If Hollywood Workers Strike, the Entertainment Industry Will Grind to a Halt
BY BRENDEN GALLAGHERJACOBIN
09.24.2021
In a display of worker militancy not seen in Hollywood for decades, members of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) are about to vote on whether 60,000 of them will go on strike in October.
A popular graphic created by IATSE, demanding time for rest between shifts. (@iatse / Instagram)
On October 1, the crew members of most union film and television productions in the United States will decide whether to go on strike for fair pay, adequate rest, and regular breaks — things that should be a given, but are hard to come by in Hollywood.
While streaming companies have posted record profits, rank-and-file union members have seen their quality of life erode with stagnant wages and assaults on their health and pension plans. Skilled workers years into their careers are making little more than $15 an hour. Crew members are sharing horror stories of car accidents after eighteen-hour days and health issues stemming from being denied bathroom breaks.
If workers vote “yes” on the upcoming strike authorization, the strike will be unprecedented for their union and significant for the entire labor movement. The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) has never actually struck all of its West Coast locals at once. An estimated 60,000 IATSE members could walk off the job in the coming weeks, which would be the biggest private sector strike in the United States in over a decade.
Striking workers would include almost everyone who works on a film set besides directors, writers, and actors. In show business, we use the term “below the line” to describe this group, which includes camera operators, grips, costumers, script supervisors, writers’ assistants, set decorators, and many more. The term comes from the actual positions of names on call sheets, where directors, writers, and top-billed acting talent are placed “above the line.” Without “below the line” workers, the films and shows you watch would never get made.
Individual locals of IATSE have struck before. 1941 saw the famous Disney animators’ strike, sparked by Walt Disney’s failure to share profits on Snow White. This era of militancy in Tinseltown culminated in the 1945 strike of the nascent set decorators’ local, which is remembered as the most violent strike in Hollywood history.
Picketers during the 1941 Disney animators’ strike carry a mock guillotine, which they use to behead a Walt Disney mannequin. (Cartoon Brew)
Since then, lingering post-blacklist anti-communism in the industry and Reaganite neoliberalism in society at large have led to a less militant climate. Even so, the Writers Guild of America (WGA) has struck six times since World War II, while actors have walked out four times — once, ironically, led by then Screen Actors Guild (SAG) president Ronald Reagan himself. The more boss-friendly Directors Guild of America (DGA) has only struck once, for a total of three hours and five minutes — roughly the length of a lunch meeting at the Ivy.
If the upcoming IATSE strike authorization vote and subsequent bargaining result in a strike, it would be one of the largest in Hollywood history. And with so many different crafts walking out, it would also be the most disruptive. Film and television in the United States would grind to a halt.
New Militancy in the Era of “New Media”
The Writers Guild of America traditionally “sets pattern” for Hollywood — the DGA bargains first, then the WGA goes second, but tends to bargain more aggressively. Though the WGA membership and leadership were prepared to walk the picket line, they were unable to strike during their last contract negotiation, which unfortunately fell during the height of COVID-19. As a result, IATSE has found itself in a unique position to set the tone for Hollywood labor.
For months, thirteen West Coast locals have been in negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), which represents companies like Disney, Amazon, and Viacom. All reports indicate that the union and the bosses are failing to see eye to eye on numerous bargaining points. What’s at stake in the stalemate is no less than the future of the industry in the era of streaming.
In the early 2000s, streaming services were classified as “new media” in various entertainment contracts because their future was viewed as uncertain. As the footprint of these companies and their profits have skyrocketed, the overly generous deals they received as “new media” enterprises have largely stayed in place. Consequently, streaming services have been able to offer lower pay, enjoy less restrictive rules, and owe lower residuals, even though they have replaced traditional film and television companies in terms of output and income.
Today’s entertainment industry workers are doing the same work as previous generations for less pay while companies post unprecedented profits. If you worked on Friends, you probably own a house. If you work on Wandavision, you’re probably still renting.
Workers don’t even have clarity on how many people see the fruits of their labor. Tech companies are notoriously protective of their consumer data, and often digital residuals are fixed quarterly payments rather than payments tied to actual viewership. The upshot is that someone who works on a massive hit like Stranger Things gets the same residual payment as someone who has a hand in creating a quickly canceled one-season wonder.
The rise of so-called new media has not only resulted in lower wages in Hollywood, but also brought long-simmering quality-of-life issues to a head. One key issue in these negotiations is “turnaround,” the industry term for how much time workers get between days of work. A minimum ten-hour turnaround is supposed to be mandatory for crew, but this is often not honored. A popular graphic created by IATSE features a bloodshot eye and reads, “Give us a rest at night and on weekends.”
