PART ONE

“There’s only a few ways to go about art handlers getting fair rights, it’s not using the old school way of getting off a bus with baseball bats and axe handles. The power is in collective bargaining. And the way to have that power - is to have solidarity between art handlers.” Shane Caffrey, AHA-NY. As the people who make the art world happen, our working situations are not always great. Sometimes pay is unfair. We don’t always get paid when we’re promised, or even at all. We work long and irregular hours, health and safety regulations are often optional, and benefits such as overtime, holiday or sick pay are few and far between. And then to top it all off we are often not recognised for the work we do - we are the invisible magic fairies of the art and artefact world. The Art Handlers Alliance of New York http://www.arthandlersalliance.org/ (AHA-NY – no relation to the band) decided to do something about it and created the ground breaking Art Handlers’ Bill of Rights. ATS spoke to Stephen Sewell and Shane Caffrey from AHA-NY about the Art Handlers' Bill of Rights and why you should sign it. Over the next few days we’ll be posting about how the Sotheby’s and the Occupy Wall Street movement created the conditions for AHA-NY to be born, as well as their excellent work to develop the Art Handlers’ Bill of Rights - what Stephen Sewell describes as “a fact sheet for what you should receive if you are working as an art handler - what you should be getting as a minimum”.

PART TWO

Welcome to the second part of our four part series on the Art Handlers Alliance of New York1 and their ground breaking work to develop the Art Handlers’ Bill of Rights. ATS spoke to Stephen Sewell and Shane Caffrey from AHA-NY. Who are the Art Handlers Alliance of New York? Shane Caffrey explains: We’re a small group of self-funded, proactive people who come together to champion the working rights and conditions of art handlers. We actively promote solidarity among Freelance, Contract, & Union Labor, and we’re NYC centric because New York City is a hub of employment in the industry. As a group AHA-NY had an interesting beginning. The seeds of AHA-NY were first sewn in 2011 when the unionised art handlers at Sotheby’s, the Sotheby’s Teamsters (Professional Art Handlers Local 814), were locked out for 10 months. In case you missed it - the lockout started when Sotheby’s planned to cut the number of full time, unionised art handlers and replace them with poorly-paid, untrained workers. And then a month after the Sotheby’s lockout started, Occupy Wall Street protest movement kicked off - helping to draw further attention and energy to labour struggles and inequality amongst workers. Stephen Sewell: “You had people in Wall Street picketing about income inequality, and then on the Upper East Side there were art handlers outside Sotheby’s who are protesting the fact that they’re losing their working conditions while the company had made a record in profits for that year”. 📷 During the lockout Sotheby’s Teamsters led visible and often disruptive protests, inside and outside Sotheby’s - and made what had been a very invisible workforce, a very visible one. They made public the unacceptable conditions some art handlers were working under and sparked wider discussions about income and equality in art handling. And so the combination of the very public labour struggle at Sotheby’s and the support for worker’s rights driven by the Occupy movement put a spotlight on an invisible workforce, drawing attention to art handling as a profession and asking questions about the conditions that we work under. As Stephen explains: “All of this led to mutual conversations with people who had the same ideas. The Sotheby’s Teamsters, Occupy movement people and other art handlers and activists from Arts & Labor - it all gathered momentum. But the point where we really solidified as a group, was when we stopped trying to be a mass coalition of art handlers, and became a small dedicated group of individuals who are all committed to advancing a more progressive agenda, in the hope of helping the people who are in support of us in ideology and name, but not necessarily in body”. AHA-NY has been working hard to unite the art handlers of New York, through publicising them and their work. In December 2015 AHA-NY organised an exhibition Just Cause: bad Faith – Art Workers’ Activism and Organizing in NYC and Beyond in collaboration with Interference Archive, who cover past and present activist movements. You can find the link here: http://interferencearchive.org/intervie ... -handlers/ The exhibition of ephemera, articles, and artworks collectively addressed a history of cultural workers’ organising efforts and demonstrations as well as the recent investigations and concerns of artists and individuals working within the culture industry. In the link above you can also find a podcast that was recorded at the time, in discussion with art handlers from Terry Dowd Inc. Chicago regarding the unionising of their workplace. Their biggest project though has been to define the minimum working conditions for art handlers in the Art Handlers’ Bill of Rights.4 In the third part of this series, Stephen and Shane tell us more about Art Handlers’ Bill of Rights, and why you should sign it.

