Santa Barbara - Fwix: "Members of a local stagehand union have gone on strike and say they will boycott all live shows at The Arlington Theatre because of failed contract negotiations with its owner, Metropolitan Theatre Corp.
There are about 60 employees in Local 442 of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, Moving Picture Technicians, Artists and Allied Crafts."
2 comments:
I support the system of union, especially for positions like backstage worker for entertainment industry and worker at plants and factories of manufacturing company, because they have to be protected in terms of payment, healthcare and safety. Without union, the employers tend to disregard the working condition of workers.
In Japan, the crew and staff of entertainment production such as TV, theatre and film are basically employed by the TV/production company. There is not a rigid union system such as that of the U.S. Their payment, especially for the employees in subcontractors, is too low for the hard nature of its work, which has sometimes no sense of time.
While I see the preferable points in the guaranteed certain amount of payment and fringe benefits, I have often heard the inefficiency of union system. The system tend to lose the competitiveness among the employers. I need more study to see which is better or not. At least, I felt very pleasant when I saw stagehand members working with the pride as a theatre professional.
It is a shame that unions have to strike to get what they want. As a person that is trying to get into the industry unions get in the way of getting an internship at some theaters or locations. When I hear about theaters having issues like this over little things in my mined I think what is the purpose of the unions? Unions have rules that don’t allow any one on the stage if they are on break and all work has to be done by unions member. I also understand that unions have many good things that they do for the people in them but sometimes I think that they should not exist or be rethought in some way for our changing society.
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