Camera and lighting crew locals (Locals 600, 728, and 80) have been particularly vocal on this issue. In a rare move, a group of fourteen top cinematographers, including Roger Deakins (No Country For Old Men), Emmanuel “Chivo” Lubezki (Birdman), and Ellen Kuras (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind), recently penned an open letter calling on the AMPTP “to increase daily rest periods and implement weekend rest periods to ensure the physical and mental health of every member of the crew.”
Having gotten my start in locations and production, I can attest that fourteen-hour days or longer are par for the course in Hollywood. The reality is that the penalties for overtime are not enough to deter producers from pushing crews to the brink.
Wages and working hours are not the only issues on the table. Each of the thirteen locals contains many crafts, and all of them have their own bargaining points to address. The Instagram account @ia_stories has been collecting anonymous workplace horror stories from rank-and-file union members. The account has amassed over 90,000 followers as of this writing. Its feed is full of shocking stories detailing what Hollywood workers put up with every day. If you scroll through their posts, you’ll see everything from production assistants being asked to break the law to camera operators being denied bathroom breaks.
Despite the abhorrent conditions many crew members contend with, the studios are seeking rollbacks of existing benefits, citing the pandemic, even though Hollywood has maintained a healthy balance sheet throughout the COVID-19 era. Several publications have reported that the AMPTP is seeking rollbacks in pension contributions and so-called “meal penalties,” fines production companies must pay if they keep crew working past their scheduled meal breaks.
There is a lot on the table that is specific to the particular work environment of Hollywood, but themes in these negotiations echo other recent labor disputes across the country. Tech industry “disruption” has led emboldened corporate management to squeeze the craftspeople and artists who make their media content. For example, Quibi’s short-lived business model was predicated on underpaying their crews, and copycats are sure to follow in its wake.
It is no coincidence that Hollywood has also seen the same spike in labor militancy and left-wing politics that has erupted in sectors like teaching, journalism, logistics, and hospitality. The tech-focused private equity overlords use the same playbook in every industry.
The Way the Wind Blows
An IATSE strike would be a high-water mark in Hollywood’s labor resurgence, but the trend of increasing militancy in the entertainment industry has been evident for years.
Democratic Socialists of America (DSA)–backed city council candidate Nithya Raman unseated incumbent David Ryu in Los Angeles’s Fourth District with robust support from workers in the entertainment industry. UNITE HERE organizer Hugo Soto-Martinez is looking to do the same in the Thirteenth District next cycle.
Television writers’ assistants and script coordinators unionized following a successful drive by IATSE 871 in 2018. Unions like the United Teachers of Los Angeles and UNITE HERE have counted on Hollywood workers as a part of their coalitions during strikes and direct actions.
DSA members and coalition partners have won board seats in several unions. DSA-Los Angeles’s (DSA-LA) Hollywood Labor Project was recently the subject of a positive profile in the Hollywood Reporter, a publication that was once notorious for red-baiting.
Whether IATSE will strike remains uncertain. A majority of delegates from participating locals must vote in favor of the authorization, and local delegates can only support the authorization if 75 percent of the local votes “yes.” While Hollywood unions tend to get a high percentage of “yes” votes — the 2017 WGA strike authorization passed with 96 percent in favor, while the 1980 SAG strike saw 90 percent of its members vote for a strike — it is crucial that the union get an overwhelming majority ahead of a potential strike.
In recent days, there has been an outpouring of support from prominent writers, actors, directors, and local politicians as the possibility of a strike looms. If the union does strike, it will enjoy robust support from an increasingly radicalized Hollywood.
It remains to be seen whether the AMPTP will concede to IATSE’s reasonable demands following an overwhelming majority strike authorization vote, or if the union will be forced to walk off the job. Either the AMPTP will voluntarily recognize which way the wind is blowing, or the union will have to show them.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Brenden Gallagher is a writer and director living in Los Angeles. He is a member of the WGA-W where he is a television show captain. He is a former member and ex-political coordinator of IATSE 871. He is a cofounder of DSA-LA’s Hollywood Labor Project.
09.24.2021
In a display of worker militancy not seen in Hollywood for decades, members of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) are about to vote on whether 60,000 of them will go on strike in October.
A popular graphic created by IATSE, demanding time for rest between shifts.
On October 1, the crew members of most union film and television productions in the United States will decide whether to go on strike for fair pay, adequate rest, and regular breaks — things that should be a given, but are hard to come by in Hollywood.
