The Big Little Strike That Could Change Work As We Know It
The people behind the people on our screens have decided that enough is enough and they ain’t gonna take it anymore.
A single union is challenging workplace norms that have emerged as union membership across most sectors of the economy has dropped in the last fifty years.
Following a new-unanimous vote (90% turn out/ 98% in agreement) by its members,The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) is prepared to launch the biggest private sector strike in the US in 10+ years, and the first in the national industry's 128-year history.
There actually are two contracts at issue: the Hollywood Basic Agreement, which covers 13 West Coast studio locals, and the Area Standards Agreement, covering 23 locals outside Los Angeles.
A 2009 agreement made back in the days where Amazon sold books and Netflix shipped discs where original productions were an uncertain future gave “new media” companies “greater flexibility” with on-set matters where union rules might impede new and untested entrants.
That was then and this is now. The promises of an updated workplace were forgotten. A new class of worker bees (production assistants) took over many tasks, operating under “wonderful high-tech” rules where breaks were a thing of the past and Gatorade bottles stood in for urinals. .
In theory… or perhaps back in the old days, we’d be looking at a contract dispute between employees and management over bread and butter issues. Don’t get me wrong, the union wants higher pay, etc, but the real motivating factor for IATSE and a host of affiliated unions is quality of life.
It’s been an interesting couple of years when it comes to old-school Republican dogmas.
It turns out increasing minimum wages doesn’t destroy jobs. Millions of Americans didn’t flock back to the job market when skinflint politicians decided to pull the plug on enhanced pandemic unemployment benefits. And it’s obvious to most folks that trickle down doesn’t include them unless they have offshore type accounts.
There’s been a steady drip, drip, drip of redefining what “work” means over the past half century covering nearly all sectors of the economy. Sixty hour workweeks, disappearing meal breaks, and workers in emerging industries getting shafted while their bosses stack the deck for insta-wealth IPOs have become the norm.
Private equity firms have saddled legendary brands with high debt, impossible staffing levels, shoddy merchandise and/or services, along with disposing of “amenities” like pensions, skill development, and sick leave.
The pandemic upended people’s connections to identifying their worth with employment. For hourly restaurant workers, the “job” once provided some sense of community or value to the outside world. Dumped on the street and freed from the social (not) norms endemic to the hospitality industry, millions of service industry workers have decided that the rush of making a couple hundred bucks in tips on a really big night isn’t balanced off by the everyday bullshit they’re required to face.
The so-called future of work, where companies pass on most of the risks to employees while simultaneously cutting pay, hasn’t panned out into becoming well-respected careers capable of supporting a middle class lifestyle. The self-made entrepreneur image went down the pipes as Congress had to rescue contract employees with benefits their cash laundering corporate overlords refused to pay.
The Dallas Federal Reserve says 31% of pandemic affected workers are reluctant, for whatever reason, to return to their previous job, and that number has increased slowly but steadily for more than a year.
A whole lotta of people, working or not, have decided that jobs generally suck.
Here’s Alison Golub, a writers assistant and Local 871 member, who counts herself lucky that she’s an L.A. native and can live at home — “because I can’t afford to pay rent.” Via The Hollywood Reporter:
Citing the so-called “Great Resignation,” a term describing the recent nationwide surge in resignations across industries, Golub adds, “I think what’s going on in the film industry right now is indicative of what’s going on in the country as a whole.” She says, “I enjoy working in film and television but I also want to have a life outside of it and that’s not unreasonable to ask for.”
Via NPR:
Ben Gottlieb, a lighting technician who moderates an Instagram account featuring experiences from production staff, says he's heard from many workers. "A lot of people are told they have to choose between the industry and a family. It's brutal," he says. "People are frustrated that it's a prolific, iconic American industry that sort of thrives on these almost archaic work practices."
Strikes have been and are occurring in other industries, especially food production:
Around 1,400 workers at Kellogg’s domestic cereal plants walked off the job this week, saying negotiations with the company over pay and benefits are at an impasse.
In Kentucky, a strike by 420 workers against Heaven Hill Distillery is in its fourth week.
Earlier this summer 600 workers went on strike at a Frito-Lay plant in Topeka, Kan., and 1,000 workers at five Nabisco plants across the U.S. In June, Smithfield Foods narrowly avoided a strike by thousands of workers at a plant in Sioux Falls, S.D.
These walkouts and others all have one thing in common: workers putting in 12+hour shifts and mandatory overtime to meet pandemic demand. With labor shortages across the board in the US, these employees are in no mood to compromise.
What makes the potential IATSE strike different is that it’s not aimed at catching up in a legacy industry. People may live without Fruit Loops for a while, but the “content” industry is close to the heart of people’s lives, many of whom turn to streaming as the only relief they can get from oppressive working conditions.
A IATSE strike would have impacts beyond the entertainment industry. Because the industry crosses the silos people live in, it could and should facilitate a larger discussion about work, quality of life, and how increasing inequality impacts everybody’s daily lives.
For the moment, the union vote merely authorizes calling a strike if negotiations continue to fail. In the long term we can hope that other workplaces / industries will come to realize that exploitative conditions are not unique to their individual situations.
It doesn’t have to be this way. Once upon a time, unions advocated for things like a 40 hour workweek and time off on weekends. I hope that people will come to understand that the new ‘normal’ brought about by big tech is actually abnormal, if for no other reason than having time to appreciate life is a win-win for almost everybody.
A closing thought, via TechCrunch:
Much ink has been spilled on the huge production efforts of these companies, dropping billions to compete with one another over lucrative subscribers. Each company has dozens of shows being produced simultaneously and on a breakneck schedule in order to satisfy the seemingly bottomless demand for content. If we don’t get a new Stranger Things season in time, there’s a good chance something will become “the new Stranger Things” and eat Netflix’s lunch, or rather popcorn.
Comparatively little has been written in the tech world about the human cost of these productions — after all, that’s more on the “entertainment” beat. But it’s par for the course with tech companies to claim the benefits of “innovation” while washing their hands of the repercussions; hardly a week goes by that we don’t hear about some horrible new consequence due to a feature or policy at Facebook, Google, Amazon, Uber, DoorDash or any number of other companies.
It’s not surprising to hear that some of these same companies are fostering an exploitative work environment — many of them rely on one already!
https://twitter.com/StrictlyChristo/status/1446002772441124868?s=20
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