How French Models Protest Low Wages

France’s nude art models have had enough – protesting low wages and poor working conditions, nude models in Paris went on strike. This is not the first time La Coordination des Modeles has staged protest: back in 2008, they held a naked protest outside Paris’ city hall after regulations stripped them of their tip-jar. The models demand equal treatment afforded most French workers, like job security or vacation pay. As The Guardian reports, the Paris mayor of cultural affairs noted “this was a lovely protest in the French, gaulois spirit of resistance.”

As The Daily Beast reports,

Proving that there is no French profession immune from collective work stoppages, the country is now facing a potential epidemic of empty sketchbooks and blank canvasses as its nude models threaten to cover up, complaining of low wages and poor working conditions, while also fighting for the state to recognize their work as a serious career rather than a paying hobby or part-time gig.

A group called La Coordination des Modeles recently staged a protest complaining that most life-class nude models are treated as temp workers, with none of the perks afforded most French workers, like job security or vacation pay.

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France’s dedicated nude models—many of whom pose full-time—say they have seen no improvements since their 2008 protest and are calling on the Ministry of Culture to again intervene on their behalf. “We’re asking for a reassessment of our wages and the problem of our status,” Patricia Clark, a member of the group, told French newspaper Liberation, “We have no status, we are technically temp workers, so we’re sitting in ejection seats, and that’s unacceptable…That’s not what a temp worker is supposed to be, he’s not supposed to be working every day, six hours per day, 33 weeks per year.”

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Christophe Girard, deputy Paris mayor for cultural affairs, told The Guardian, “I think this was a lovely protest in the French, gaulois spirit of resistance.”