While streaming companies have posted record profits, rank-and-file union members have seen their quality of life erode with stagnant wages and assaults on their health and pension plans. Skilled workers years into their careers are making little more than $15 an hour. Crew members are sharing horror stories of car accidents after eighteen-hour days and health issues stemming from being denied bathroom breaks.
If workers vote “yes” on the upcoming strike authorization, the strike will be unprecedented for their union and significant for the entire labor movement. The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) has never actually struck all of its West Coast locals at once. An estimated 60,000 IATSE members could walk off the job in the coming weeks, which would be the biggest private sector strike in the United States in over a decade.
Striking workers would include almost everyone who works on a film set besides directors, writers, and actors. In show business, we use the term “below the line” to describe this group, which includes camera operators, grips, costumers, script supervisors, writers’ assistants, set decorators, and many more. The term comes from the actual positions of names on call sheets, where directors, writers, and top-billed acting talent are placed “above the line.” Without “below the line” workers, the films and shows you watch would never get made.
Individual locals of IATSE have struck before. 1941 saw the famous Disney animators’ strike, sparked by Walt Disney’s failure to share profits on Snow White. This era of militancy in Tinseltown culminated in the 1945 strike of the nascent set decorators’ local, which is remembered as the most violent strike in Hollywood history.
Since then, lingering post-blacklist anti-communism in the industry and Reaganite neoliberalism in society at large have led to a less militant climate. Even so, the Writers Guild of America (WGA) has struck six times since World War II, while actors have walked out four times — once, ironically, led by then Screen Actors Guild (SAG) president Ronald Reagan himself. The more boss-friendly Directors Guild of America (DGA) has only struck once, for a total of three hours and five minutes — roughly the length of a lunch meeting at the Ivy.
If the upcoming IATSE strike authorization vote and subsequent bargaining result in a strike, it would be one of the largest in Hollywood history. And with so many different crafts walking out, it would also be the most disruptive. Film and television in the United States would grind to a halt.
New Militancy in the Era of “New Media”
The Writers Guild of America traditionally “sets pattern” for Hollywood — the DGA bargains first, then the WGA goes second, but tends to bargain more aggressively. Though the WGA membership and leadership were prepared to walk the picket line, they were unable to strike during their last contract negotiation, which unfortunately fell during the height of COVID-19. As a result, IATSE has found itself in a unique position to set the tone for Hollywood labor.
For months, thirteen West Coast locals have been in negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), which represents companies like Disney, Amazon, and Viacom. All reports indicate that the union and the bosses are failing to see eye to eye on numerous bargaining points. What’s at stake in the stalemate is no less than the future of the industry in the era of streaming.
In the early 2000s, streaming services were classified as “new media” in various entertainment contracts because their future was viewed as uncertain. As the footprint of these companies and their profits have skyrocketed, the overly generous deals they received as “new media” enterprises have largely stayed in place. Consequently, streaming services have been able to offer lower pay, enjoy less restrictive rules, and owe lower residuals, even though they have replaced traditional film and television companies in terms of output and income.
Today’s entertainment industry workers are doing the same work as previous generations for less pay while companies post unprecedented profits. If you worked on Friends, you probably own a house. If you work on Wandavision, you’re probably still renting.
Workers don’t even have clarity on how many people see the fruits of their labor. Tech companies are notoriously protective of their consumer data, and often digital residuals are fixed quarterly payments rather than payments tied to actual viewership. The upshot is that someone who works on a massive hit like Stranger Things gets the same residual payment as someone who has a hand in creating a quickly canceled one-season wonder.
The rise of so-called new media has not only resulted in lower wages in Hollywood, but also brought long-simmering quality-of-life issues to a head. One key issue in these negotiations is “turnaround,” the industry term for how much time workers get between days of work. A minimum ten-hour turnaround is supposed to be mandatory for crew, but this is often not honored. A popular graphic created by IATSE features a bloodshot eye and reads, “Give us a rest at night and on weekends.”
Camera and lighting crew locals (Locals 600, 728, and 80) have been particularly vocal on this issue. In a rare move, a group of fourteen top cinematographers, including Roger Deakins (No Country For Old Men), Emmanuel “Chivo” Lubezki (Birdman), and Ellen Kuras (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind), recently penned an open letter calling on the AMPTP “to increase daily rest periods and implement weekend rest periods to ensure the physical and mental health of every member of the crew.”
