Negotiations to prevent a strike that could bring the film and television production business to its knees are going down to the wire. Matthew Loeb, the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage E…
Here we go… IATSE has officially set a strike date of Monday, October 18 @ 12:01 AM.
Which means if an agreement is not reached by then, 60,000 union members will initiate a strike.
Key demands: - 10 hour turn around between shifts for all workers (i.e. you’re off the clock for 10 full hours before you have to be back to work, allowing for commutes home and a full 8 hours of rest - but even still, think about that. If you have to drive 45 mins - 1hr home, a common commute in areas like LA, Atlanta, and New York, then you have EXACTLY 8 hours to eat, sleep, and see your family) - 54 hour turn around on the weekends (film work frequently bleeds over into Saturdays “Fraturdays” - leaving even less time for a personal life). - Increased meal penalties (productions currently can pay extra to skip stopping for lunch breaks and they’d often rather do that, so the hope is that forcing them to pay more money will incentivize them to actually do lunch breaks). Imagine having to work 14+ hours with no break for a meal because production would rather just pay extra money than stop filming. - Better pay - the contracts currently in negotiation include what is currently categorized as “new media” - think streaming channels like Netflix & Hulu. When these contracts were originally made, streaming WAS new and nobody was sure what it’s profits would look like so IATSE agreed to let these shows pay less to workers. But they are now the major form of media and HIGHLY profitable so wages should be upgraded to reflect this.
Still waiting to hear from my union (OPEIU - clerks working alongside production) how we’re going to be handling this. They’ve only said vaguely “don’t cross the picket line” without explaining what that means when your job site (a major motion picture studio) is likely to be picketed. At any rate, I’m in full support of IATSE - people need regulated work hours & turn around times and better pay. For every 12-14 hour day I worked just as background, that meant many other people were working 14-16 hour days - which is just crazy because that doesn’t account for any commute (anywhere from 15 mins to 2 hours drive time some days). There are so many missed life moments and family time for film people. On top of that, just pure exhaustion - there have been countless stories of people falling asleep at the wheel and being hurt or dying because of film work commutes. Entertainment is costing people their lives literally and metaphorically - and it’s just not worth that. Stay tuned for what you can do to support the strike.
