IATSE Strike Discussion Thread | Deal ratified

[Eric Duncan]

 

Felt this needed its own separate thread of discussion, as this potential strike will impact the box office and release schedule hard, at a time when the industry was just starting to get back on the right foot.

 

As always, be courteous and respectful to fellow BOT posters as well as the workers fighting for better conditions.

[Jamiem]

Hopefully this gets resolved quickly.

 

Better work conditions for crew and no major delays of film/tv would be best for both parties. 

[Plain Old Tele]

The AMPTP has apparently agreed to return to talks. (This was expected, I assume.) 

[grim22]

Just now, Plain Old Tele said:

The AMPTP has apparently agreed to return to talks. (This was expected, I assume.) 

 

I think we see a small strike before things are resolved because Amazon, Netflix and Apple who will be most directly hit by the negotiations will want to push back a bit before they see the threat is real.

 

Also, I just don't trust the AMPTP to do the right thing in the first big negotiation.

 

[Plain Old Tele]

25 minutes ago, grim22 said:

 

I think we see a small strike before things are resolved because Amazon, Netflix and Apple who will be most directly hit by the negotiations will want to push back a bit before they see the threat is real.

 

Also, I just don't trust the AMPTP to do the right thing in the first big negotiation.

 

Almost assuredly their first offer will be crap. 
 

Also, I’ve seen some dark prognostications that the tech companies would be perfectly happy to let the studios slowly die from the strike so they can then acquire them for cheap later. Hopefully it never even remotely gets to that point. 

[CJohn]

22 minutes ago, Plain Old Tele said:

Almost assuredly their first offer will be crap. 
 

Also, I’ve seen some dark prognostications that the tech companies would be perfectly happy to let the studios slowly die from the strike so they can then acquire them for cheap later. Hopefully it never even remotely gets to that point. 

Accept streaming in your life.

[Plain Old Tele]

6 minutes ago, CJ Sarandos said:

Accept streaming in your life.

Let them pay us decent wages for decent hours (among other things).

[WrathOfHan]

The following films in post-production on IMDb are at risk of being removed from the schedule from Nov-Mar if the strike lasts as long as the WGA one did back in 2007/2008:

 

November 24: House of Gucci

November 26: Licorice Pizza

Completed/Safe: Eternals, Belfast, Ghostbusters: Afterlife, King Richard, Encanto, Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City

 

December 10: Don't Look Up, A Journal for Jordan, Violence of Action, West Side Story

December 17: Nightmare Alley, Spider-Man: No Way Home

December 22: The Matrix Resurrections

December 25: American Underdog

Completed/Safe: Wolf, Cyrano, The King's Man, Sing 2

 

January 14: The Man from Toronto

January 21: Operation Fortune: Ruse de guerre

January 28: Morbius

Completed/Safe: The 355, Deep Water, Scream

 

February 4: Moonfall

February 18: Ambulance, Rumble, Uncharted

Completed/Safe: The Black Phone, Jackass Forever, Death on the Nile, The Devil's Light, Dog

 

March 4: The Batman

March 11: Distant, Turning Red

March 18: Downton Abbey: A New Era, The Unbreakable Boy

March 25: Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

Completed/Safe: Nothing

 

Nov, Jan, and Feb are fine for the most part, but Dec and Mar would be the real pain points if the schedule has to shift again. Awards ceremonies would likely be delayed if not reverted to digital announcements.

Edited October 11, 2021 by WrathOfHan

[Plain Old Tele]

Just now, WrathOfHan said:

Nov, Jan, and Feb are fine for the most part,…

I’m not sure I agree with this — it likely comes down to individual productions. Anything that hasn’t already had DCPs made would likely have to get pushed a bit, at minimum. This is where the tendency to tweak until the very last possible minute has ramifications. 

[WrathOfHan]

1 minute ago, Plain Old Tele said:

I’m not sure I agree with this — it likely comes down to individual productions. Anything that hasn’t already had DCPs made would likely have to get pushed a bit, at minimum. This is where the tendency to tweak until the very last possible minute has ramifications. 

So what you're saying is PTA will release unfinished cuts of Licorice Pizza exclusively on 35MM  

[Plain Old Tele]

Just now, WrathOfHan said:

So what you're saying is PTA will release unfinished cuts of Licorice Pizza exclusively on 35MM  

Negative cutters are in the union too.

[keysersoze123]

So Bond could win the year if Spidey gets delayed :-)

[DAJK]

1 hour ago, Plain Old Tele said:

I’m not sure I agree with this — it likely comes down to individual productions. Anything that hasn’t already had DCPs made would likely have to get pushed a bit, at minimum. This is where the tendency to tweak until the very last possible minute has ramifications. 

I’m reading this as I’m holding a Bond DCP in my hand lol

[WrathOfHan]

Indiewire says there will be at least 3 weeks of negotiation before a strike is expected to begin https://www.indiewire.com/2021/10/iatse-strike-authorization-vote-1234668605/

 

Quote

IATSE insiders tell IndieWire that a minimum of three weeks of negotiations, or attempted negotiations, will follow the strike authorization vote. That said: If AMPTP continues to exert its power in the form of not moving on streaming compensation and work hours, a strike is inevitable.

 

Edited October 5, 2021 by WrathOfHan

[grim22]

32 minutes ago, WrathOfHan said:

Indiewire says there will be at least 3 weeks of negotiation before a strike is expected to begin https://www.indiewire.com/2021/10/iatse-strike-authorization-vote-1234668605/

 

 

Will be interesting to see if studios try to make the IATSE members work overtime with no breaks and weekends and little pay to try and finish the movies when that is exactly the conditions against which they are planning to strike.

[Plain Old Tele]

18 minutes ago, grim22 said:

Will be interesting to see if studios try to make the IATSE members work overtime with no breaks and weekends and little pay to try and finish the movies when that is exactly the conditions against which they are planning to strike.

That’s exactly what some productions are already trying to do, and IATSE is gonna crack back on them (I believe this is illegal but I don’t know the details of labor laws).

 

(Crews could also just walk…. more likely they just start working verryyyyyyy slowwwwwwwly. Also, who’s gonna cut this backlog of footage?)

Edited October 5, 2021 by Plain Old Tele

[MikeQ]

Can anyone here provide a helpful article, or explanation, about the streaming compensation issue at hand? Do those who work on productions for streaming have worse working conditions/pay, etc? I’m curious.

 

Peace,

Mike

[Plain Old Tele]

28 minutes ago, MikeQ said:

Can anyone here provide a helpful article, or explanation, about the streaming compensation issue at hand? Do those who work on productions for streaming have worse working conditions/pay, etc? I’m curious.

 

Peace,

Mike

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
 

 

 

Edited October 5, 2021 by Plain Old Tele

[elcaballero]

14 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
 

 

 

The New Media exemptions have got to be frustating at this point. That streaming money definitely won't trickle down on its own, so definitely seems worth a fight.

[Cmasterclay]