On Eve of Union Vote, Hundreds of Arts Professionals Sign Open Letter Supporting B&H Photo Workers

Source: Hyperallergic

by Claire Voon

B&H Photo Video workers are continuing to push for unionization and improved work conditions in the national electronics retailer’s two Brooklyn warehouses, and although the company has intensified its attempts to quell these efforts, the campaign is gaining vast public support. On October 22, a coalition of photography and video professionals launched an open letter to B&H management, calling on the photo manufacturing giant to end the hazardous working conditions and discriminatory practices that over 200 of its warehouse workers claim they regularly face, and to negotiate a fair labor contract.

The Photo/Video Alliance for Fair Labor, organized with members of Laundry Workers Center United (LWC), posted the letter online, and within a week it received over 1,000 signatures from artists, journalists, gallerists, educators, students, photo technicians, and others — and the list of names continues to grow. Workers will decide in a vote tomorrow whether or not to unionize; a previous trial vote showed that over 80 percent support the motion, the New York Times reported.

“We stand with the workers of the #BHexposed campaign, and call on B&H Photo Video to allow the workers to form a union, free from intimidation and retaliation, and quickly negotiate a fair contract,” the letter reads. “Many of us can no longer in good conscience patronize B&H, and we stand together closely watching the company, ready to act and support the workers.”

Signatories include entire groups, from Working Artists and the Greater Economy (W.A.G.E.) and People’s Climate Arts to the Workers Art Coalition, the Artist Studio Affordability Project (ASAP), and the Art Handlers Alliance of New York. Among artists who have signed in solidarity are photographers Liz Deschenes and Dana Hoey, painter and critic Stephen Westfall, multimedia artist A.L. Steiner, and multi-disciplinary artist and activist Blithe Riley (who has worked with Occupy Wall Street’s offshoot Arts & Labor). Still others include the esteemed author and critic David Levi Strauss, Light Industry founder and director Thomas Beard, and Tel Aviv-based curator Chen Tamir, who until recently served as Flux Factory’s executive director.

FULL story at link.


A chalk message outside the Javits Center on October 22 (image via @milkmcspilly/Instagram)

Read more: http://hyperallergic.com/250535/on-eve-of-union-vote-hundreds-of-arts-professionals-sign-open-letter-supporting-bh-photo-workers/

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