What does it mean to unionize when you’re your own boss?  
Hey there, and welcome  
to the new Eye on Design newsletter.  
Each Thursday we take a closer look at our main story of the week and highlight a few things that  
make it an exciting read.  
This week, we look at a group of designers in the UK who are unionizing in order to be paid on  
time, paid for overtime, paid for invisible labor, and more.  
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One of the most surprising things we found?  
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They’re not modeling themselves after other  
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labor unions, but after the gig economy.  
What Does it Mean to Unionize When You’re Your Own Boss?  
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click upn equals 3rf VBQB 2F 7CD Andpy 35…  
This month, around 20 designers, artists, and other creatives gathered for the first meeting of the  
United Voices of the World (UVW) Design  and  Cultural Workers Union.  
UVW was founded in 2014 as a  
grassroots trade union representing workers such as migrant cleaners, legal workers, sex workers,  
and as of recently, graphic designers.  
The new Design  and  Cultural Workers branch, started by design collective Evening Class, aims to  
unify disparate, atomized, and increasingly precarious workers in what is termed  the cultural  
sector.  
Design has a rich history of trade unions, but labor conditions have changed: should we look to  
the gig economy for a way forward?  
Evening Class got serious about starting a union in 2018, but their conversations with designers  
about unhealthy work practices started several years prior.  
After some heavy research into the  
historical precedents for a designers union, the collective joined an existing union where much of  
the infrastructure for unionizing was already in place.  
It chose UVW, in part, because of the recent gains made by it and other grassroots unions  
representing  precarious workers,  a term defined by the International Labor Rights Forum as  
workers who  fill permanent job needs, but are denied permanent employee rights.  
We found that gig economy workers have a lot of natural overlap with designers.  
You might have heard the term  precarious workers  used interchangeably with  gig workers,  and  
applied to couriers, ride share drivers, and food delivery people working for companies like Uber,  
Lyft, Doordash, and Deliveroo.  
These independent contractors help make up the new gig economy, in  
which freelance work and short term contracts, rather than permanent employment, is the norm.  
Gig workers have begun forming their own unions to take on the problems specific to this new  
economy, and they’ve been making big gains (see recent employment right cases won by Deliveroo  
riders and Hermes couriers).  
Evening Class has taken note and thinks that designers should follow  
suit.  
We talked to members of Evening Class who helped form the UVW Design  and  Cultural Workers union about  
the most common grievances they’ve heard from designers, and what a union can do about it.  
After  
its first meeting, the group sent us the list of demands its members had come up with:  
  
list  with 1 items  
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We demand to be paid on time.  
out of list  
list  with 1 items  
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We demand to be paid overtime and for invisible labor.  
out of list  
list  with 1 items  
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We demand to leave work on time and to not be expected to do work outside of work hours.  
out of list  
list  with 1 items  
bullet  
We demand that our employers obey the law.  
out of list  
list  with 1 items  
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Even small businesses are accountable for our health, safety, and wellbeing.  
out of list  
list  with 1 items  
bullet  
We demand an end to unpaid internships, unpaid pitching, and unpaid  opportunities’  slash  
unadvertised jobs.  
out of list  
list  with 1 items  
bullet  
We demand fair pay and pensions.  
out of list  
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Read our article about how the union got started  
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and what it’s doing next plus resources  
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for anyone who’s ever thought about  
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starting or joining a union.  
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click upn equals 3rf VBQB 2F 7CD Andpy 35…  
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