The Directors Guild of America issued a statement of solidarity after the vote tally was announced, and called on the AMPTP to reach an agreement. ¡°The quality of life and living wage issues they are fighting for are important to all workers on set,¡± the DGA board said.I didn't realize TV production was so busy right now. I hope that does, indeed, provide a sense of urgency to management to meet workers' demands.
The strike threat comes as Hollywood has never been busier, especially on the TV side. Soundstages are at or near full capacity, and productions have had difficulty finding enough workers to keep shooting. That has led to exhaustion and burnout, but the high demand has also emboldened union members.
When Netflix and streaming services first started, they asked the Hollywood Unions to pay us below minimum rates because they weren¡¯t sure if streaming would take off. All the Unions agreed. Now, a decade later, streaming services are the top producers, money makers, and award winners ¡ª yet they still pay below union minimums and don¡¯t contribute to benefits.posted by EmpressCallipygos at 1:13 PM on October 5, 2021 [95 favorites]
When I say that, over the past couple of years, I have worked harder than the previous twenty ¡ª this is why. Network shows are fixed at 21 1/2 minutes. Streaming shows don¡¯t have a fixed limit, so my episodes are frequently 27-28-29 minutes. I even directed a 31 minute episode. Because budgets are so small, we are given less time than a Network show and with one fewer artist on the story crew. So - with fewer artists and less time - we are drawing 30% MORE footage. This is why I have been working 12 hour days, super stressed, with little time for FB or hobbies or taking care of my health the way I should.
Streaming services asked us to sacrifice our Union minimums and retirement benefits in order to help them become viable. Now, a decade later, they are gigantic, rich, and the primary way people watch entertainment. We now want our MINIMUM wages and benefits restored. The Producers have said ¡°no.¡±
Our clients make the movies, and you need great talent to make the movies.also btw...
If streaming is so good for talent. Why do we see so many unions, whether it¡¯s the crew or the writers, complaining about getting screwed over?
I am not the person to speak to physical production. We have a division, but it¡¯s for the high-end cinematographer, people who are economically not as unhappy as others.
On the writers guild and unions, they were used to royalties from TV and film. There was a real methodology that had been negotiated over a series of years. Now something goes on streaming and there¡¯s no transparency, fewer optics into how the show performed. How do you get your fair share of your royalty fee?
Are you comfortable with the level of transparency?
No, we want more. And we¡¯ll get it over time. There will be a necessity for streamers to share more. The real question is what metric are going to be important? Right now acquisition and engagement are the most important. I would like to see, even when they buy out a back-end on a client, I¡¯d like to see something if it goes over X million streams.
A performance bonus.
This is where history repeats itself. A new technology comes in, and you try to get your arms around it. It¡¯s no different from selling a TV show to HBO instead of broadcast. There was no syndication. Even if it¡¯s a huge hit, there was no back-end. Parties worked through it, and figured out how to deal with it. It was the same with the DVD. Studios didn¡¯t want to disclose how much they made from it. We worked through it.
Streaming is a new way for content to be exhibited, but also its economic value is different. It used to be you could see how much it made and profit and loss for studios. Now there¡¯s a situation where the individual project doesn¡¯t matter.
Congress is currently debating how to enact legislation that takes these issues into account. The ¡°human capital¡± component of President Joe Biden¡¯s two-part infrastructure spending plan, which Democratic leaders are trying to pass this month, seeks to make paid family leave and child-care funding core components of the social safety net.if congress can't, unions will! :P
What makes a good worker? Not long hours
According to Duflo, work culture itself needs to change, and specifically, the American obsession with long hours that places a major limitation on women succeeding in their careers. She says it is time for ¡°getting rid of this idea that a good worker is a worker that puts in 90 hours a week.¡±
As much as the world of work has experienced an upheaval in the past two years, today¡¯s labor culture can still be compared to the 1950s ¡°Mad Men¡± model, according to Nicole Mason, president and CEO of the Institute for Women¡¯s Policy Research.
¡°What that pandemic has shown us is that that model has never worked for women,¡± Mason said. In a professional culture that glorifies being busy, women adapted because they had to, but work culture was never designed to work for them.
¡°The first [lesson we learned] is that the workplace and our workplace model was not working for most workers, or half of the workforce: women,¡± Mason said...
The current work culture is unsustainable, according to Julie Kashen, director of women¡¯s economic justice and senior fellow at The Century Foundation, ¡°I think we will be a healthier and better society if we start shifting our values,¡± she said.
That means employers need to treat employees ¡°like people who have lives outside of the workplace,¡± Kashen said... The policy ideas being debated in Congress would offer support and alternative options for working mothers. ¡°Transformative change is on the table for the first time in a very long time,¡± Kashen said. ¡°We may see Congress address some of these new key issues that would make a huge difference.¡±
"There is not a sanctioned boycott of Kellogg cereals by the BCTGM or the AFL-CIO," Christensen tells Metro Times. "However if consumers were to take it upon themselves to vow not to buy Kellogg cereals until workers get a fair contract¡ that is up to the consumer. ?"It seems like while the pressure of a boycott could provide assistance, a union calling for a boycott is counterproductive while negotiations are ongoing?
I raise my fist upposted by cardioid at 6:28 AM on October 8, 2021 [1 favorite]
They're playing our song
Workers Walk Away
Noddin' my head like yeah
Droppin' my tools like yeah
¡°[Employees] don¡¯t want to return to backbreaking or boring, low wage, sh-t jobs,¡± Robert Reich, former U.S. Secretary of Labor in the Clinton Administration, tells TIME. ¡°Workers are burned out. They¡¯re fed up. They¡¯re fried. In the wake of so much hardship, and illness and death during the past year, they¡¯re not going to take it anymore.¡±posted by kristi at 4:00 PM on October 14, 2021 [3 favorites]
...
¡°People are quitting and they¡¯re not taking jobs,¡± he says. ¡°That¡¯s tantamount to a strike. American workers have, in effect, called a general strike.¡±
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I have such sympathy for the Kaiser nurses. I mean, I have sympathy for pretty much anyone driven to strike, but anyone who's been dealing with the utter horror of health care work for the past 18 months deserves basically the rest of their life off, as far as I'm concerned.
Thanks for these links, toastyk - here's hoping for better pay and benefits for all those striking or considering it. (Heck, for EVERYBODY.)
posted by kristi at 12:18 PM on October 5, 2021 [31 favorites]