GETTING ORGANIZED
The Importance of Solidarity with Production Crews
by Tris Carpenter
 Tris Carpenter |
In late January, a certain low-budget feature had taken over a house in LA’s San Fernando Valley and was shooting. IATSE officials had been working to get all the crafts organized and signed to Authorization Cards. IA reps had called the Editors Guild and faxed us a crew list so we could get to work lining up support among the editorial staff. The production crew was very united and decided that the lunch break on a certain day would be the perfect place to pull the crew and strike for recognition and a union contract.
I set about making the calls to the editor and assistant editor to see if they would stand up with the production crew. Both were members of this Local, but were still surprised by the whole endeavor. Being well away from the shoot and the rest of the crew, they had not been involved in the discussions about organizing. They literally had no idea that things were coming to a boil.
Generally, none of this would be worth mentioning. But as my discussions with our members progressed, I started to think a bit about the dynamic between the production crew and the post-production crew, and how the geographical distance sometimes manifests itself. What I and the other staff around here would like to take for granted––that a crew will have some sort of solidarity and can be quickly persuaded to work together––isn’t always the case. That solidarity is generally clear when I’ve been on picket lines with production crews, but it doesn’t always automatically extend to editorial.
The editors were asking me simple, but reasonable questions. What did the production crew want? Were there problems on the set? Would anyone see the Authorization Cards? What would happen to everyone if the strike wasn’t successful? In sum, the editors wanted to know how they would be affected as a result of the action, and how and why they should support it.
So, let me explain to all why we should support production crews who have managed to get organized. The fact is that for several decades, editors have reaped monumental gains due to the heavy lifting that the production crews are willing to do. As we all know, the most obvious and effective leverage in any situation involving the organizing of a production is usually in the actual shooting. The IATSE’s production locals have been very willing to take full advantage of the leverage offered by striking tighter shooting schedules, and most IA organizing is done this way.
With very rare exceptions, post gets covered if production gets a deal. Why? Because we’re part of the same united front. They, the production crew, take care of us because we’re part of the same union. That’s what a union is, after all, a bunch of people looking out for one another, and making sure that nobody gets left behind.
So, what obligations do we have to our brothers and sisters in the other IATSE locals? Well, for one, we need to support their organizing efforts on production. When those crews are willing to put their collective butt on the line for their––and our––benefits, we need to make sure that we put our butts on the line, too. That means signing Authorization Cards and walking off the job when production walks. When the production crews lose, we lose, too; we lose out on benefit payments, we lose out on contractual protections and we lose some of the efficacy that we, as a union, have in making productions union signatories the next time around.
That shoot up in the Valley was shut down for a few hours and a deal was struck. The production crew went back to work and, I’m happy to say, so did the editorial crew. Bravo to all of you who have taken the step of supporting our fellow IA crews in a strike situation. Those production crews need and deserve your help for all they’ve done for us.
Tris Carpenter is the Guild's National Organizer.