Intern Labor Rights meets next on Sunday, April 28 at 5:30pm at Goethe Institut’s Wyoming Building in NYC: 5 East 3rd Street (at the Bowery). We’ll be in their storefront space. Anyone is welcome to join! Email us at intern.labor.rights@gmail.com if you have any questions.
NYU: Stop Posting Illegal Unpaid Internships!
NYU petition to end #unpaidinternships! Sign with your nyu.edu email address (if you have one). Seeking 1000 signatures by next Friday, May 3: http://bit.ly/10xvwcq If a university changes its position because of a student-led campaign like this it would be major news and could catch on elsewhere, so spread the word! #InternRightsNYU #InternLabor
Roberta’s: Pay Your Interns!
April 12, 2013
To Whom It May Concern at Roberta’s,
It has recently come to the public’s—and our—attention that your company solicited for free labor via an ad on Craigslist, specifically for labor to provide value to the restaurant by working in your garden (“Urban Farm looking for Intern”). As the public’s response and press attention no doubt illustrate, this has touched a nerve with many, certainly not least because of how this runs counter to the brand image Roberta’s has cultivated of promoting economic vitality in the community. It probably felt natural to draw on associations of urban gardening with true community-owned and -managed gardens, gardens that exist because of the sweat and toil of neighborhood volunteers, gardens which are not privately owned, but owned by the people, recognized as part of a commons so often lost to privatization and the forces of gentrification.
We invite you to reconsider the factors that apparently have led you to initiate an employment relationship that is likely in violation of state and federal minimum wage laws. And not only that: We call on you to cease employing unpaid interns—implicitly relying on their low power status to keep them from filing legal claims for the wages they may be due by law—and to make a public statement denouncing the widespread practice of employers profiting from the valuable work performed by unpaid interns.
We presume that your initial decision was not rooted in a conscious disregard for the law or the ethics underlying it, but rather that Roberta’s shares the common yet mistaken understanding that if labor is provided by an employee called an “intern” and that employee will learn something new, there is no legal or ethical requirement to compensate or treat that worker as any other employee.
But the situation is not quite so simple. In 2010 the U.S. Department of Labor published Fact Sheet #71: Internship Programs Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, “to help determine whether interns must be paid the minimum wage and overtime under the Fair Labor Standards Act for the services that they provide to ‘for-profit’ private sector employers.” It states, in part:
If an employer uses interns as substitutes for regular workers or to augment its existing workforce during specific time periods, these interns should be paid at least the minimum wage and overtime compensation for hours worked over forty in a workweek. If the employer would have hired additional employees or required existing staff to work additional hours had the interns not performed the work, then the interns will be viewed as employees and entitled compensation under the FLSA.
By this measure, your advertisement would appear to be for a position that is not in compliance with the law. And yet, violation of this law is not the limit of our concern. We oppose the widespread use of free labor guised as “internships” for a number of reasons, including that it:
- Contributes to unemployment and inequality
- Denies opportunity to those who cannot afford to work for free
- Reduces diversity of race and class in the workforce by relying on structural privilege
- Erodes workplace protections, including against sexual harassment and racial discrimination
- Devalues the dignity of work
- Creates downward pressure on the wages of workers who have to compete with free labor
- Promotes the accumulation of wealth by some through the uncompensated work of others
- Produces a culture of self-denigration
The price of your food and the clientele it brings have already been catalysts for gentrification in the area. Your decision to deny fair compensation to all the labor needed to run your business exacerbates this problem, excluding low-income residents from the opportunity to participate in the local workforce, further pushing them out of their own community. As a presumptive valuable force in the neighborhood, Roberta’s can transform this unwelcome turn in the spotlight to its advantage by reversing its position on this practice and by publicly taking a stand to respect the residents of its community, as well as the labor and hard work that helps it thrive. We look forward to seeing your support for the return to a more sustainable and healthier labor market.
Another world is possible,
Intern Labor Rights
Intern Advocacy Groups Target Fashion Week 2013
[New York/London] March 4, 2013 - In a series of back-to-back actions at the New York and London Fashion Weeks (February 7-19, 2013), activists from Intern Labor Rights (New York), SUARTS (the Student Union of the University of Arts London) and Intern Aware (London) collaborated to campaign for fair, paid internships within the fashion industry.
The actions were met by extensive press coverage and commentary (see below for links).
“Devil Pays Nada” campaign activists bring their “Pay Your Interns” tote bags to Somerset House in Aldwych, London during London Fashion Week, February 15, 2013.
In New York, Intern Labor Rights modeled its action on the common fashion industry practice of handing out promotional “swag bags.” The group prepared hundreds of such bags containing robin-blue boxes inside of which were “Pay Your Interns” buttons, paper slips with campaign-relevant Twitter hashtags and “What’s Wrong with Unpaid Internships?” flyers. The bags were distributed outside shows at both the main Fashion Week tent at Lincoln Center and in the Chelsea arts district. “Frankly, I was expecting lame pantyhose or maybe chapstick or something when I opened the box,” wrote Fashionista.com blogger Tyler McCall, “Instead, there was a pin that read “Pay Your Interns” and some folded up literature about why unpaid internships are wrong and how you can get involved in the movement.”
Activists from Intern Labor Rights performing a “‘Pay Your Interns’ Swag Bag Drop” at the Kenneth Cole show in Manhattan’s Chelsea Arts District, February 8, 2013.