Having gotten my start in locations and production, I can attest that fourteen-hour days or longer are par for the course in Hollywood. The reality is that the penalties for overtime are not enough to deter producers from pushing crews to the brink.
Wages and working hours are not the only issues on the table. Each of the thirteen locals contains many crafts, and all of them have their own bargaining points to address. The Instagram account @ia_stories has been collecting anonymous workplace horror stories from rank-and-file union members. The account has amassed over 90,000 followers as of this writing. Its feed is full of shocking stories detailing what Hollywood workers put up with every day. If you scroll through their posts, you’ll see everything from production assistants being asked to break the law to camera operators being denied bathroom breaks.
Despite the abhorrent conditions many crew members contend with, the studios are seeking rollbacks of existing benefits, citing the pandemic, even though Hollywood has maintained a healthy balance sheet throughout the COVID-19 era. Several publications have reported that the AMPTP is seeking rollbacks in pension contributions and so-called “meal penalties,” fines production companies must pay if they keep crew working past their scheduled meal breaks.
There is a lot on the table that is specific to the particular work environment of Hollywood, but themes in these negotiations echo other recent labor disputes across the country. Tech industry “disruption” has led emboldened corporate management to squeeze the craftspeople and artists who make their media content. For example, Quibi’s short-lived business model was predicated on underpaying their crews, and copycats are sure to follow in its wake.
It is no coincidence that Hollywood has also seen the same spike in labor militancy and left-wing politics that has erupted in sectors like teaching, journalism, logistics, and hospitality. The tech-focused private equity overlords use the same playbook in every industry.
The Way the Wind Blows
An IATSE strike would be a high-water mark in Hollywood’s labor resurgence, but the trend of increasing militancy in the entertainment industry has been evident for years.
Democratic Socialists of America (DSA)–backed city council candidate Nithya Raman unseated incumbent David Ryu in Los Angeles’s Fourth District with robust support from workers in the entertainment industry. UNITE HERE organizer Hugo Soto-Martinez is looking to do the same in the Thirteenth District next cycle.
Television writers’ assistants and script coordinators unionized following a successful drive by IATSE 871 in 2018. Unions like the United Teachers of Los Angeles and UNITE HERE have counted on Hollywood workers as a part of their coalitions during strikes and direct actions.
DSA members and coalition partners have won board seats in several unions. DSA-Los Angeles’s (DSA-LA) Hollywood Labor Project was recently the subject of a positive profile in the Hollywood Reporter, a publication that was once notorious for red-baiting.
Whether IATSE will strike remains uncertain. A majority of delegates from participating locals must vote in favor of the authorization, and local delegates can only support the authorization if 75 percent of the local votes “yes.” While Hollywood unions tend to get a high percentage of “yes” votes — the 2017 WGA strike authorization passed with 96 percent in favor, while the 1980 SAG strike saw 90 percent of its members vote for a strike — it is crucial that the union get an overwhelming majority ahead of a potential strike.
In recent days, there has been an outpouring of support from prominent writers, actors, directors, and local politicians as the possibility of a strike looms. If the union does strike, it will enjoy robust support from an increasingly radicalized Hollywood.
It remains to be seen whether the AMPTP will concede to IATSE’s reasonable demands following an overwhelming majority strike authorization vote, or if the union will be forced to walk off the job. Either the AMPTP will voluntarily recognize which way the wind is blowing, or the union will have to show them.
Brenden Gallagher is a writer and director living in Los Angeles. He is a member of the WGA-W where he is a television show captain. He is a former member and ex-political coordinator of IATSE 871. He is a cofounder of DSA-LA’s Hollywood Labor Project.
Entertainment industry union IATSE calls for strike authorization vote
WSWSThe International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE), the bargaining agent for 140,000 technicians, artisans and craftspersons in the media and entertainment industry, called for a strike authorization vote on September 20, ten days after an extension of the previous contract expired. The vote will be held October 1–3 and cover the 13 West Coast locals that belong to the Hollywood Basic Agreement.
The following day, September 21, IATSE President Matthew Loeb and the leaders of the 23 locals located outside Los Angeles, covered by the Area Standards Agreement, sent a letter to their members calling for a strike authorization vote, claiming that the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers (AMPTP) had broken off negotiations by failing to respond to IATSE’s last offer.
In a statement about the contract negotiations, IATSE officals asserted, “It is incomprehensible that the AMPTP, an ensemble that includes media mega-corporations collectively worth trillions of dollars, claims it cannot provide behind-the-scenes crews with basic human necessities like adequate sleep, meal breaks, and living wages. Worse, management does not appear to even recognize our core issues as problems that exist in the first place.”
