Freelancers Union: Labor Group Offers Solidarity to the Solitary

Once upon a time it sounded romantic, bold, even revolutionary: to be a freelancer. Here in New York, this was rarely in its historic, martial sense, as a soldier of fortune, but rather as a writer, a photographer, an illustrator. Manhattan was the nation’s media capital, which was full of readers—people who bought books, newspapers, and magazines—in what today is unthinkable abundance. There were even magazines about magazines! That labor could be well-rewarded: the freelancer they didn’t need any one boss and they didn’t need a union like Joe Lunch Bucket either. That freedom was the essence of freelancing.

Times change. The Internet gradually devoured much of the once mighty print publishing industry and today, in the investor driven frenzy that is “AI,” it’s speedily devouring itself also. Freelancers across many occupations, especially “creative” ones, are not just verklempt, as the Yiddish term goes—emotionally choked up—but some are becoming bereft. What does a freelancer do when their labor is devalued, when they don’t get paid for the work they’ve done, when they need health insurance, and when the whole damn racket seems against them?

Enter the Freelancers Union, which recently held a “Freelance Isn’t Free Day” symposium on the second floor of Civil Hall at 124 East 14th Street. The date of the event, May 20, was chosen for its proximity to May 15, 2017—the day the “Freelance Isn’t Free Act” went into effect in New York City. Formally known as Local Law 140, the legislation won freelancers the right to a written contract; timely and full payment; and protection from retaliation.

A co-sponsor of that act was then District 37 Council Member Rafael Espinal of Bushwick and other eastern parts of Brooklyn. In March 2020, Espinal resigned his seat to become director of the Freelancers Union. While this move raised some eyebrows as Espinal had 22 months in office left to serve, his government experience served the organizing well, including partnership with the city that established the nation’s first ever free co-working space at the Union’s headquarters in Brooklyn.

In January 2026, Mayor Zohran Mamdani named Espinal as Commissioner of the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment (MOME), which was a co-sponsor of the “Freelance Isn’t Free Day.” Reflecting the congeniality of this change while the search for his successor is ongoing, Espinal visited the event, as did Department of Consumer and Worker Protection Commissioner Sam Levine, and Council Member Chi Ossé.

Straus News spoke to the Freelancers Union Chief of Staff, Andrea Gordillo, who in her spare time is also the Chair of Community Board 3, covering the Lower East Side and Chinatown. In addition to talking about the Freelancers’ mission to support workers—including offering group health insurance plans— and expand their rights, Gordillo highlighted a recently posted quiz on the Union’s website, “Are You a Freelancer?”

This isn’t a trick question. Rather, its intention was to make people who refer to themselves as an “entrepreneur,” “independent worker,” or “small business owner” understand that, in a literal sense, they too are freelancers and part of a potential community who can support each other with shared tales of self-determination, triumph and woe.

There’s no getting around the fact that for many freelancers, woe is they. At one panel titled “Creative Workers, Real Power: Rights Voice and the Future of Freelance Work,” it wasn’t long into the Q&A session that the word “bleak” came up. Whether one is a writer, a designer, a digital media producer or other “creative” worker, the likelihood of being ripped off, and possibly replaced, by “AI” looms as an existential threat.

If the panelists, which included Emmy-nominated producer and writer, Kareena Bee; writer and editor James Folta, and lawyer Henderson Cole, had no single answer to these fears, their collective tales of inspiration, disappointment, perseverance and self-belief had a salutary effect on the anxious audience.

For further doses of fortitude, the Freelancers Union maintains an active calendar of events and services. Perhaps most remarkable, and unexpected, if their Freelancers Hub, a free Monday through Friday co-working space located at 241 37th St., Building 1, in the Industry City section of Sunset Park, Brooklyn. It’s not that far—take the N, R or D trains to 36th Street and 4th Avenue—and the setting, amid the same loft factory buildings that helped the U.S. win both World Wars is stunning, with both Costco, and tourist destination food, arts and shopping right outside the door.