IATSE Strike or Contract

Submitted by fire with fire on Sat, 10/16/2021 - 3:15pm

At 11:19 PM PDT last night (10/15) the Camera Local put out this bulletin:
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Bargaining Resumes Tomorrow
October 15, 2021 - Bargaining has concluded for the night and will resume tomorrow morning.

There will be a virtual town hall meeting tomorrow morning to relate the latest on bargaining and to answer questions from the tens of thousands of people who may or may not go on strike as of midnight tomorrow.

You cannot cut it any closer than this. The only rumor I am hearing is that the management proposals coming since the strike vote have been improvements to their rock bottom offer that they have had on the table for months without budging. If there is any truth to the rumor, it means that the strike vote has worked to put at least some cognizable pressure on the Industry.

In the Alice in Wonderland universe of Hollywood unions this rumor could mean anything or nothing. But it is consistent with my own view of the unfolding drama -- there will be an 11th hour settlement. However, the closer this gets to the imposed deadline, the harder it will be to put this genie back in the bottle.

August 1914 looks more apt as a comparison as each minute without a settlement goes on. Even as I have been off the payroll for seven weeks now, I get calls from members who want to know whether their particular niche is going to go on strike and similar questions. There is an LA TV station that shares a lot with Netflix's main office -- all the anchors and reporters are in SAG-AFTRA, all the technicians are in IASTE. Will these people not directly involved in the movie contract be joining the strike when they see a picket line at their jobsite?

Here is tale told out of school: There has been zero preparation by the union for dealing with hundreds of picket lines and thousands of member questions like the ones that are coming to me.

That lack of experience at conducting a national strike and the lack of preparation for doing it now add up to my main reason for doubting that the strike will happen. On the other hand, it certainly looks like the Producers are rubbing Loeb's face in shit.

If a strike does happen, as much as I personally dislike the people who run that union, it behooves everybody who is not a zillionaire to support the union in every way possible. This could wind up being like PATCO -- as the ruling class decides to Make an Example out of the movie union.

More chips on more tables than I have ever seen in all my adult life right now. The future will be decided over the next twelve months and our side is losing badly as of now. We need something to shift the national dialog from Health to Workplace Justice.

This strike would pit The People against Silicon Valley. Another reason why I think IATSE will fold rather than fight.

But come Monday morning we will find out who blinked.

Tags:

strike blink

Vote

Comments

Submitted by mimi on Sat, 10/16/2021 - 4:44pm

Thanks for posting this - first time I heard about

IATSE and I read three links from this list: IATSE explanations

Hopefully they don't blink and go on strike. That would be my decision, if I were one of the workers in this industry. I wish the strikers good luck.

This strike would pit The People against Silicon Valley. Another reason why I think IATSE will fold rather than fight.

The people will not fold and Silicon Valley can go to hell. They need workers in the end to function as Silicon Valley industry themselves.

Again my o.o4 cents of talking about somthing I HAVE NO KNOWLEDGE ABOUT:

Sigh, I so much want to see a huge strike and the 99 percent of those workers not taking BS anymore.

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https://www.euronews.com/live

Submitted by NYCVG on Sat, 10/16/2021 - 5:16pm

Your coverage

is riveting and I'll be watching along with you on Monday.

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NYCVG

Submitted by on the cusp on Sat, 10/16/2021 - 9:49pm

I hope the union

gets what they want, or go on strike.
Strikes work.
I hope strikes spring up everywhere.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

Submitted by humphrey on Sat, 10/16/2021 - 10:59pm

It appears like there won't be a strike pending a ratification.

https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/577075-hollywood-stave...

Hollywood has staved off a strike with a deal reached between the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) and studio companies.

An update from the IATSE says a tentative deal was reached on Saturday just two days before the members threatened to strike.

“Your strike authorization vote, your preparation for a strike and your willingness to risk your livelihood to fight for yourselves and each other has profoundly changed our union. We thank you for your unwavering support,” the group said.

Among the items the union says it won were an expansion of sick leave benefit, improved wages and Employer Funded Benefits.

“This is a Hollywood ending,” union president Matthew Loeb said, The Associated Press reported. “Our members stood firm.”

Submitted by fire with fire on Sat, 10/16/2021 - 11:12pm

You beat me to it

@humphrey
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I just logged on to post the news.

The vague notice that went to the members did not go into any detail, but the bullet points made the two key issues clear.

Regarding the lower rates and weaker contract language for "new" media, the note said that the new deal has "improvements" in both areas. This means that the new contract did not secure parity -- and it remains to be seen how much the gap will be narrowed.

Conspicuously silent in the notice was any mention of long hours. This strongly suggests that there was no movement at all on this front.

I'll leave this without further commentary until more details about the settlement become public.
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Bottom line -- I have to say this is exactly what I expected. All of my ex-colleagues also expected a last minute settlement, and everybody was getting anxious about how close to a strike this was all becoming.

Some other union may be the one that throws down the gauntlet, but not this one and not this time.

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I cried when I wrote this song. Sue me if I play too long.

Submitted by humphrey on Sat, 10/16/2021 - 11:40pm

That is why I qualified my comment "pending ratification".

@fire with fire I am only commenting from afar with little knowledge as to what is happening. It depends on what the membership decides and it won't potentially be the first time that a union has turned down a contract that had been negotiated by union leadership.

Submitted by fire with fire on Sun, 10/17/2021 - 5:52am

Agreed

@humphrey
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The membership could turn it down, and I do not have any real basis for guessing how the vote will turn out -- other than the history of this organization. A NO vote would lead to another very interesting unprecedented scenario.

That vote would not immediately start a strike. The union bargaining committee would go back to the table to inform the Producers what it would take to get a Yes vote. But to be able to do that with confidence, it would first require an in depth discussion amongst the membership -- an unwieldy proposition from a logistical point of view. All of this would be a new and different experience for this industry and this union.

If tradition holds, the contract will be ratified by a large majority.

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I cried when I wrote this song. Sue me if I play too long.

Submitted by QMS on Sun, 10/17/2021 - 12:14pm