Deadline: IATSE is gearing up for a possible strike against the film and television industry, which would be the first industry-wide strike in the union’s history. The union and management’s AMPTP will return to the bargaining table on Thursday in an effort to reach an agreement on a new film and TV contract in advance of Friday’s expiration of their current deal.
4 comments:
I heard about this a couple of days ago in my seminar class and what blew me away is that this might be one of the few times that the union goes on a strike. Maybe I grew up with the mindset that unions tend to have more strikes because of how unstable things can get at times, but it is also a great thing that the union has not had to have one, to me that seems like things were working. And now that things are not working, I am glad that they are thinking of standing up for what they want, because that is something that should always happen, especially since your workers rights are meant to serve and safeguard the workers' interests.
It is always interesting to me to see arguments issue over what is a decent living wage or what is a fair offer to employees, regarding various topics. If a group that has never been on strike before was threatening to go on strike, I’d think that what they are asking for must seem reasonable and fair to all involved. It’s always sad to me to see big corporations fighting against allowing other people (that work for them) to have a better quality of life. I know everything comes down to money but the whole argument is always so political and ridiculous. I am glad that we have unions to stand up for keeping rights of employees current and fair, according to the changing times. I don’t think this article mentions it, but I believe this disagreement in contract just involves the TV industry, specifically streamed contracts, and does not involve live theatre contracts.
I had no idea how many locals IATSE had and also how many people the union represents in total. I’m surprised that in it’s over 100 year history there have never been any union-wide strikes. It sounds like they have the language in their bylaws and a route by which to authorize a strike. It’s also interesting how the specific nationwide locals are in the 100 series. It seems like more reasonable work days are in order and that is a very reasonable request. At some point work becomes less safe and effective and if union members are really on their feet working straight for 14 hours I can’t imagine they’re as safe or as effective (or as happy) as they would be with 8 hour days. My hope is that the two organizations can come to a reasonable agreement in the middle where retirement benefits as well as work day hours are improved.
I’m a bit surprised this hasn’t happened sooner, although the timing does seem to make sense. Covid shutdowns, as many people have said here before, were a huge opportunity for reflection on the way industries operate, and the changes (or lack thereof) making their way across different workplaces are somewhat to be expected. It makes sense that an IATSE strike would wait until covid regulations are settling down and reopening is in full swing (wisely or not), because that’s when a strike would have maximum impact. The requests here are clearly reasonable, although would potentially require restructuring of filming schedules to be accommodated, but the insane working hours of the film industry have been a topic of discussion for years, and the welfare of employees should generally be a top priority of employers.
I also saw an interesting article the other day about how the wild use of green screen and CGI in Marvel movies, to the point of using CGI to change a prop gun into another gun, or two characters being filmed in a full green screen studio just to be digitally placed in a bar, can be somewhat attributed to the fact that while set and prop designers are unionized, digital effects artists are not, making it more cost-effective to simply exploit them instead. I’m curious about the effects of an IATSE strike on that, and also on the possibility of the CGI industry (if that’s a thing) being able to unionize as well.
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