Jump to content

Eric Atreides

IATSE Strike Discussion Thread | Deal ratified

Recommended Posts

50 minutes ago, Plain Old Tele said:


One of the issues: the studios have always claimed streaming is “new media” — an “experiment” that could totally fail and isn’t guaranteed to be a money-maker at all. (They actually refuse to call it streaming in the negotiation offers). “New Media” usually means crews work for lower rates and the studios don’t have to pay into the healthcare & pension system. Any streamer with less than 20m subs falls into this special category (so Netflix is exempt but Apple, Peacock, etc can take advantage of it.)

 

Work and lunch breaks are an issue too. The companies are required to break for a meal every six hours… or pay meal penalties to the crew. Problem is, some productions now just say fuck it and pay the meal penalties without giving people a break. (Worth pointing out here that in their early round of negotiations the studios wanted to *reduce* meal penalty costs.)
 

Another issue is turnaround — basically how much of a break you get between workdays. It depends on the local, but most crew are on 9 or 10-hour turnaround. So if you wrap at 10pm, your call time the next day would be 7am or 8am… but it doesn’t take into account commute time or how many days you’ve worked consecutively. So if you’re shooting 90 minutes away from where you live, you wrap at 10pm, go home around 11:30, to wake up at 5am to get back to location by call time. To make it worse, when you’re on location and get a precious day off, companies often schedule that day as a “company move” day… so your “day off” might be at the airport, trying to sleep in between flights. Then there’s “Fraturdays”, where Friday is a split day or night shoot and you wrap at 6am on a Saturday, meaning by the time you’re home and get some sleep, you’ve lost most of one of your days off. 
 

People have put up with this shit for decades, but the recent solidarity campaign on social media has really opened people’s eyes as to how systemic this all is. 
 

On top of this, these 3-year contracts usually offer some small pay raise. 
 

There’s some formal info here:

https://www.basicagreement.iatse.net
 

And @ia_stories on Twitter and Instagram is where people are sharing work experiences anonymously. 
 

Press coverage here:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/10/04/hollywood-strike-vote-production-workers/

 

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2021-10-04/iatse-strike-hollywood-crews-contract-labor-negotiations
 

 

 


Thanks for this - incredibly informative for someone out of the loop.
 

And this is awful. I hope IATSE gets the better working conditions and pay they deserve. 
 

I’m not sure how the studios can, with a straight face, characterize so-called “new media” as experimental or an uncertainty at this point. Streaming shows now outnumber those through traditional means, and are totally where it’s at. Case in point: streamers just swept the major series categories at the Emmy’s.

 

Peace,

Mike

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites



18 hours ago, Cmasterclay said:

 


Back in my day, you had to wait a whole year between Marvel projects! 🙄

 

Anyway, as someone who was very active with the WGA strike, and has worked those long hours on sets: let the IASTE be out for months if they have to. Get that fair contract!

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thank god for social media that anything unfair cannot be kept under wraps. No way Apple can get away from corporate responsibility as a public company(comcast is shit and so will try to keep status quo). Why would netflix do nothing if their productions must have the same conditions as movie studios. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites







On 10/5/2021 at 2:32 PM, Cap said:


Back in my day, you had to wait a whole year between Marvel projects! 🙄

 

Anyway, as someone who was very active with the WGA strike, and has worked those long hours on sets: let the IASTE be out for months if they have to. Get that fair contract!

I 100% agree and support the strikers, but you now we are going to get overwhelmed here by people blaming the Union for causing the film's release date to be pushed back......too many people here live in their own little world and seem oblivious to anything that happens outside it, until reality intrudes on their little world..as it usually does. Look how few people here took Covid seriously until it meant their theater closed.....

Link to comment
Share on other sites



8 hours ago, tonytr87 said:

I feel for the crews, but at the same time, they should've done this ages ago. Why the hell were they putting up with this? 

Same reason we all put up with BS in our jobs, gotta put food on the table.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites



11 hours ago, tonytr87 said:

I feel for the crews, but at the same time, they should've done this ages ago. Why the hell were they putting up with this? 

Covid putting studios in a desperate pinch probably helped a fair bit to motivate the workers to unite behind a strike.

Edited by cookie
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

12 hours ago, tonytr87 said:

I feel for the crews, but at the same time, they should've done this ages ago. Why the hell were they putting up with this? 

I presume it's to assert maximum pressure on the situation, so as to make the executives consider the huge losses that could be incurred if they do not satisfy the basic necessities of film production workers. Holiday Season is big business for the entertainment industry.

Link to comment
Share on other sites



Traditionally people haven’t widely shared their experiences beyond their immediate core group of friends and co-workers. The studios have also been very clever at avoiding a united IATSE by playing the unions against each other: giving some locals things they want while refusing to do so for others. In the 2018 negotiations, for example, the Editor’s Guild felt the offers were untenable and that we should negotiate harder, to get better long-term options. But the other locals — in particular the Cinematographer’s Guild — felt they had gotten enough concessions so the editors were overruled. 
 

This time around, yes, COVID has made everyone more aware of the issues. Social media has blown up so that crew members can see their bad experiences weren’t isolated occurrences. And frankly, the studios are behaving like mustache-twirling villains. To claim streaming isn’t viable while they rake in record amounts of money is just insulting — and crew members are well aware of how much money the studios casually tossed at A-list talent to keep them happy as well.  

  • Like 11
Link to comment
Share on other sites





Curious about how this would impact people who work for the big SFX houses who do a lot of the effects work.

I am pretty sure that ILM employess would go out since ILM is part of Disney but how would it impact those whor work at the independent houses who survive on contract work from the studios (Digital Domain, etc).

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites



10 minutes ago, dudalb said:

Curious about how this would impact people who work for the big SFX houses who do a lot of the effects work.

I am pretty sure that ILM employess would go out since ILM is part of Disney but how would it impact those whor work at the independent houses who survive on contract work from the studios (Digital Domain, etc).

 

Unfortunately there's no VFX Union that is recognized by the studios.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites



52 minutes ago, dudalb said:

Curious about how this would impact people who work for the big SFX houses who do a lot of the effects work.

I am pretty sure that ILM employess would go out since ILM is part of Disney but how would it impact those whor work at the independent houses who survive on contract work from the studios (Digital Domain, etc).

 


Like grim said, VFX aren’t within the IATSE umbrella (sadly). Skywalker Sound people *are* in Local 700 (editors, sound mixers, etc etc) but they’re working under a different contract than what’s currently being negotiated, so technically they wouldn’t strike. BUT they often work on other stages and in conjunction with other post houses (Warner Brothers, etc) and those stages and their techs ARE on the current contract being negotiated, so it would probably affect things at Skywalker Sound too. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites



Good piece by The Atlantic here: https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2021/10/iatse-strike-hollywood-labor-conditions/620350/

 

Also, we received an update that both sides are continuing to negotiate (and will tomorrow as well) but haven’t made much progress. There was also a hint that the strike may happen sooner rather than later if progress isn’t made. 

Edited by Plain Old Tele
Link to comment
Share on other sites



16 minutes ago, Plain Old Tele said:

Good piece by The Atlantic here: https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2021/10/iatse-strike-hollywood-labor-conditions/620350/

 

Also, we received an update that both sides are continuing to negotiate (and will tomorrow as well) but haven’t made much progress. There was also a hint that the strike may happen sooner rather than later if progress isn’t made. 

 

Gotta make sure that NWH isn't put into crunch mode and dragged over the finish line while talks are still ongoing. :ph34r:

Link to comment
Share on other sites



Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.



  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use and Guidelines. Feel free to read our Privacy Policy as well.