Conditions for below-the-line employees (crew members as opposed to script and story writers, producers, directors, actors and casting) have not only become intolerable, but they are also a danger to the health and safety of everyone on the set. Twelve-hour shifts are the norm and a majority of entertainment workers in Los Angeles are not earning a livable wage. Abuse is rampant, and breaks—if they are permitted—are too short and too infrequent. Workers complain they are being worked to death and that these conditions cannot continue.
The overwhelming sentiment of workers as it finds expression on social media is that change is urgently needed and that a strike is necessary. One worker, criticizing the union leadership, explained that Loeb “is the one that led us to this mess we are in. He alone said all the past contracts were great and we should ratify them. Now … all of a sudden everything is wrong. That said … if the producers can’t agree on a basic human need of time off (10- or 12-hr turn around and proper meal breaks) it really says it all. … Money and benefits are highly negotiable. The basic human necessities are not. For those alone I would vote [to] strike.”
One worker on the iatse_stories Instagram site commented bitterly, “You know what’s funny? The fact that we need to hear stories of 14–18 hour work days for people to be riled up. You know what’s crazy? 12 hour days. The fact that this hardly sets off alarms shows how far we’ve normalized this work/life imbalance.”
The World Socialist Web Site spoke with Elizabeth, who has been working in the business for two years. She began as a production assistant (PA) and then as an office PA before transitioning to her current position as a set decorator coordinator. She explained that when she worked as a PA, her shifts were normally from 14 to 17 hours a day. In six months, she only had two 12-hour shifts. She said, “Fatigue is a major issue, you have to stand all day, with only a half-hour break every six hours if you are lucky. Once we worked straight through without eating for an entire shift, but I did get the meal penalty pay, which is minimal.”
She also stated that, like others whose stories have come out on the iatse_stories Instagram page, she had fallen asleep twice in her car because of the grueling schedule. Elizabeth said that even when a crew member is ill, it is hard to get time off. She said she was sick for a week at the beginning of last year before her employers finally let her go home, and even then, it was only for two days. She also complained of abusive managers and rampant sexual harassment.
Elizabeth noted that the current project she is working on has so far been a good experience, but there was no guarantee that it would continue, or that the next project she works on would be the same. For that reason, she supports the strike authorization vote and would be very supportive of a strike if it occurs. “It’s good that they (IATSE), are taking a stand. The AMPTP does not want to even consider negotiating or changing anything.”
A warning must be issued. Matthew Loeb, IATSE president since 2008 and with a compensation package worth over $500,000, along with the rest of the IATSE leadership, will not conduct a struggle to improve wages and working conditions. They will sabotage and betray such a struggle. They are fully responsible for the current miserable conditions, the product of a history of accepting concessions to the AMPTP, contract after contract.
Moreover, the union is only now calling a strike authorization vote, 10 days after the extension of the contract had expired and almost two months after the expiration of the original contract. This is an indication of how little appetite they have for a confrontation with the employers.
Loeb was well aware of the issues IATSE workers faced before the contract expired July 31 and yet did nothing to prepare workers for the impending conflict. Rather than calling for a strike authorization vote before the contract ended, the IATSE leaders opted to extend the contract, while pausing negotiations to implement a looser (and more dangerous) COVID-19 protocol under which the industry works.
While the Delta variant was already surging, IATSE helped the AMPTP reduce COVID-19 requirements, thereby allowing the employers to ramp up production and stock up on product in order to weather any possible strike.
The new COVID-19 protocols are set to expire on September 30. It is entirely possible that negotiations will be paused once again, so that the corporations can loosen restrictions one more time and further endanger the health and safety of IATSE workers. IATSE has not called attention to the rise of the Delta variant and the death and destruction it has caused, or demanded the implementation of tighter restrictions or a suspension of production during which workers would have to receive full pay from the billion-dollar corporations.
Entertainment workers need to organize themselves democratically in rank-and-file committees and take the leadership in the struggle against the AMPTP. There has never been a better time for workers to engage in a fight against these corporate behemoths. The pandemic has caused massive delays in the production schedules of these corporations, and an immediate unified struggle against them will impact them greatly, but the longer they are allowed to keep production going, the longer they will be able to hold out during a strike, not to mention the human cost in the current conditions. Make the decision to form or join a rank-and-file committee today.
