Wednesday, April 4, 2012

UNIONS YES!!!!!!!

I just did my first gig for Iatse Local 4. I have worked in my field for over 10 years and it's very hard to get into the union.Most of the jobs are passed through family and friends and if you do not have those connections it's very hard to get a job with them. That's the negative part. 
The positives far outweigh the negatives. For some reason the production industry does not follow any sort of corporate rules. People work for 36 hours straight with no break. In corporate AV you can work for days with no sort of consideration as to whether or not you've slept at all in the last 48 hours. When you work for the union this happens much less. And if it does happen you are compensated for it. Some nonunion compnies pay union rates. Those are the good ones.
My union makes sure we get dinner breaks. They make sure you get a few minutes to be by yourself and make a few personal calls and basically help you live your outside life even though you are working a ton. If it wasn't for the union most of these productions would be using illegals or paying people minimum wage on the promise that they are going to be in "show business"...
Thank God for the unions. They protect us from people who would abuse us due to our good nature. Thanks Local 4.

4 comments:

  1. I don't have a problem with unions except 1)unions have NO place in the public sector. One reason the states are in so much financial trouble is because we're paying pension and health benefits to the public sector that NO ONE sees in the private sector. And 2)No bailouts period. Those GM workers and countless airlines employees should be working somewhere else. GM workers were getting paid on average $30/hr more than other auto workers. That's why they couldn't compete.

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  2. Well I believe in reform and so do a lot of the unions. But seriously if there were no unions any blue collar job would top out at $20 an hour. Also every company I know that is not unionized at this point only hires temps. So they don't have to pay benefits and they don't have anything to really offer except a paycheck. Which is good and believe me I take them. I will give you a for instance.
    Irving Plaza is a nonunion venue in Manhattan. However they get really big names and are owned by live nation so there is a lot of money there. So before my time the local found out about this and went and picketed the place. At that time they were paying 12-15 an hour. They had 3 employees who do stage work and they had no protection. No overtime,no benefits, no job security nothing. At this time the club was owned by sfx entertainment which became clear channel. So it's not like the club was poor and couldn't pay their people. The union picketed for awhile and entered negotiations. It became clear that the club could not stay open if they had to abide by union rules. It was simply too small. However during the negotiations the local was able to get us a 40% payraise. And little things like guaranteed dinner breaks. Before that if you didn't eat before work you were totally screwed. They also had a stipulation that said after 12 hours you get a form of OT. Really just hourly pay but it was better than nothing...

    So my point is that the unions are helping people just by existing. The club was taking advantage of it's employees and the union made it possible for them to have a living wage. I know 2 guys who came in after that and have worked there for over ten years. Unheard of in the club scene.

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  3. Got you followed bro, lookin forward to new content. I worked in a union for a short period of time and i have to admit, i miss it. The Guarantees of working in a union are fantastic. but that's just imo.

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  4. IBEW Local 94

    Ive been in the union for 25 years and as a shop steward for 5 of those years I agree with all your thoughts. Without the unions the management jobs wouldn't make as much as they are. They set the wage / benefit bar on what we make. Even tho some brothers and sisters give us a bad name by being screw-ups, most of us are proud to be union and will continue to push forward with our great work ethics.

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