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Tuesday, September 28, 2021
IATSE Members Cancel Streaming Subscriptions in Lead-up to Strike Vote
Variety: As a strike authorization vote looms, some IATSE members have decided to cancel their streaming subscriptions in hopes of sending a message that would hit the studios in the pocketbook.
Nowadays, is it amazing how much power lies in streaming subscriptions. Even though explains that it still sends a message as companies often don’t want social movements to go against them. The main purpose of this strike is to change disparities in pay across the same discipline and create more breaks during workdays. Pertaining to work hours, this article reminded me that these hours are not only laborious and unattainable for humans to remain healthy, but these requirements can lead to dangerous repercussions. For example, the article mentions the fact that a worker can easily dose off while driving to and from work because of the lack of sleep they had due to their work hours. This can lead to catastrophic consequences that could be easily avoided if workers were treated like humans and valued the same way as their corporate level counterparts. Personally, I have experienced this bodily shutdown when not given enough hours of sleep or time to eat during the day. For example, after every show weekend in my high school, I (and many of my peers) typically miss the next week or so of school because we all have colds. This is because of how run down our bodies are from getting home only 7 hours before we need get up again to go to school and have all our homework finished.
I appreciate the union's suggestion of canceling subscriptions because it’s a significant, tangible thing to do that will hopefully put public pressure on the tech giants. It makes me sad that these companies are unwilling to shell out an appropriate wage for these working class craftspeople. This just shows that if you give someone an inch, they’ll take a mile and maybe IATSE shouldn’t have let them off easy to start with. Who cares if the “new media” industry took longer to flourish. At least the employees would be paid a reasonable wage. I hope that actors back up IATSE and would consider the same thing. I am curious if “new media” is under the jurisdiction of the screen actors guild. This could be a chance for the unions to show they have each other's backs and that the working people won’t stand for money to be made and leave them out of it.
I feel that the unions sort of dropped the ball by not building in provisions that define circumstances at which these lower wage rates would increase to be in line with the rest of the industry. This feels very much like how Sears thought the internet was just a fad and made no effort to expand to an online market until it was far too late.
It's good that the union is doing something now, but shouldn't the union be doing things proactively to protect it's employees? I agree with Owen that hopefully the actors that are also profiting off of the exploitation of the stage employees will stand alongside IA and speak out. But honestly I doubt that they will. I presume it's relatively easy to get blacklisted in the industry if you don't have the staying power.
3 comments:
Nowadays, is it amazing how much power lies in streaming subscriptions. Even though explains that it still sends a message as companies often don’t want social movements to go against them. The main purpose of this strike is to change disparities in pay across the same discipline and create more breaks during workdays. Pertaining to work hours, this article reminded me that these hours are not only laborious and unattainable for humans to remain healthy, but these requirements can lead to dangerous repercussions. For example, the article mentions the fact that a worker can easily dose off while driving to and from work because of the lack of sleep they had due to their work hours. This can lead to catastrophic consequences that could be easily avoided if workers were treated like humans and valued the same way as their corporate level counterparts. Personally, I have experienced this bodily shutdown when not given enough hours of sleep or time to eat during the day. For example, after every show weekend in my high school, I (and many of my peers) typically miss the next week or so of school because we all have colds. This is because of how run down our bodies are from getting home only 7 hours before we need get up again to go to school and have all our homework finished.
I appreciate the union's suggestion of canceling subscriptions because it’s a significant, tangible thing to do that will hopefully put public pressure on the tech giants. It makes me sad that these companies are unwilling to shell out an appropriate wage for these working class craftspeople. This just shows that if you give someone an inch, they’ll take a mile and maybe IATSE shouldn’t have let them off easy to start with. Who cares if the “new media” industry took longer to flourish. At least the employees would be paid a reasonable wage. I hope that actors back up IATSE and would consider the same thing. I am curious if “new media” is under the jurisdiction of the screen actors guild. This could be a chance for the unions to show they have each other's backs and that the working people won’t stand for money to be made and leave them out of it.
I feel that the unions sort of dropped the ball by not building in provisions that define circumstances at which these lower wage rates would increase to be in line with the rest of the industry. This feels very much like how Sears thought the internet was just a fad and made no effort to expand to an online market until it was far too late.
It's good that the union is doing something now, but shouldn't the union be doing things proactively to protect it's employees? I agree with Owen that hopefully the actors that are also profiting off of the exploitation of the stage employees will stand alongside IA and speak out. But honestly I doubt that they will. I presume it's relatively easy to get blacklisted in the industry if you don't have the staying power.
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