I keep 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 dwelling — that’s precisely what I’m becoming a member of, as soon as I get began on my profession. I’d look across the practice and marvel what number of different passengers had been additionally freelancers, constructing their lives quietly in parallel.
That day’s work was low wage road intercept — stopping folks, exhibiting them massive studio film trailers, and asking how probably they had been to observe the movie. It wasn’t the foot within the door I imagined for filmmaking, however like most freelancing, it constructed actual abilities: the best way to speak to strangers, the best way to translate inventive concepts into language folks can really hear, and the best way to hear for what’s beneath their solutions.
For extra secure work, I took a “momentary” job as a author and aide of an area metropolis councilman. And that function taught me one thing tougher – 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 had been unvoiced (there’s no such factor), however as a result of we had been strategically ignored — hierarchically hushed — stored exterior the rooms the place selections had been made. No matter you name it, I didn’t prefer it. I couldn’t unsee it.
So I put a few of my inventive 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 rapid. In authorities, you see what stability seems like up shut: status, protections, versatile schedules, and affect that comes customary with the job. I watched colleagues get snug inside these luxuries. I fought to remain grounded in why I joined within the first place.
Representing East New York — some of the 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 may bend energy towards the desire of the folks.
That perception formed the whole lot I did. I created the nation’s first Workplace of Nightlife as a result of town wanted to cease treating nighttime employees like they had been disposable or invisible. Bartenders, musicians, dancers, service employees — folks dismissed by the 9-to-5 crowd as “creatures of the shadows” — had been constructing an actual financial system, and so they deserved actual assist.
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 regulation, grounded in one thing fundamental: if you happen to do the work, you should receives a commission – with out having to plead to your personal paycheck.
After a decade of public service, I got here dwelling to Freelancers Union.
I began on March 2, 2020. Days later, New York turned the worldwide epicenter of COVID-19and freelancers had been hit instantly. Work vanished, anxiousness spiked, and other people wanted assist sooner than methods had been constructed to ship it. We pushed arduous for federal reduction that included unbiased employees — particularly Pandemic Unemployment Help (PUA) and PPP forgivable loans — and we constructed direct assist by emergency money grants and expanded free authorized assist, whereas persevering with the lengthy combat for moveable advantages.
As town reopened, we rebuilt neighborhood and infrastructure, not simply companies. We reestablished the Freelancers Hub in a post-pandemic world as a result of unbiased 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 YorkCalifornia, and Illinoisand progress in cities like Seattle, Columbus, and Minneapolis. And most lately, launched the Freelancers Authorized Hub, which has helped members gather over $250,000 in unpaid invoices prior 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’ll do. I’ve watched members discover mentors, collaborators, and confidence right here. I’ve seen folks stand taller just because they had 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. A giant a part of the job has been carrying you into rooms you weren’t in — ensuring determination makers noticed the total reality of freelance work and the worth you create. This combat for dignity didn’t simply construct coverage; it constructed neighborhood. 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 staff: thanks for punching above your weight, time and again, and maintaining the work grounded in what members really need. 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 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 unbiased employees and creatives who make New York really feel alive and maintain its tradition transferring.
I’m leaving Freelancers Union with gratitude and confidence. We’re now not strategically ignored as a result of our unified voice is difficult to overlook. We laid a robust basis, and I consider the union’s subsequent period shall be even stronger.
Thanks for letting me serve.
With gratitude,
Rafael Espinal
