Union City Blues

It's good news Friday here at TFFF HQ! The British actors' union Equity has been approached by a model coalition asking to join. That's right, kids: modelling is going unionised.

United we stand, divided we fall

Apparently some major, major names have signed up -- but sadly they don't yet want to be identified. Rocking the boat in the fashion industry -- which isn't exactly union-friendly -- is still difficult.

But how great is this? Maybe it's because I'm from a union family, but I think this is excellent news. We've long discussed the difficulties inherent in changing modelling conditions, and some have put forward the idea of a models' union. Models have agencies, sure, but each girl has a different agent -- and they're just there to find work, not necessarily ensure conditions are fair.

Because modelling is so individualised, and very often it's a one-model-per-shoot situation, they're separated from their peers, and inevitably find it difficult to stand up for their rights: for health and safety, fair wages, heck, even a lunch break. Let alone the real issue: what size they're 'allowed' to be. I'm not suggesting that we'll see the union and the industry sit down for talks and hash out a specific weight requirement that will satisfy both parties, because that's crazy talk: but we might see a move towards models having the power, a move towards sample sizes being made to fit the models, and not the other way around. Because really: cutting fabric to fit a girl makes so much more sense than shrinking a girl to fit the fabric.

Martin Brown, a spokesman for Equity, had this to say:

"Models have no voice; no one is listening to them and no one is asking them what they want. We were approached earlier this year by a group of models who said they needed a union. They complained they had no one to represent them and that if something went wrong and they went to their agencies they were warned not to complain because they would not work again."