They are not statues nor could they be replaced by rubber mannequins. This is the idea that the staff of live models who work posing for the students of the Faculty of Fine Arts of Seville want to convey to the University of Seville and to the intermediary company that hires them, Serveo. It has been almost three decades since the Institution privatized the service and since then, as the Personal Delegate of Live Models of the Faculty, Cristan Carcereri, explains to La Vanguardia, the working conditions of the 19 professionals who perform this function have not stopped worsening.
At this point, when the work “barely gives them enough to live on” with a salary below the interprofessional minimum, they announce an indefinite strike with which they intend to assert their work, an art that has turned the School into a national benchmark. and international and for which many students land on Sevillian soil to train.
Roughly speaking, their demands are summarized in three lines: salary dignity, job stability and recognition of their work. As long as this does not happen and the idea of ??being replaced by mannequins continues to be “threatened,” according to Carcereri, they will abandon the classroom platforms and occupy the streets, where they will organize different activities so that all citizens know what their work entails. . The cause, on the other hand, has the umbrella of the Andalusian Workers Union (SAT), an organization with which they work side by side to organize the mobilization.
Hispalense has these models throughout all the courses, thus maintaining its classic style and therefore becoming a national and international attraction. Hispalense is the European Faculty with the oldest and largest staff on the continent, and the only one that offers this service on a daily basis, so students improve their skills and abilities through the observation of a living body, which remains reflected in the work done by students in movement or anatomy classes. “Not even Artificial Intelligence can replace a person posing,” explains Cristian, who points out that “this is not a war against anyone” but rather one more way to try to improve the situation of the group.
Since the University decided to outsource the service, now managed by the company Serveo, they went from having a fixed salary and stability to being paid “per minute” and receiving “between 600 and 900 euros”, “a precarious salary” that also It varies according to the hours of perching. “This means that we cannot organize ourselves and we cannot combine it with other work” since, as explained by the Personnel Delegate, in the specifications established by Hispalense “you have to be on call” in case there is any sick leave.
Added to the low salary is that the models are included in the general Social Security regime and not as a special job. That is, they contribute based on 35 hours a week and not 20 hours as was done when they were University staff, which means they are “below everyone else, contributing 30-40% of the day” and , therefore, the unemployment benefit is considerably reduced. “We are hopelessly doomed to unemployment from May to September,” he details, receiving aid that barely exceeds 300 euros.
Faced with these circumstances, the live models rebel and ask for dignity and job stability, in addition to insisting that “more than an expense, we are an investment.” “The University believes that it can replace us with mannequins” and they opt for the “blackmail” that “we are a very expensive service”, however, if they “exploited this academic line well” they would make Seville a “great reference” center.
It is not the first time that this staff has gone on strike demanding rights in the exercise of their profession. Already in 2011 they asked for improvements, but the progress “was not substantial” until now they say they have reached an “unsustainable point.” Furthermore, they state that they do not know who they should contact to report the team’s discomfort, since Serveo “passes” the problem to the University while the Institution refers them to the subcontractor.
Be that as it may, everything indicates that the indefinite strike is just around the corner and that it will take place within a week or fifteen days. At the moment, they have the support of the students and most of the teaching staff, as well as the support of the Dean, a position “that always defends our work, although it also has its role…”, points out Cristian. Now, the only thing left to know is whether the company or Hispalense plan to study their requests in light of the commotion that the announcement of their strike is creating in society or if, finally, they have to take their performances to the streets to make themselves heard.