According to Chloe Wyma at Blouin artinfo.com, “The most common criticism of Occupy Wall Street is that it lacked a coherent ideological program and tangible objectives. But the goals of Action Against Unpaid Internships are straightforward. Coupling high-level litigation with grass-roots advocacy, they aim to end the epidemic of unpaid internships once and for all.” (Intern Labor Rights is a subgroup of Arts & Labor, a working group that formed during Occupy Wall Street.)
In London, the “Devil Pays Nada” campaign orchestrated by SUARTS, working alongside Intern Aware created hundreds of “Pay Your Intern” tote bags that they filled with a variety of materials advocating for fair, paid internships and information for interns on their working rights and the National Minimum Wage legislation. The bags were distributed at Somerset House in Aldwych, London, to guests of the events. “We underestimated the popularity of the totes,” says organizer Fairooz Aniqa, “We ran out incredibly fast, and the bags were extremely popular not just with the interns working (for free) at the event, but also with people who owned their own businesses and worked in senior positions in various fashion houses. We have built up a great momentum and this is now a topic on everybodys lips, and it is essential that we keep pressuring employers to reconsider their use of unpaid interns.”
SUARTS and Intern Aware activists making their point at London Fashion Week, February 15, 2013
“The campaign has collated information from students and fashion websites to gain evidence of free work schemes at leading design houses,” wrote Vanessa Thorpe in the Guardian’s Observer webpage. “One design student told Intern Aware of an unpaid placement with a famous label, partly based in London, where the interns slept under the workshop table.”
In the midst of these outreach actions in New York and London, former unpaid intern Dajia Davenport filed suit for back wages from a major fashion world player, Elite Model Management, a modeling agency that has represented figures such as Cindy Crawford and Gisele Bundchen. The potential class action suit was filed in a Manhattan federal court on February 15, 2013 and if successful could reach $50 million in damages.
Declaring the Fashion Week actions a clear success in the campaign for fair, paid internships, Intern Labor Rights, SUARTS and Intern Aware will be working together to coordinate future campaigns in culture-producing industries.
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“Pay Your Interns” Swag Bags prepared for New York Fashion Week 2013.
The following groups have committed to supporting each other in the global fight to end unpaid internships:
Canadian Intern Association
Génération Précaire (Paris)
Geneva Interns Association
Hague Interns Association
Intern Aware (London)
Intern Labor Rights (New York City & Washington, DC)
Precarious Workers Brigade (London)
Students’ Union of University of the Arts London
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Selected Press:
“Occupy Movement To Protest Unpaid Internships At Fashion Week”
Buzzfeed.com, Amy Odell, January 31, 2013
“Occupy Wall Street Takes on Unpaid Internships, Will Protest at NYFW”
Fashionista.com, Dhani Mau, February 1, 2013
“‘The Devil Pays Nada’: Occupy Wall Street Protests Intern Abuse in Fashion”
Blouin artinfo.com, Chloe Wyma, February 7, 2013
“Occupy Wall Street Protesters Giving Out ‘Free Samples’ At Fashion Week”
Fashionista.com, Tyler McCall, February 8, 2013
“#devilpaysnada : les stagiaires piratent la Fashion Week”
L’Express, Le Boulevardiers, lilzeon, February 8, 2013
“#devilspaynada : interns vs fashion ancient elites”
hit-bag.com, February 8, 2013
“London fashion week demonstration will highlight plight of industry’s unpaid interns”
The Guardian (The Observer), Vanessa Thorpe, February 9, 2013
“Swag bag message to NY Fashion Week attendees: ‘Pay Your Interns’”
Minding the Workplace, David Yamada, February 13, 2013
“Unpaid Internships Are a Rich-Girl Problem—and Also a Real Problem”
The Atlantic, Phoebe Maltz Bovy, February 13, 2013
http://www.nrc.nl/carriere/2013/02/20/vandaag-in-het-katern-carriere-the-devil-pays-nada/
NRC Next magazine, Netherlands, Alex van der Hulst, February 20, 2013
Press Release: NY Fashion Week
Attention Press and Public
Intern Labor Rights (New York), SUARTS (the Student Union of the University of Arts London) and Intern Aware (London) have come together in mutual support and solidarity. We invite your attention and critical eye to the widespread use of illegally unpaid workers in the fashion industry. This rampant wage theft, international in scope, is now being met with an international response:
In anticipation of our one-year anniversary, Intern Labor Rights is lovingly preparing hundreds of Intern Swag Bags to be given out at Fashion Week events over the February 8–10, 2013, weekend. To get your hands on an Intern Swag Bag, or to help us distribute, email us at intern.labor.rights@gmail.com and find out where we’ll be during the weekend. To track our progress follow #devilpaysnada and #payinterns on Twitter, or find us on Facebook.
And to join in the fight for what’s right, to insist that those who profit from labor pay for its worth, to make your voice heard… email us and find out when and where our next weekly meeting will be, or join our group on Facebook.
Intern Labor Rights is supported in the New York Fashion Show “Pay Your Interns” initiative by SUARTS and Intern Aware, who are making London Fashion Week plans as part of the long-running and successful “Devil Pays Nada” campaign.
The following groups have committed to supporting each other in the global fight to end unpaid internships:
Canadian Intern Association • Génération Précaire (Paris)
Geneva Interns Association • Hague Interns Association • Intern Aware (London)
Intern Labor Rights (New York City & Washington, DC)
Precarious Workers Brigade (London) • Students’ Union of University of the Arts London
PDF of the Press Release:
