It’s no secret that labor solidarity is in the air. From the Trader Joe’s union initiatives on the Lower East Side to the protests on streets of Paris, collective action is bringing about a global reckoning regarding everyday people and their economic survival. A general buzz reverberated among design students as footage of protesters storming LVMH headquarters on April 13 went viral. But our connection to collective action runs far deeper than these recent headlines; even at The New School, surface-level conversations about equity are blatantly overshadowed by a pervading attitude that design students should simply shoulder exploitation, low pay, and exhaustion as inevitable parts of the industry. Instead of passively accepting this reality, young designers have everything to gain if we can recognize ourselves as a key part of the global labor struggle unfolding today.

Wage theft is incredibly common in the United States. According to the Economic Policy Institute, wage theft – both reported and unreported – could amount to as much as 50 billion dollars every year, dwarfing the amount of money stolen in other crimes such as robbery and scams. The fashion industry is far from innocent in this phenomenon. Ask any design student to tell you a horror story related to working in the fashion industry, or any creative career for that matter. The extent of exploitation will quickly reveal itself. This exploitation, however surprising to those outside the art world, is completely naturalized in our own communities. 

Design students rely upon one another to learn which employers will actually treat them with dignity, and even this personal discourse is typically regarded as taboo. A few exceptions have gained notoriety in recent years. In March of 2017, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen were ordered to compensate 185 interns who allegedly endured excessively long hours, unfair workloads, and emotional abuse without pay. In 2014, a class-action lawsuit regarding wage theft caused Condé Nast to end its internship program. While these cases set a legal precedent, the payouts fail to get at the root cause of the issue – a general hush-hush attitude shrouding all aspects of workers’ rights in the world of design. Even when opportunities such as school credits are made available, many students find themselves caught in a lose-lose dilemma. 

Most students’ ideal time to acquire an internship and avoid an unsightly gap in their résumé is over the summer, which at The New School, as well as nearly every other college and university, counts as a separate semester with separate credits. Because of this, students may work under the table– that is, unpaid and without the university’s explicit knowledge– in order to avoid tuition fees. Some employers, however, require university approval in order to prove their compliance with New York labor regulations. For students working for said employers who want to avoid paying summer tuition or other fees, the situation becomes even more unnavigable.

According to The New School’s Internships page, these students “still need to pay a registration fee to register a zero-credit internship,” meaning they are paying money to the school to work for a third party. If one were curious as to exactly how much this would cost, the internship page advises students to “visit the Fees and Billing webpage and/or consult with your academic advisor on your specific situation.” The Fees and Billing page conveniently mentions neither internships nor registration fees. Rather than creating an easy system to apply credits to our overall degree progress, academic institutions such as The New School use summer work experience as an opportunity to expropriate even more money from a group of students that already puts forth an egregious volume of unpaid labor.

For the average design student, work outside of paid contracts is extremely common for not just employers but also for personal development, involving countless hours and dollars spent on projects, competitions, and career advancement that the New School encourages but rarely subsidizes. Investigation into other schools’ internship programs shows that the status quo can be changed. The School of Visual Art’s internship program, for example, allows students in most cases to obtain a tuition waiver and still receive academic credit. The disconnect between The New School’s social justice branding and its current labor policy poses an urgent question: how can design students organize for change?

Major wins for university-employed workers have swept the country in recent months. At Dartmouth College, student workers recently won 50% pay increases as well as paid COVID-19 sick leave, while those at Grinnell College became the first fully-unionized campus in the nation as of April 2022. These movements aren’t reserved only for those with an interest in labor economics or politics. Art and design students across the country stand to directly benefit from these changes. At The New School, mobilization is just beginning to include undergraduate employees who fall outside the “academic” realm.

The New Student Workers Union (NewSWU) is currently in the process of mobilizing by holding public events, publishing student worker testimonials, and distributing union cards. This group seeks to unite students employed by all university departments, from research assistants to TA’s to Making Center technicians and more. These are highly specialized roles that require in-depth knowledge of art, design, and the technology required to produce it. This labor- particularly that of student technicians- is necessary in order for Parsons School of Design labs to run smoothly. These students not only contribute to the school in the form of tuition payments, but also as skilled workers whose labor is used to supplement the very majors that are seen as nothing more than revenue streams by upper administrators. They deserve a say in their own treatment as well as how this institution is run.

In light of recent austerity measures proposed by the university’s upper administration, how will these workers fight for fair tuition prices and a livable wage? Organized labor is about far more than just about politics. It’s about knowing your value as a member of your workplace. By allowing students across the university’s various colleges to band together under one organization, NewSWU could turn the value of hundreds of individuals into collective, leverageable power. Put to use, this power could result in tangible financial benefits for workers and a decisive, labor-oriented voice for the student body. Furthermore, design students who attend a university with organizations similar to New SWU will know what an equitable workplace looks like and will be able to bring the DNA of labor solidarity to their future industry careers. Even now, opportunities to change the real-world landscape of design careers- particularly fashion- are within students’ grasp.

The Fashion Workers Act was initially proposed last year in the New York State Senate. The legislation, which was stalled in last year’s session but is still pushed by activists throughout the city, could represent a massive shift in how creatives are treated. If passed, this bill would require any agencies mediating modeling, styling, hair, makeup, and media production to be registered with the Department of Labor. According to data from Fashion United, New York Fashion Week typically generates more money than Paris, Milan, and London combined. The fashion industry accounts for 6 percent of New York City’s total workforce. This workforce is one where many New School and Parsons students will enter after they graduate. It’s one of many predatory industries, grossly underpaying talent and providing dubious contracts. Currently, agencies in the state of New York are not even legally required to provide creatives with a personal copy of their contracts or agreements. 

The Fashion Workers Act would also ensure essential protections guaranteed by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which safeguards employees against discrimination on the basis of race, ethnicity, and sex. This bill, while offering protections considered rudimentary in other professions, is truly a step towards a better future for fashion. It is imperative to hold discussions regarding this legislation and wholeheartedly put forth our best efforts in terms of canvassing, petitioning, and organizing. Out of countless panels, events, and community news emails distributed by The New School, none cover the Fashion Workers Act, despite the coverage it has received from news outlets such as Business of Fashion. In fact, not a single one of the talks offered by The New School this semester included integrated discussions of workers’ rights and fashion design (or any design discipline for that matter). This separation of design discussions from labor activism must be bridged if up-and-coming artists truly want to change the industry.

Organized labor is all about fostering support among members of a common profession. Too often young designers are taught to compete ruthlessly against each other rather than build networks to band together against abuse. Rather than priming us for inherently antagonistic competition, design school should encourage us to think about radically creative and interpersonal bonds. If we start taking organized labor seriously in this stage of our careers, we will be infinitely more equipped to deal with real-world issues we face in our professional lives. Designers who know how to use collective power and how to envision a less destructive industry overall, will develop this knowledge starting now. Being wrongly taught that labor is outside of the designer’s jurisdiction or irrelevant to artists robs us of our autonomy. Even more regrettable, it robs us of our most powerful tool – our imaginative power to build something better.