The Meaning of Primary Skill by Ron Kutak, Guild Executive Director We’ve seen tremendous technological changes in post-production in the last decade. Many of these changes have called our existing job categories into question. For example, it’s now common for mixers to operate projectors via controls on the console, or for sound editors to perform recording functions on their workstations. In our recently-merged post-production agreement we introduced a key concept designed to bring this situation under control. The concept is called ‘primary skill’. It is one of the key elements of our new agreement in Hollywood. Making it work will require all members’ understanding and participation. Primary skill means the primary function you are performing on your job, such as mixer, picture editor, sound editor, etc. These functions consist of the classifications contained in our new agreement – the previously existing classifications in the editorial, sound, and projectionist agreements under the West We negotiated this provision as a way to deal with rapidly changing technology. But it does not allow members to do each other’s jobs. Coast Basic Agreement. When we entered into negotiations for this agreement the producers insisted on the removal of all job classifications and proposed that they be converted into four simple categories. This we flatly rejected. However, we felt that there was a need to help our members do ancillary work and find a way to contractually accept the reality of the digital workplace. Primary skill preserves our job classifications and strengthens them. Specifically, it allows an employee to perform tasks in other job classifications as long as those tasks are secondary to their primary duties, and it allows technology to evolve within this contractual structure. This provision does not allow members to do each other’s jobs. The key restriction is that it only applies to multiple tasks being performed on one workstation. Thus it is not an interchange provision and it does not allow your employer to assign you to two different jobs in the course of your daily or weekly guarantee. Members must be paid based on their primary skill. This concept creates a critical blueprint for the future evolution of our work. It now needs to be brought to life, and we need to be active and aware participants. We cannot merely react. Once a work practice has been instituted, the longer it remains unexamined the more difficult it becomes to change it. We have legitimized existing practice – it’s okay to do secondary work, on a single workstation, that does not fall within the traditional definition of your job. But it is not okay for you to be asked to do two jobs at once, nor is it okay for an employer to pay you a weekly rate for one job and ask you to do another for most of that week. Members who feel that they are having trouble dealing with this provision or who need help enforcing it should call the office immediately. So far, we have successfully faced the continuing transformation of post-production technology. Our approach has been to anticipate changes and adapt to them rather than react and try to resist. History is strewn with the wreckage of labor and labor unions trying to stand in the way of technological advances. Even when these rare battles have been won, in the end the war is always lost. If we are to continue to succeed, we must examine every change in work positions and assignments, adapt to them, participate in them as a union, and, when necessary, challenge those that we believe are inappropriate. We must look after not only ourselves, but everyone else in our union. While it is inevitable that members working in different classifications will have differing points of view, we need to work through these differences ourselves first and develop a coherent point of view that is as fair as possible to everyone. Once again, the concept of primary skill only applies to multiple tasks being performed at one workstation. It is not a loophole through which an employer can double-job or interchange jobs. You cannot work in one classification and be sent for part of your day or week to perform in a different one. Please communicate with your fellow employees, board representatives, or one of the union representatives if you feel there is something at your workplace that needs to be addressed. Without our participation, the manual will be written without us.   Reprinted from The Motion Picture Editors Guild Magazine Vol. 21, No. 4 - July/August 2000   Guild Home | Magazine Home | Top of Page   Copyright © 2000, All Rights Reserved by The Motion Picture Editors Guild, IATSE Local 700