern Aware: http://www.internaware.org/about/why-unpaid-internships-are-wrong/
Artquest’s Intern Culture report: http://www.artquest.org.uk/articles/view/intern_culture

From
Precarious Workers Brigade
precariousworkersbrigade.tumblr.com

*http://www.ica.org.uk/?lid=28789=

Old/new Carrotworkers’ Collective text: ON FREE LABOUR

ON FREE LABOUR
Carrotworkers’ Collective

Oncurating.org 024 Issue # 16/13 : THE PRECARIOUS LABOUR IN THE FIELD OF ART

Free Labour, Enforced Education and Precarity: an initial reflection, 2009

Situated in a broader debate around the condition of precarity, the context for our analysis of free labour is around two trends in Europe:

1. The Bologna process proposition to validate and standardise lifelong, lifewide and ‘flexible’ learning, and

2. The European Union language promoting ‘occupation’ rather than ‘employment’, marking a subtle but interesting semantic shift towards keeping the active population ‘busy’ rather than trying to create jobs.

The figure of the intern appears in this context paradigmatic as it negotiates the collapse of the boundaries between Education, Work and Life. Like Tiziana Terranova suggested in her analysis of free labour in digital media, we must conceive of free labour, internships, volunteer work not as a separate sphere of activity but as condition of late capitalist cultural economy. While Schneider, the inventor of cooperative programmes in the U.S.A. (the first structured university programmes combining secondary education with practical work experience) referred to them as ‘the people pipeline’, now, we might say with Magritte – Ceci n’est pas une pipe!

Read More