98.68 percent of IATSE members just voted to authorize a nationwide strike for fair pay, adequate rest, and breaks. This is the biggest private sector strike in the US in 10+ years, and the first in the industry's 128-year history.

We just are getting back to some kind of "normal" and things look like they are picking up and the stage hands go on strike...They have legitimate gripes but now may not be the best time to crash the touring industry. Always something...

Management could always just give them what they need…. You did say their gripes are legitimate, after all. And it would be difficult to crash an industry that’s been out of commission for the better part of two years at this point. Seems like the perfect time to renegotiate and get a fair share of the pie.

It wasn’t 98.68% of all IATSE members. And it doesn’t affect the touring, live events, or convention businesses.

This is 100% about the film and TV locals. The film and TV locals voted on this, not the stagecraft locals.

The producers don’t want to pay the higher broadcast and commercial usage rates for streaming services like NetFlix and Hulu, Amazon, AppleTV, etc… Plus those producers want their crews to work longer for less pay and often times under unsafe working conditions. And the producers declined to negotiate at all when they issued their last offer which wasn’t acceptable to the IATSE membership that work on these contracts. That’s what set the strike vote in motion. If they had come back to the table to continue negotiating, there would be no strike vote.

This won’t affect the stage hand locals that do local arts, touring music and Broadway, conventions and trade shows, etc…

(I’m an IATSE member and did not vote on this strike authorization).

of course some audio folks will get affected by this! - i have no idea how many though and neither, how people working in this instustry are getting paid: is there a minimum wage? how much? if so, would you as an audiot work for this sum and under these conditions?

pretty sure these folks could need our solidarity and support...

Thanks for the heads up. I hope they can work out some kind of agreement.

Look at it this way… the issues of working on set are big enough that all of the IA locals that support that voted almost unanimously to authorize a strike that would cripple them financially (at least short term). There are also locals that deal with post production and such that were part of this vote as well.

The studios are ruthless in what they demand - with little issues like the safety of their workers being jeopardized. Then on top of that, there are claims that they don’t know what streaming actually makes them so therefore they can’t pay fair wages. (We all know that’s BS - if it wasn’t making money, they wouldn’t be doing it)

I fully support my colleagues that have made this difficult, but obvious decision.

-Ben

I agree with what you are saying BUT there is an alternative and that is to have the people who are upset stop working for the studios. I am having problems understanding if they are not being paid well why would you continue to work in that situation? Is it prestige or devotion or ??? I know some IATSE member in the local unions and they are very hard workers and are paid well for their jobs. I have to assume there is more going on than meets the eye in this situation.

I quit a job a number of years ago when my boss decided that my time was not my own and that even though I loved my job I was also putting in 60 to 80 hour weeks and I was getting paid for 40 hours. I finally had enough and when my Primary Care physician told me that either I quit the job or he would be coming to my funeral within a year I decided to quit. That is how bad things were. It seems like these people are facing facing the same dilemma.

Just trying to understand what is going on???

It's quite simple. Hollywood is basically a broken industry. You can't say "Just find a different job." This is multiple locals, multiple industries and crafts that all unanimously agree that the system doesn't work. This is not just sound people- it's cinematographers, makeup artists, post production, sound mixers, editors, etc... These are all career positions- people that take their craft seriously and in many cases have worked an entire lifetime to perfect. It is not a situation where you can just leave your job. With all due respect- you left your job and started your business doing the same thing. You did not change your entire career because you didn't like your working conditions.

To fix the problems at the top level will mean that the work quality will trickle down to lower levels as well. If "the way it's done" is the correct, safe, and respectful way to the workers at the top, then the lesson gets picked up downstream as well. The expectation needs to be that workers are what gets the job done and those workers need to be respected. The studios can afford it.

--Ben

I get what you are saying.

The people affected are skilled artisans and technicians who have spent a life time building their craft and are at the pinnacle of their profession. I understand that. If Hollywood is "broken" then it is up to people to change things and I guess a strike is one way to achieve that.

For the record I did change my entire career because I didn't like my working conditions. I was a classical recording engineer with a student staff of 35 people and then I was "moved" to a different area (not my choice) and had to take over and build a "concert sound department' from the ground up and then when I quit my job at the college I had to literally build a mastering studio from the ground up and start a new business with no capital and no one to help me financially or physically. It was not an easy decision to make. Luckily I did not have a family to concern myself with but there were a lot of peanut butter sandwiches and water for subsidence during the early years. So I DO UNDERSTAND.

I never worked in Hollywood but I can imagine it is a hard place to make some real money and raise a family and be gone all the time. For a brief time Hollywood moved to Vancouver. Then they moved back. I am sure a lot of people lost their jobs in the upheaval. I had a friend who went to Vancouver to work and after he was there for a year found himself out of work and had to move back to California with no job and lots of expenses. He finally found work but NOT in what he wanted to be doing for the rest of his life.

FWIW

The Kennedy Center IATSE just authorized a strike. See: https://www.npr.org/2021/10/07/10440...thorize-strike

I am sure they will not be the last.

The touring contract for the smaller bus and truck Broadway shows, what we call the "non-League" touring contract was just renewed until June 30, 2022, after having expired on June 30, 2019. It was an extension of all the same wages and conditions, with no increase in per diem, or health benefits.

I know FOR A FACT, that producers for those level of shows are forcing their crews to take lower wages than what they were getting before the Pandemic, and are refusing to negotiate wages at all.

We have all the same complaints about the contracts, wages, and working conditions that Hollywood and 22 have. Except at this level it's even worse. Because you are working 18 hour days, and getting 5 hours of sleep or less, on a bus before your next 18 hour day. And we do that for weeks at a time without a day off.

There will certainly be more strikes as other locals get fed up with being treated like warmed over dog ****.