CMU School of Drama


Sunday, September 02, 2012

Union Protests Hit Toronto Film Festival

Speakeasy - WSJ: Union protests likely aren’t the kind of publicity the Toronto International Film Festival is looking for, as event organizers rev up preparations for the annual, star-studded festival, which starts early next month.

2 comments:

David Feldsberg said...

While on the one hand it is unfair that the festival is outsourcing jobs and taken incomes from union workers, at the same time it would be in poor taste for the protesters to disrupt the festival. I am not saying that they should not protest, by all means they should have their voices heard and if they wish to do it along with the festival that is fine too, but when their demonstrations deter the artists who made the films from getting their message out to an audience, it has gone too far. For now, I hope that things remain peaceful and I hope that both union and festival get what they want.

Brian Alderman said...

When the technology changes, the agreement must change. You cannot reasonably expect an agreement drafted in the 70's to apply to the current technology, whatever it says. The Union will eventually, if they keep this up, make it completely impractical for the festival to accept submissions in multiple formats and will then lose the union all of those jobs anyways. So what are they doing? This is something I have seen in multiple industries (cars): not adapting to new technology and adapting what the jobs that entails are. Eventually, that will end those jobs and the business anyways.