Hill has been hoping to explain that Live Nation condemns stagehands in his home region to poverty-level wages while depriving them health and retirement benefits. Conditions in many venues are dangerous and unhealthy — sometimes the workers aren't even given water to drink. Safety training is all but nonexistent.
2 comments:
To me, this is an incredibly ridiculous problem to have, and I believe that it’s ethically wrong to try and circumvent the union rules in such a convoluted manor. There’s a reason they signed a contract with IATSE, because they want the labor the union provides. There’s a reason IATSE has some stringent rules in their contracts, because they want the wellbeing and quality of work of their people to be at acceptable levels. When you try and bypass this structure, then you end up screwing people over for a profit, and that is exactly what is happening to these stage hands with Crew One and Live Nation. The article seems to point out that this is a trend, the contracting of labor in a convoluted manor to cut costs, and while I don’t know enough about the issue to propose a solution, it seems to me that IATSE might want to augment their contracts with a clause that forbids such a situation to occur with the production companies it works with, but again, I don’t know
The article raises some very good questions. This summer, I remember reading about how some IATSE members were upset because the Delta Foundation and Pride were not using IATSE members for their concerts and events. Now I don’t have an extensive knowledge of IATSE history, however from what I do know is that the union formed by stagehands for theatre, not for events. Now, I totally think that there is a place for union stagehands in concerts and events, however I think it is going to take time, and certain conversations will need to happen, and based on this article it seems like they will soon. What’s interesting about the company, CrewOne, is the sheer number and name of groups that they have worked for. It just seems like this company has flown a little too far under the radar to be able to exist as it does for much longer.
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