: Sixty thousand film and television crew members are finally set to vote on tentative agreements announced in mid-October. Emboldened by the high turnout for their strike authorization vote, many members are continuing to speak out about the long hours and dangerous conditions they endure to produce profits for Netflix, Amazon, and Disney. Labor Notes spoke with IATSE Local 80 member Brandy Tannahill, who is organizing an Inter-Local IATSE Town Hall for members tomorrow, November 10, to discuss the tentative agreement and next steps if the agreement is not ratified.
Wednesday, November 10, 2021
Interview: Why I’m Voting No on the IATSE Hollywood Basic Tentative Agreement
Labor Notes
: Sixty thousand film and television crew members are finally set to vote on tentative agreements announced in mid-October. Emboldened by the high turnout for their strike authorization vote, many members are continuing to speak out about the long hours and dangerous conditions they endure to produce profits for Netflix, Amazon, and Disney. Labor Notes spoke with IATSE Local 80 member Brandy Tannahill, who is organizing an Inter-Local IATSE Town Hall for members tomorrow, November 10, to discuss the tentative agreement and next steps if the agreement is not ratified.
: Sixty thousand film and television crew members are finally set to vote on tentative agreements announced in mid-October. Emboldened by the high turnout for their strike authorization vote, many members are continuing to speak out about the long hours and dangerous conditions they endure to produce profits for Netflix, Amazon, and Disney. Labor Notes spoke with IATSE Local 80 member Brandy Tannahill, who is organizing an Inter-Local IATSE Town Hall for members tomorrow, November 10, to discuss the tentative agreement and next steps if the agreement is not ratified.
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Just because an agreement is reached does not mean that the agreement is a good one for union members, and this article interview really highlights how upset union members are about this agreement. From my own memory of around the time of the strike authorization vote, union members were ready to strike, hell they wanted to strike! If that’s what it took to end the egregious abuses happening to technical workers on film sets, the energy was there, but the union doesn’t want to push as hard as the rank and file do. Union leadership made a deal right before the strike was bound to happen and have paraded this deal around as “monumental”, when in reality it is mediocre at best. The rules imposed are not strong enough to prevent the grueling hours union members are allowed to work and the only substantial wage increase in the deal still isn’t seen as enough for the union members that would benefit from them. The union has so much energy and momentum from their rank and file that I don’t see why the union isn’t fighting for even more, because film workers deserve to see their families and not die of exhaustion.
The person being interviewed in this article makes a number of good points. Among them is that while the union certainly showed its strength via a strike and its ability to stand up to producers in the industry, the contract negotiation that they have currently worked out is not enough of a change. The changes to policy on hours that shooting is allowed in have loopholes that mean that crew members still won’t have enough free time in order to see their families, and the raises promised in the contract still don’t chalk up to a living wage. It’s unfortunate and upsetting that after such an inspiring and unprecedented show of force for the film industry, union leads are settling for very small negotiations. I don’t know if they will ultimately settle on this contract as the final deal, but hopefully this is not the end for labor victories in film.
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