I bear in mind it clearly: my first freelance gig, again in 2005. On the best way there, I’d see Freelancers Union posters within the subway, and it felt like a lowkey manner of seeing my future house — that’s precisely what I’m becoming a member of, as soon as I get began on my profession. I’d look across the prepare and surprise what number of different passengers have been additionally freelancers, constructing their lives quietly in parallel.
That day’s work was low wage road intercept — stopping folks, exhibiting them large studio film trailers, and asking how seemingly they have been to observe the movie. It wasn’t the foot within the door I imagined for filmmaking, however like most freelancing, it constructed actual expertise: find out how to speak to strangers, find out how to translate artistic concepts into language folks can truly hear, and find out how to pay attention for what’s beneath their solutions.
For extra steady work, I took a “momentary” job as a author and aide of an area metropolis councilman. And that function taught me one thing more durable – the distinction between having a voice and having a say.
I didn’t have a lot of a say again then, and I knew too many individuals who didn’t both. Not as a result of we have been unvoiced (there’s no such factor), however as a result of we have been strategically ignored — hierarchically hushed — stored exterior the rooms the place selections have been made. No matter you name it, I didn’t prefer it. I couldn’t unsee it.
So I put a few of my artistic desires on maintain and went into public service. I used to be elected to the State Meeting and later to the Metropolis Council at 28, and the distinction was quick. In authorities, you see what stability seems like up shut: status, protections, versatile schedules, and affect that comes normal with the job. I watched colleagues get comfy inside these luxuries. I fought to remain grounded in why I joined within the first place.
Representing East New York — one of the vital underfunded communities within the metropolis — taught me about energy: who has it, who retains it, who loses it, and why. It additionally taught me one thing stronger than energy: advocacy, which might bend energy towards the desire of the folks.
That perception formed all the things I did. I created the nation’s first Workplace of Nightlife as a result of the town wanted to cease treating nighttime staff like they have been disposable or invisible. Bartenders, musicians, dancers, service staff — folks dismissed by the 9-to-5 crowd as “creatures of the shadows” — have been constructing an actual financial system, and so they deserved actual help.
Then in 2015, greater than a decade after I first noticed these posters, Freelancers Union got here to my workplace and we set to work. Collectively, we handed the nation’s first Freelance Isn’t Free legislation, grounded in one thing fundamental: should you do the work, you need to receives a commission – with out having to plead in your personal paycheck.
After a decade of public service, I got here house to Freelancers Union.
I began on March 2, 2020. Days later, New York turned the worldwide epicenter of COVID-19, and freelancers have been hit instantly. Work vanished, anxiousness spiked, and folks wanted help quicker than techniques have been constructed to ship it. We pushed onerous for federal reduction that included impartial staff — particularly Pandemic Unemployment Help (PUA) and PPP forgivable loans — and we constructed direct help by emergency money grants and expanded free authorized assist, whereas persevering with the lengthy combat for moveable advantages.
As the town reopened, we rebuilt group and infrastructure, not simply companies. We reestablished the Freelancers Hub in a post-pandemic world as a result of impartial work shouldn’t imply isolation. We launched the Picture Hub with our companions at ASMPNY as a result of working creatives deserve entry to skilled instruments with out added prices and gatekeeping.
We’ve helped develop the Freelance Isn’t Free motion nationally with statewide wins in New York, California, and Illinois, and progress in cities like Seattle, Columbus, and Minneapolis. And most just lately, launched the Freelancers Authorized Hub, which has helped members gather over $250,000 in unpaid invoices up to now 12 months alone.
This job has additionally been deeply private.
I’ve been moved by our gatherings — folks of each background and perception exhibiting up with the identical hope: to construct a life by what they will do. I’ve watched members discover mentors, collaborators, and confidence right here. I’ve seen folks stand taller just because they have been lastly in a room the place they didn’t have to elucidate why their work is actual.
Over these previous six years, my function hasn’t simply been to foyer or advocate. An enormous a part of the job has been carrying you into rooms you weren’t in — ensuring determination makers noticed the complete reality of freelance work and the worth you create. This combat for dignity didn’t simply construct coverage; it constructed group. And personally, it impressed me and jogged my memory who I’m: final 12 months I dusted off my filmmaking desires and shot a film.
To our members: thanks for trusting us, difficult us, and exhibiting up when it counted. To our board: thanks for trusting my imaginative and prescient, particularly when the trail wasn’t apparent. To my group: thanks for punching above your weight, repeatedly, and conserving the work grounded in what members really want. You carried this group by its hardest interval with self-discipline and coronary heart.
Now I’m resigning to function the NYC Commissioner of Media and Leisure within the Zohran Mamdani administration. I say “new function,” not “new mission,” as a result of I’ll nonetheless be preventing for a similar varieties of individuals: the impartial staff and creatives who make New York really feel alive and maintain its tradition shifting.
I’m leaving Freelancers Union with gratitude and confidence. We’re now not strategically ignored as a result of our unified voice is tough to overlook. We laid a powerful basis, and I consider the union’s subsequent period will likely be even stronger.
Thanks for letting me serve.
With gratitude,
Rafael Espinal
