Camera operators, propeller manufacturers, lighting technicians and other members International Alliance of Theater Stage Workers He approved new contracts with Hollywood studios on Monday. But the margin was dangerously tight, and many members found the deal toothless in terms of avoiding long hours – the kind of conditions endured on the set of “Rust” recently. Alec Baldwin movie where the cinematographer was killed and the director was injured.
IATSE, as it is known as the union, uses an Electoral College type system for contract approval where local stores are assigned a different number of delegates based on their size and all delegate votes are cast on a majority vote basis in each locale. IATSE said the overall delegate vote for the two conventions was 56 percent in favour, with a total of 641 votes from 36 locals.
But the popular vote revealed a deep division: 50.3 percent of members voted yes on both conventions. According to the union, about 72 percent of the 63,209 eligible members voted.
Only 49.6 percent of members in Los Angeles voted yes. In other parts of the country – with the exception of the Northeast, which operates under a substantially different set of unexpired contracts – the popular vote remained at 52 percent.
“Strong debate, high turnout and close selection demonstrate that we have an unprecedented opportunity to create an unprecedented movement to educate members on our collective bargaining process and engage our union more,” IATSE president Matthew Loeb said in a statement.
In posts on Twitter, some outraged members hurled insults at Mr Loeb and other IATSE officials, demanding a recount.
Under new, three-year contracts, studios have agreed for the first time to give teams at least 54 hours of rest on weekends while working five days a week on par with the players. The contract includes wage increases of up to 60 percent for some workers who previously earned close to the minimum wage in California. The studios also agreed to finance the nearly $400 million deficit in the union’s retirement and health plan without imposing premiums or increasing the cost of health insurance.
Studios include braves like Disney, NBCUniversal, and WarnerMedia, and rebels like Amazon, Apple, and Netflix.
Last week, several IATSE members held a press conference in Hollywood to criticize the proposed contract, particularly a provision that allows teams to continue working 14 hours a day. Contracts provide for 10 hours of “turnarounds,” or the time between leaving a set at the end of a run-in and when a return is required.
shot dead last month Halyna HutchinsThe injury of “Rust” cinematographer and film director Joel Souza raised concerns with the rest of the crew. Hours before Mr Baldwin fired a weapon used as a prop – he was told the firearm was “cold”, meaning that it contained no real ammunition, according to an affidavit – half a dozen camera technicians left the set His complaints included marathon work days, long trips to the set (reducing the return rest period), and delayed paychecks.
IATSE and the studios reached a tentative agreement for a new deal on October 16, averting the threat of a strike that would come at a particularly bad time for Hollywood. Studios are scrambling to make up for lost production time during the coronavirus pandemic. Another shutdown would leave content cabinets dangerously bare—especially in streaming services that have become crucial to some companies’ position on Wall Street.