PART THREE

Welcome to the third part of our four part series on the Art Handlers Alliance of New York and their ground breaking work to develop the Art Handlers’ Bill of Rights. ATS spoke to Stephen Sewell and Shane Caffrey from AHA-NY. So what’s this Art Handlers’ Bill of Rights then? The Art Handlers’ Bill of Rights http://www.arthandlersalliance.org/supp ... of-rights/ was created through consultation at the AHA-NY monthly meetings with art handlers, crew chiefs, museum technicians, galleries, non-profits, discussing what the problems are for art handlers in New York and how things should be happening according to current federal law. Stephen Sewell detailed the main issues art handlers highlighted as wanting “a workforce which is more equitable in terms of pay, and in terms of representation across race and gender lines. The ability to provide people with a job that not only gives them access to art and community, which people get already and is a big appeal of the job, but also gets them things like benefits, and makes them feel slightly more comfortable and helps to change this mentality of making quick money so ‘I can have my studio until I can make it as a famous artist or go into teaching’.” AHA-NY is not a regulatory agent, they see themselves as an advocacy group acting in an advisory role, and so the Bill of Rights is intended as a guide for art handlers and for socially responsible employers, as there are currently no standards of practice in New York let alone the world. As Stephen explained it, the Bill of Rights can be used as “a fact sheet for what you should receive if you are working as an art handler, what you should be getting as a minimum. And a way for employers to hire and treat art handlers in a more politically progressive and equitable way. Which is not outrageous, they are completely reasonable things to expect from employers”. Which is not much to ask, is it? The idea is to get loads of signatures from art handlers, employers, curators, conservators, and other sympathetic individuals from all walks of life to show that there is a mass audience for this type of enactment of compensation and workers rights. This show of support can then be used as pressure on employers to start following the Bill of Rights and make our working life a little easier. You can play your part and sign here to support art handlers in New York and to show you believe that wherever you work in the world you demand fair working rights for those making the art and artefact world happen. Employers may be resistant to the tax classification and prorated benefits, but this can be managed simply by them establishing a separate fund to set aside money for every hour an art handler works, so they might off-set health benefits or a retirement account. It’s not that hard to figure out - if art handlers can figure out their own tax surely employers can do a little to make this work. With the introduction of the Freelance isn’t Free act in New York in May 2017 (there’s an article here which details in bullet points what the bill is about http://www.lawandtheworkplace.com/2016/ ... e-workers/) AHA – NY would like the Bill of Rights to serve as a standard contract that art handlers can use in conjunction with this new act for freelancers. Stayed tuned for the last instalment of our coverage of AHA-NY and the Art Handler’s Bill of Rights – why you (yes I’m talking to you) should get involved and what’s next for AHA-NY and the Bill.

PART FOUR

Welcome to the final instalment of our four part series on the Art Handlers Alliance of New York and their ground breaking work to develop the Art Handlers’ Bill of Rights http://www.arthandlersalliance.org/supp ... of-rights/ **So why should you sign the Art Handler’s Bill of Rights? ** Having signatory support of the Bill of Rights will mean that it will be on the public radar for when the Freelancers Aren’t Free act actually takes effect, that art handlers can turn up to a workplace and present the Bill of Rights as their employment rubric and employers won’t freak out. A way of smoothing the waters so to speak. Shane Caffrey thinks ‘it will be better in the long run for everyone involved to have the role of art handler more standardised. Because a lot of the time, the lack of clearly defined roles, at all the different places we work, is not ideal for the employers also.” Such as the grey areas of tax definitions, as Shane informed me there have been a lot of cases of people over the years wanting to know ‘can I file for unemployment if I’m not a full time employee?’ And that there have been cases of disputes between art handlers and their employers, as they had to prove they were real employees to receive unemployment support. Talking with other art handlers regarding the Bill of Rights, has raised the issue of employers potentially being fearful of hiring art handlers who have signed the Bill of Rights as has happened with workers unionising in the past. Signatures will give legitimacy to the Bill of Rights and that is why support is so necessary. AHA-NY has considered this and you are able to sign the bill anonymously (shhhh - they never have to know). If you work in a place where employers may be resistant to hiring workers who have shown support for the bill, isn’t that evidence that clearly there are issues with your employment and a reason for you to sign? No matter who you are and why you do the work you do, everyone should receive a minimum standard of employment and by signing you say you believe you deserve to be treated with the respect and receive the benefits that are owed to you for the work you do. As Stephen Sewell rightly put it ‘whether you work in the industry for 2 years or 20 there is no reason for you to be exploited’. Please lend your support by signing this petition to have the Art Handlers' Bill of Rights adopted as an industry standard in New York (and maybe beyond?). And don’t forget you can sign anonymously. Sign here to be part of the movement, if anything else, to get us a little bit of the appreciation and recognition we deserve. What’s next for the Bill of Rights and AHA-NY? The New York City Office of Labor Standards, handles the new paid sick leave, and the Freelance isn’t Free act, a big break-through in New York, which applies to the poorly defined workforce of art handlers in New York. AHA-NY is already in talks with the city offices implementing these acts, and are organising representatives to come and talk at AHA-NY info sessions to discuss how it works and how it can benefit art handlers. Follow them on Facebook to find out when this is happening and other events such as Free Pizza for Art Handlers Day – get free pizza, sign the Bill of Rights – win/win for everyone! A huge thank you to Stephen and Shane from AHA-NY for taking the time to share this with us and the Art Handlers of New York – we salute you!!!!!