The following day, September 21, IATSE President Matthew Loeb and the leaders of the 23 locals located outside Los Angeles, covered by the Area Standards Agreement, sent a letter to their members calling for a strike authorization vote, claiming that the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers (AMPTP) had broken off negotiations by failing to respond to IATSE’s last offer.
In a statement about the contract negotiations, IATSE officals asserted, “It is incomprehensible that the AMPTP, an ensemble that includes media mega-corporations collectively worth trillions of dollars, claims it cannot provide behind-the-scenes crews with basic human necessities like adequate sleep, meal breaks, and living wages. Worse, management does not appear to even recognize our core issues as problems that exist in the first place.”
Conditions for below-the-line employees (crew members as opposed to script and story writers, producers, directors, actors and casting) have not only become intolerable, but they are also a danger to the health and safety of everyone on the set. Twelve-hour shifts are the norm and a majority of entertainment workers in Los Angeles are not earning a livable wage. Abuse is rampant, and breaks—if they are permitted—are too short and too infrequent. Workers complain they are being worked to death and that these conditions cannot continue.
The overwhelming sentiment of workers as it finds expression on social media is that change is urgently needed and that a strike is necessary. One worker, criticizing the union leadership, explained that Loeb “is the one that led us to this mess we are in. He alone said all the past contracts were great and we should ratify them. Now … all of a sudden everything is wrong. That said … if the producers can’t agree on a basic human need of time off (10- or 12-hr turn around and proper meal breaks) it really says it all. … Money and benefits are highly negotiable. The basic human necessities are not. For those alone I would vote [to] strike.”
One worker on the iatse_stories Instagram site commented bitterly, “You know what’s funny? The fact that we need to hear stories of 14–18 hour work days for people to be riled up. You know what’s crazy? 12 hour days. The fact that this hardly sets off alarms shows how far we’ve normalized this work/life imbalance.”
The World Socialist Web Site spoke with Elizabeth, who has been working in the business for two years. She began as a production assistant (PA) and then as an office PA before transitioning to her current position as a set decorator coordinator. She explained that when she worked as a PA, her shifts were normally from 14 to 17 hours a day. In six months, she only had two 12-hour shifts. She said, “Fatigue is a major issue, you have to stand all day, with only a half-hour break every six hours if you are lucky. Once we worked straight through without eating for an entire shift, but I did get the meal penalty pay, which is minimal.”
She also stated that, like others whose stories have come out on the iatse_stories Instagram page, she had fallen asleep twice in her car because of the grueling schedule. Elizabeth said that even when a crew member is ill, it is hard to get time off. She said she was sick for a week at the beginning of last year before her employers finally let her go home, and even then, it was only for two days. She also complained of abusive managers and rampant sexual harassment.
Elizabeth noted that the current project she is working on has so far been a good experience, but there was no guarantee that it would continue, or that the next project she works on would be the same. For that reason, she supports the strike authorization vote and would be very supportive of a strike if it occurs. “It’s good that they (IATSE), are taking a stand. The AMPTP does not want to even consider negotiating or changing anything.”
A warning must be issued. Matthew Loeb, IATSE president since 2008 and with a compensation package worth over $500,000, along with the rest of the IATSE leadership, will not conduct a struggle to improve wages and working conditions. They will sabotage and betray such a struggle. They are fully responsible for the current miserable conditions, the product of a history of accepting concessions to the AMPTP, contract after contract.
Moreover, the union is only now calling a strike authorization vote, 10 days after the extension of the contract had expired and almost two months after the expiration of the original contract. This is an indication of how little appetite they have for a confrontation with the employers.
Loeb was well aware of the issues IATSE workers faced before the contract expired July 31 and yet did nothing to prepare workers for the impending conflict. Rather than calling for a strike authorization vote before the contract ended, the IATSE leaders opted to extend the contract, while pausing negotiations to implement a looser (and more dangerous) COVID-19 protocol under which the industry works.
While the Delta variant was already surging, IATSE helped the AMPTP reduce COVID-19 requirements, thereby allowing the employers to ramp up production and stock up on product in order to weather any possible strike.
The new COVID-19 protocols are set to expire on September 30. It is entirely possible that negotiations will be paused once again, so that the corporations can loosen restrictions one more time and further endanger the health and safety of IATSE workers. IATSE has not called attention to the rise of the Delta variant and the death and destruction it has caused, or demanded the implementation of tighter restrictions or a suspension of production during which workers would have to receive full pay from the billion-dollar corporations.
