Deadline: Hollywood’s unions are hurting. Membership dues, their largest source of revenue, have plummeted during the pandemic as a result of massive job losses and dues relief they’ve provided to their members. Annual financial reports that have just been filed with the Department of Labor show that entertainment industry unions across the country suffered tens of millions of dollars in dues shortfalls last year compared with 2019. Some unions saw their dues intake reduced by more than half.
3 comments:
I found this article very interesting because I had not thought of how the unions of the world would be impacted by the pandemic. It makes complete sense to me that they were, but it was just not something that I had thought of before. I am also very glad to hear that the unions were providing relief to their members as they were struggling with making ends meet. It is the first I am hearing of it and being that in the future it is entirely possible I will be joining some branch of IATSE it makes me very happy to hear that they are taking care of their members. I found it interesting that the article presented so many statistics about the rise and fall of dues intake from the different branches and unions. Comparing them was very interesting and seeing which ones saw an increase while other saw a massive decrease was almost confusing.
I had no idea how much money is wrapped up in the unions and union operations. I've only learned recently how great IATSE is about saving money and putting it into retirement and health insurance. However, budgets in the millions of dollars surprise me because that means that the operation is large, with many employees. My idea of the way unions operate normally is that they’re volunteer positions on shoestring budgets, but I’m not even sure how that stereotype got in my head. The other interesting thing about this article is it mentions many of the different specialty locals that I didn’t know existed and it seems that there are a massive number of IATSE locals, not to mention that IATSE is part of the AFL-CIO making it have some pretty large resources. It’s also a good sign that management is doing their job when they are able to afford such an extreme drought as in the case of this pandemic where 9 months out of the year were famine.
This article brought a very surprising narrative of unions been greatly affected by the pandemic, not only in theater and entertainment, but in every single industry. Unions are very important and an integral part of our working society in the United States. Organize labor was born out of the blood sweat and tears of those who came before us to ensure that everybody who worked for most of their life would be able to live a good life and work in good conditions. Nowadays a lot of people have mixed opinions about unions. Some people don’t like it because of the favoritism for family members and friends and also because of the extensive union dues that members need to pay to the union. I definitely am pro union and believe that they do more good than bad. It is super sad to see the predicament that the Hollywood unions have found them self in because of lack of work and membership is based on paying union dues, and if nobody’s working no one can afford union dues! It will be interesting to see how unions recover during the rest of the course of the pandemic.
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