Designers + Cultural Workers

The cultural sector is rife with individualisation and competitiveness to the detriment of its workforce. The status of creative work is increasingly casualised, in the interest of distributing profits to those at the top.

We want to change this.

Many of us are precarious, overworked and underpaid. We are made to compete against each other for unfair wages, illegal unpaid internships, precarious freelance and temporary work. We suffer under bad management and terrible conditions. 

The misconception that creative ideation and production somehow happen without actual labour has allowed unfair wages to proliferate and overwork, stress and burnout to become chronic within the sector. 

We demand a cultural shift.

ABOUT DCW

UVW-DCW aims to tackle the individualisation of work-related issues. We educate ourselves about our rights at work, secure legal representation, and organise and campaign to transform our industry in the interests of its workers, with solidarity, community, and equality at the centre of cultural production.

DCW acts as a member support network: we support one another to find solutions to the problems we face and look for solutions collectively. 

There is no sense of good practice in our sector, in terms of fees, contracts, workplace environment, freelancing and so on. We worked on a Studio Campaign to support studio tenants across London throughout the COVID19 period; we produced guidelines on employment rights and freelance workers’ rights, and we work closely with Migrants in Culture to develop resources on migrant work in cultural sector.  

WHO ARE DCW’S MEMBERS?

Anyone who considers themselves a cultural worker is welcome to join UVW-DCW. Many of our members work in multiple jobs, they do not have a single employer or clear job title, and their employment status can be difficult to classify. Others are employees of large organisations, while some are sole traders carrying out their own cultural businesses. Whatever part of the cultural sector you work in, join our fight to build a more equitable culture from below!  

We aim to create solidarity across the cultural industry and break down the hierarchies built into the sector. We must revolutionize cultural work for everyone and make sure that we take everyone’s needs into account when we build our future. 

This is only possible when as many voices from the sector as possible are involved, so we welcome people who work in any position at any cultural institution to feed their ideas into our campaigns.

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