Entertainment workers need to organize themselves democratically in rank-and-file committees and take the leadership in the struggle against the AMPTP. There has never been a better time for workers to engage in a fight against these corporate behemoths. The pandemic has caused massive delays in the production schedules of these corporations, and an immediate unified struggle against them will impact them greatly, but the longer they are allowed to keep production going, the longer they will be able to hold out during a strike, not to mention the human cost in the current conditions. Make the decision to form or join a rank-and-file committee today.
DGA, SAG-AFTRA, WGA East, WGA West &
Teamsters Express “Solidarity” With IATSE –
Updated
By David Robb
Labor Editor
More Stories By David
September 24, 2021 4:00pm
IATSE
UPDATED with WGA West Statement: Hollywood’s unions have issued a statement of support for IATSE in its efforts to reach a new film and TV contract with management’s AMPTP, saying that they “stand in solidarity” with IATSE as it prepares to conduct a strike authorization among its members.
Twitter
The statement was signed by leaders of the DGA, SAG-AFTRA, the WGA East and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters: “On behalf of our hundreds of thousands of members working across film and television, we stand in solidarity with our IATSE brothers, sisters and kin,” the unions said. “The basic quality of life and living wage rights they’re fighting for in their negotiations are the issues that impact all of us who work on sets and productions. We stand with the IATSE.”
The joint statement was signed by DGA president Lesli Linka Glatter and national executive director Russell Hollander; SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher and national executive director Duncan Crabtree-Ireland; WGA East president Michael Winship and executive director Lowell Peterson, and Teamsters president James P. Hoffa.
Separately, the WGA West’s newly elected officers said in a tweet that “We stand with our sisters and brothers of IATSE in their worthy fight for safe working conditions and a fair contract.” The tweet was signed “in solidarity” by president Meredith Stiehm, vice president Michele Mulroney, and secretary-treasurer Betsy Thomas.
Fran Drescher & Other SAG-AFTRA Leaders Join Chorus Of Actors Supporting IATSE’s Demands For Fair Contract
UPDATED with WGA West Statement: Hollywood’s unions have issued a statement of support for IATSE in its efforts to reach a new film and TV contract with management’s AMPTP, saying that they “stand in solidarity” with IATSE as it prepares to conduct a strike authorization among its members.
TwitterThe statement was signed by leaders of the DGA, SAG-AFTRA, the WGA East and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters: “On behalf of our hundreds of thousands of members working across film and television, we stand in solidarity with our IATSE brothers, sisters and kin,” the unions said. “The basic quality of life and living wage rights they’re fighting for in their negotiations are the issues that impact all of us who work on sets and productions. We stand with the IATSE.”
The joint statement was signed by DGA president Lesli Linka Glatter and national executive director Russell Hollander; SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher and national executive director Duncan Crabtree-Ireland; WGA East president Michael Winship and executive director Lowell Peterson, and Teamsters president James P. Hoffa.
Separately, the WGA West’s newly elected officers said in a tweet that “We stand with our sisters and brothers of IATSE in their worthy fight for safe working conditions and a fair contract.” The tweet was signed “in solidarity” by president Meredith Stiehm, vice president Michele Mulroney, and secretary-treasurer Betsy Thomas.
Fran Drescher & Other SAG-AFTRA Leaders Join Chorus Of Actors Supporting IATSE’s Demands For Fair Contract
The (Possible) IATSE Strike Explained
By Jen Maravegias | Miscellaneous | September 24, 2021 |
This is a little bit Inside Baseball for casual consumers of film, television, and theater, but it’s important not only to the theater and film/television industries but also to the big picture of workers’ rights in this country. Do you remember the writers’ strike back in 2007? Well, this is bigger and could have a much larger impact on everything we watch.
IATSE is The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, Moving Picture Technicians, Artists and Allied Crafts of the United States, Its Territories and Canada. Representing more than 150,000 workers across basically every aspect of the entertainment industry, IATSE’s mission is to improve all entertainment workers’ lives both inside and outside the workplace. The union covers everyone from craft services to writers, stage managers to lighting designers, and they’ve just authorized a strike vote. If they do vote to strike next week, productions across the country will shut down just as they’re revving back up after almost two years of Covid lockdowns.
IATSE has been in talks with The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) for months trying to renegotiate their basic agreements to address a list of grievous workplace issues:
• Excessively unsafe and harmful working hours.
• Unlivable wages for the lowest-paid crafts.
• Consistent failure to provide reasonable rest during meal breaks, between workdays, and on weekends.
• Workers on certain “new media” streaming projects get paid less, even on productions with budgets that rival or exceed those of traditionally released blockbusters.
