Model Alliance Founder and Amazon Labor Union’s Chris Smalls Rally for Fashion Workers Act
Amazon labor union president Chris Smalls joined the Model Alliance’s founder Sara Ziff and other supporters Tuesday to rally for the New York State Fashion Workers Act.
Ziff’s appearance came just days after she filed a lawsuit in New York State Supreme Court alleging that the former head of Miramax in Italy, Fabrizio Lombardo, raped her when she was a 19-year-old. In the complaint, Lombardo is accused of assaulting Ziff in a New York City hotel room in 2011. A working model and an aspiring actress at the time, Ziff alleged that Lombardo invited her to join him and brothers Harvey and Bob Weinstein for a drink but the Weinsteins were not there when she arrived.
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In addition to Lombardo, Ziff has sued Harvey Weinstein, Disney, and its subsidiaries Buena Vista and Miramax for abuse and negligence under the Adult Survivors Act.
Weinstein is serving a combined 39-year prison sentence for various sex crimes. Efforts to reach Lombardo for comment last week were unsuccessful.
Standing with Smalls, a few other models and content creators in New York City’s Meatpacking District, Ziff noted that over the last decade the Model Alliance has been working to convince the fashion industry, lawmakers and the general public that “fashion is work,” she said. “While fashion appears to be glamorous, this industry is built on the backs of young people, mostly young women and girls, who are essentially indentured — working in debt to their management agencies.”
In her remarks Tuesday, she referenced the suit and explained it was a catalyst for starting the alliance, which prioritizes advocating for models’ rights. “I have heard hundreds of stories like mine through our support line, during the last decade. While the Adult Survivors Act is about righting the wrongs of the past, we still need to make sure that what happened to me and so many other women in this industry does not happen again. That’s why we need lawmakers to pass the Fashion Workers Act, which would finally protect and create labor protections for models and creative artists.”
The legislation is meant to regulate management agencies and provide oversight in the $2.5 trillion fashion industry. Providing workers with contracts, ensuring payment within 45 days and protecting them from harassment, discrimination and unsafe working conditions are objectives. Ziff said she hopes lawmakers will pass the act during this session. If approved, the legislation would ensure that agencies have a fiduciary responsibility to models, industry hairstylists, content creators, makeup artists and other creatives. It is also designed to prohibit any unreasonably high commissions and fees.
Many models will never see a contract for designer runway shows they walk in and “won’t know whether or how much they are getting paid. They will be lucky if they break even,” according to Ziff. “This lack of financial transparency is also partly why our industry is so ripe with sexual abuse. It’s no coincidence that some of the #MeToo movement’s biggest predators used modeling agencies to prey on victims. Knowing they will face retaliation for coming forward, victims must choose between speaking up or being able to eat.”
Ziff noted that she filed her own case, thanks to the “look back window that was created through the Adult Survivors Act, which our community helped to pass. What happened to me at 19 years old was a catalyst. I started the Model Alliance to make the fashion industry a safer place for what is largely a young, female immigrant workforce. I knew firsthand how exploitative this industry can be.”
The bill is in the New York State Senate Labor Committee. Fashion is a major driver of the state’s economy, with New York Fashion Week generating nearly $600 million in income annually.
Having supported the Model Alliance at another press rally in May, Smalls said, “We want to make sure that labor and labor leaders decide to stand with the fashion industry through the Model Alliance. Our duty as the working class is to stand in solidarity — no matter what industry they are in. Today I am making a stance again just as I did one year ago. I will not continue to be complacent or stand on the sidelines. I’m going to be on the frontlines every time my phone is called.”
Smalls mentioned the long history of independent contractors and how [some] women in the fashion industry have been exploited, “since the beginning of time.”
With his coworkers and a GoFundMe page, Smalls led the establishment of the first Amazon union, and sparked an uptick in labor organizing. But in the past year, the ALU has had fissures and Smalls’ high-profile image has left some workers feeling forgotten. Amazon has legally challenged the union’s election results.
Earlier a few models and content creators including Rozi Levine and Camryn Herold shared personal experiences alleging mistreatment in the fashion industry.
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