Tuesday, March 24, 2015
Equity E-mails Its Members, Explains What a Union Is
Parabasis: AEA took the rhetorical gloves off today, explaining why it was offensive to use civil rights era imagery as part of a protest against the union and giving people a refresher course on what a union is for. My guess is this only serves to further antagonize people who don't support the union's position (there is some public calls for the union to apologize for the letter, but I see nothing in here necessitating an apology), but part of me is just happy to see them stand up for themselves in the face of millionaire movie stars tacitly advocating for their most vulnerable employees to turn scab.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
I don't know the immense details surrounding the Uniion and how it all works but at the basis of it, I imagine there insetting wrong or bad about demanding fair pay for those in a labor-ful job such as acting. I understand that out of greed some say that equity demanding a certain pay grade for its actors and only allowing actors to work a certain number of hours can be restricting and put those funding the show in a harder position, however, an actor is not a lesser worker. Acting takes training, hours, hard work, and full commitment just like any other job therefore it is absolutely fair and necessary in my opinion that these trained professionals working in services should be rewarded so at the same level as anyone else. Minimum wage should absolutely be required for actors. This is not only a rights issue but also brings up the human value put on an actor. of course rehearsal is important but working an actor into the ground is inhumane. It is still very hard work.
Actors Equity wrote an amazing letter and anyone who thinks they should apologize is being ridiculous. Equating trying to make it mandatory for actors to be paid a living wage with the oppression that the Civil Rights Movement was fighting is beyond disrespectful to both the union and any one who actively participated in the Civil Rights Movement. For some reason arts institutions get this holier than thou attitude about the work that they do and think that it is something grander then it is. Yes, art changes lives and starts important conversations, but that doesn’t mean they are above having to pay people a living wage for their contributions or that any attack on the is akin to what African Americans suffered in this country during and before the Civil Right Movement. Every one truly needs to get a hold of themselves and figure out how to best deal with this conflict with out acting out.
Post a Comment