To put this in perspective, members of The AMPTP include Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures, Universal Pictures, Walt Disney Studios, and Warner Bros. So when you go to Twitter and read the stories that are part of #IALivingWage and #IAReasonableRest, or go to Instagram and check out ia_stories you need to understand that it’s not like the AMPTP couldn’t just throw money at this to fix things. They simply don’t want to. Because Capitalism.
Not a single one of the shows or movies we all enjoy on linear TV, cable, in theaters, or streaming would exist without IATSE members. These are the folks who have specialized, technical skill sets and work 16-20 hours a day on productions, in most cases for non-livable wages (you try living in L.A on $16/hour.) Often they’re not given proper breaks for meals because it’s cheaper to pay the penalty than budget and take time out of shooting for proper meal breaks. They’re not given reasonable time off, sometimes expected to make do with a 3-4 hour break between the end of one workday and the start of the next. These working conditions can lead to health issues, but do they have time or money to see doctors? NO.
IATSE members spend weeks and months at a time working on productions side by side with actors and directors. There are no televised award shows for them. No profit-sharing or back-end deals. Hell, how many of us actually even sit and watch all of the credits at the end of a movie? But without them, none of the magic would happen.
Despite some entertainment news outlets framing this strike vote as IATSE vs The Industry, a lot of actual members of the industry and SAG-AFTRA support the IATSE strike. So, suck it, Deadline.
I haven’t even gone off about the whole idea that streaming is still considered “new media” and therefore subject to an entirely unfair pay rate. Netflix started offering streaming 14 YEARS AGO. Amazon Prime Video debuted as “Amazon Unbox” 15 YEARS AGO. Streaming. Isn’t. New. The longer the studios refuse to accept that and renegotiate contracts to include fair compensation for streaming projects, the more actions like this and lawsuits like Scarlett Johansson’s we’re going to see.
The federal minimum wage stalled out at $7.25/hour in 2009. In the 12 years since then, the fight for fair wages is constantly being fought state by state, industry by industry, employer by employer. We’ve watched it play out with the Nabisco and Mondelez International strikes that started last month. We’ll see it in Hollywood if these giant, multi-national, multi-million dollar corporations don’t get with the program and start meeting their workers’ basic human needs. While an IATSE strike could mean catastrophe for the industry all of us here love and enjoy the fruits of, we cannot expect the hardest working among us to continue busting their asses in unsafe working conditions for low wages while other people get rich (and stay rich) off of their sweat.
#IStandWithIATSE and all the workers. And so should you.
Hollywood Celebrities Rally Behind IATSE Strike Vote
By Jazz Tangcay
Plus Icon
VARIETY
A number of Hollywood celebrities have taken to social media this week to show solidarity with the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees ahead of a strike vote.
Talks between IATSE and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers have broken down as the workers who support productions seek improvements on meal and rest periods, longer turnarounds between production days, and improved rates on streaming projects. While crew members share their support for a possible strike, actors including Mindy Kaling, Seth Rogen, Sarah Paulson and SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher are among those who have all shared posts using the #IASolidarity.
Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin posed in t-shirts showing their support for strike action. The tweet shared by IATSE Local 600 said, “Icons, forever and always. @JaneFonda and @LilyTomlin stand alongside @IATSE in #IASolidarity. #IAVoteYes”
Hollywood Unions Show Solidarity Ahead of Strike Vote: ‘We Stand With IATSE’
Oscar-winning actress Anna Paquin shared a link to an online petition urging for her followers to sign the form in solidarity. Paquin wrote, “Their lives depend on it.” The petition called for Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) to “make a fair deal with IATSE film and television workers by addressing grievous problems.” So far, nearly 50,000 signatures have been collected.
Another actress and producer sharing her voice was Kerry Washington. She wrote, “There are so many talented humans who make the movies and TV shows we love! You may not see them on screen but they are the magic makers and the glue that holds any set together. I urge the #IATSE to hear them. And I stand with my brothers & sisters in this strike #IASolidarity.”
Similarly, actress Rachel Zegler posted shortly after the new “West Side Story” trailer was released. Ziegler, who appears as Maria in the film, wrote, “If you enjoyed our trailer for West Side Story, you must know that none of the beauty of our film would be possible without the tireless efforts of our incredible crew. Crews work harder than anyone in the business, and deserve the best treatment. #IASolidarity #IALivingWage.”
Health plan funding, pension plans, rest breaks, longer turnaround times between production hours and concessions to shorten the workday are among the agenda items that IATSE are seeking for union members.
