‘United They Stand’ | Impending labor union strike could have ramifications for productions on the Southside
The fate of over 50+ active TV & film productions across the state, including several here in East Point, hinges on a pivotal vote this weekend.
“Look, the people you are after are the people you depend on. We cook your meals, we haul your trash, we connect your calls, we drive your ambulances. We guard you while you sleep. Do not... f**k with us.”
- Tyler Durden | ‘Fight Club’ (1999)
ATLANTA, Ga. — Last weekend at N.H. Scott Park in Decatur, a contingent of nearly 200 of Atlanta’s Finest camera ops, key grips, best boys, and a slew of other crew positions that typically occupy the end credits of dozens of films that Marvel Studios has forced you to sit through, sat on a hillside near the rear of the park.
Several of them sharing testimonials with the crowd like war stories, over a portable sound system, in front of a few makeshift tents brandishing neon-colored signs with protest slogans like, ‘Union Strong,’ and ‘Vote Yes.’
A vast majority of them having just worked overnight shifts on their current projects around the city. Nonetheless, there they were.
They were tatted, tired, and ticked-off, but above all else -- they were united.
For the uninitiated, The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees or (IATSE) union is for the members of the film crew such as; electrical, lighting, set design, wardrobe, make-up, location scouts, audiovisual, props, special effects, etc who comprise a vast majority of the folks running around the set on any given day.
Often referred to as ‘below-the-line’ but who currently have become fed up with being treated like the silent majority.
"I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore."
- Howard Beale | ’Network’ (1976)
Especially after hitting a stalemate during contract negotiations this past summer, those in attendance were meeting to discuss voting on the ‘nuclear option’ for any major labor organization, a walkout.
“If you don't stand with your union. I don't understand why you joined the Union, to begin with. We may not have had to use this power for a very long time, but we got here because we stood in solidarity,” affirms Adam Bell to Vox Pop ATL.
Bell, a long-time IASTE member with over twenty years of experience under his belt, spent the lion’s share of his career working in theaters touring with Broadway shows. Of course, that all changed after the COVID-19 shut down when he was forced to seek employment outside of theaters.
A term that Bell coined a ‘pandemic pivot.’ He is currently working on one of those 50+ productions in and around metro Atlanta.
While the advent of a strike is hardly anything to Tinseltown and film productions as a whole, this would be the first major strike to descend upon Hollywood and any other metropolis that has become a hub for film and TV production in the past decade since the Writer’s Guild of America (WGA) strike back in 2007.
Local set decorator and IASTE member, Sara Riney also had some words to share with Vox Pop ATL about the importance of the petition.
“Nobody wants to strike. Everybody wants to keep working. It can just grind you down when you literally go home long enough to take a shower, fall into bed, you got to get right back up. That's just not healthy for anyone.”
Why the possibility of this strike looms so large is that this particular spoke of the production wheel, The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees or (IATSE) has not gone on strike in nearly eight decades, since World War II!
“What happens when a man says enough is enough?”
- Martin Luther King Jr. | Selma (2014)
Originally formed to establish fair wages and working conditions for the stagehands working in live performance theatres across the country.
Founded in 1893, IATSE is one of the oldest labor unions in the country, even predating the birth of the American film industry by nearly twenty years.
The Contenders:
The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees or (IATSE) vs. Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers or (AMPTP)
The Dilemma:
For the members of 6,000+ members of IATSE Local 479 and the rest of the IASTE nation whose collective membership numbers total in excess of 150,000, the answer is simple and clear -- ‘Give us a break!’
The following are a few of the primary workplace issues that IATSE members are addressing:
Excessively unsafe and harmful working hours.
Unlivable wages for the lowest-paid crafts.
Consistent failure to provide reasonable rest during meal breaks, between workdays, and on weekends.
Workers on certain “new media” streaming projects get paid less, even on productions with budgets that rival or exceed those of traditionally released blockbusters.
“I know you're angry! I'm angry!”
- Harvey Milk | ‘Milk’ (2008)
Of that hefty figure of 150K, the union leadership permission only requires 75% of its members to vote ‘Yes’ on the IATSE Labor petition to go on strike.
After the time lost during the pandemic shutdown, the dial on producing new content was dialed up to eleven, particularly for streaming services which saw an exponential leap in the wake of the Year of Netflix. HBO Max, Paramount, NBC, and Disney all launched streaming services within the last twelve months.
The AMPTP just so happens to represent studios like Netflix, Hulu, and Disney who not only saw record numbers in terms of purchases for online content last year, but for the first time in a decade of offering its streaming service, Netflix won an earth-shattering 44 Emmys, blowing the reigning champion, HBO out of the water by nearly double.
Production studios that would be affected on the Southside:
To add insult to injury, streaming content flies under the banner of ‘new media,’ a term ironically coined in the wake of the 2007 WGA strike when ‘unscripted’ content like reality shows exploded and streaming options were in their infancy.
So production companies creating said ‘new media’ content could not only pay their talent lower wages but their crew members as well.
Why pay top dollar for brand names like Ozzy Osbourne, Anna Nicole Smith, or Paris Hilton when you can hire an entire family of then-unknowns and have America fall in love with ‘Keeping Up with the Kardashians.’
Incidentally, the latter began in 2007 and ran for twenty seasons.
“We will be more efficient workers if we have the time to work through our passion and regenerate,” Bell emphasizes.
“Our passion should be rewarded, not exploited.”
As of writing this article, the tally for signatures collected on the IATSE Labor petition was at 114,655 according to their website. No word on when the official declaration of ‘yay’ or ‘nay’ on the strike will occur, so to borrow from a familiar cinematic trope, we’ll have to leave this on a cliffhanger. Stay tuned (and stay optimistic.)
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