LABOR MATTERS
Big Features Headed to the Tiny Screen
compiled by Jeff Burman
 Jeffrey Burman |
The small screen of an iPod might not seem the best way to enjoy the sweeping landscapes of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, or the breathtaking action scenes from Titanic, writes Oliver Burkeman in the UK’s The Guardian. But such is the goal of Steve Jobs, chief executive of Apple Computer Inc., who is in negotiations with most of Hollywood’s big studios to make feature films available for download via the firm’s online music software, iTunes.
The company, which already controls more than 75 percent of the music download industry, hopes to introduce a service that would allow users to download films for $9.99 each by this fall.
Clinching such a deal, however, is likely to be difficult. The fact that films have different release dates in different countries will aggravate studios’ fears about piracy. They have also reportedly defeated Jobs’ attempts to impose a single purchase price for all movies, with the studios receiving a 70 percent wholesale rate, adds Burkeman.
In related news, video sharing site Guba signed its second studio
in July, adding films from Sony and Warner Bros. to its new online
movie store, writes Ben Fritz in Variety.
Netco started selling digital downloads from Warner Bros. in June
and, soon after, added Sony and Fox content. The site will start off
with more than 100 movies from Sony and expects to have over 500 within
a year. Netco also sells permanent copies of pictures from Warners,
Sony, Disney and Lions Gate (its minority owner) while they are in
the home video window.
Guba is the first site beyond studio-owned online movie vets Movielink
and CinemaNow to start selling films online. Competitors, including
Apple iTunes and Amazon.com, are expected to launch rival services
later this year. CinemaNow signed its fifth studio for download-to-own
movies, adds Fritz.
No More Sound ‘Bake-Off,’ Says Academy
 Reprinted with permission/www.miltpriggee.com |
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) made significant rule changes in the sound editing category, increasing the number of nominees from three to five and eliminating the annual “bake-off,” a 25-year tradition. Sound branch members will now nominate five pictures in the category by preferential ballot.
Rules changes in the documentary and short film categories were approved by the board of governors earlier this year. New terms added an eight-city rollout requirement for feature-length documentaries and a four-city rollout requirement for short documentaries, while changing the voting system from an averaged point system to a preferential system. Also, producers or producing teams in the short film category may now submit multiple entries.
In other bits of business from AMPAS, editors Tom Finan, Wayne Wahrman
and Hughes Winborne were among the 120 creative individuals invited
to join the organization.
“It struck us a couple of years ago that people had the impression
the Academy was a nameless and faceless organization,” said
academy president Sid Ganis. “We wanted to make sure people
understand it is anything but that. The Academy functions with membership
participating from every single branch.”
IATSE Endorses Cuomo for NY Attorney General
The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees has endorsed
candidate Andrew Cuomo for New York State Attorney General. IATSE
president Tom Short cited Cuomo’s support of working families
and his tenure as Secretary of Health and Urban Development under
President Bill Clinton.
“As Attorney General, we know he will continue to protect working families from abuse and unscrupulous corporations, particularly at a time when the Bush Administration has been completely absent,” Short said. In response to the endorsement, Cuomo said he supports State Assemblyman Joseph Lentol’s anti-piracy bill to crack down on counterfeiters and other criminals.
WGA Pact Unifies East and West
An eight-month-old peace agreement between the Writers Guild of America,
west and its eastern counterpart has been formally ratified, with
the two unions settling their bitter battle over money and jurisdiction,
writes Dave McNary in Variety.
Key points of the agreement provide for expedited arbitration on disagreements; for negotiating committees to be composed of members proportionally from those eligible to vote; the sharing of all information on credits, waiver requests, residuals, contracts, grievances and arbitrations that jointly affect both unions; and for jurisdiction to be divided by the Mississippi River. The East will cover the UK, Ireland and Canada east of Manitoba, and the West will cover the rest of the world, adds McNary.
Cinematographers Guild President Ousted After Trial
The president of the union that represents cinematographers and camera
operators was removed in July amid allegations that he overstepped
his authority, reports Richard Verrier in The Los Angeles Times.
In a brief statement, the executive board of Local 600 of the IATSE said President Gary Dunham was ousted after a two-day trial. The trial was conducted by the International Cinematographers Guild’s Board of Directors.
“The charges all centered around [Dunham] exceeding the limits
of authority of his office,” said Tom Weston, interim guild
president.
In August, the ICG picked Steven Poster as its new president, filling
out the remaining term of Dunham. Poster issued a statement, saying
he intended to work closely with the membership to “restore
the union to its former position within the IATSE and within the industry.”
The guild’s national executive director Bruce Doering declined comment on the matter; Dunham expressed his intention to oppose the move, according to Verrier and Jesse Hiestand in Backstage.
IA Local 44 Dismisses Its Top Executive
In another high-level shake-up, the set decorators’ Local 44
of the IATSE decided to pay $170,000 to departing top executive Ronnie
Cunningham days before he was to face accusations that he misappropriated
funds, demanded cash from people seeking union jobs and awarded insurance
money to unqualified members. Voting 10 to 5, the local’s executive
board chose to settle with Cunningham rather than pursue the matter
and risk lengthy litigation, writes Verrier in The Los Angeles Times.
Supreme Court Protects Workers by a 9-0 Vote
The US Supreme Court substantially enhanced legal protection against
retaliation for employees who complain about discrimination or harassment
on the job, in a ruling in June, writes Linda Greenhouse in The New
York Times.
The 9-to-0 decision adopted a broadly worded, employee-friendly definition of the type of retaliation that is prohibited by the basic federal law against discrimination in employment. That law, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, prohibits discrimination and prohibits employers from retaliating against workers who complain about discrimination at work. But the statute does not define retaliation, leading to confusion among the Federal appeals courts and uncertainty for employers and employees alike.
“This is an exceptionally important decision that changes the law in most of the country,” said Eric Schnapper, a law professor at the University of Washington who helped represent the plaintiff in the case.
The Bush Administration, rejecting the broader standard used by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, argued on behalf of the employer that only those actions that affect an employee’s “compensation, terms, conditions or privileges of employment” should count as retaliation, adds Greenhouse.
Organizing in the ‘Pit of Hell’
“Sometimes the spotlight works,” writes Op-Ed contributor
Bob Herbert in The New York Times. “I wrote…a series of
columns on the plight of workers at the mammoth Smithfield Packing
Company plant in Tar Heel, North Carolina, the largest pork processing
facility in the world.
“Life inside the Smithfield plant can border on the otherworldly,” continues Herbert. To get a sense of what conditions are like on the killing floor, where 32,000 hogs are slaughtered each day, Herbert includes comments of a former Smithfield worker, Edward Morrison, whose job required him to flip 200- and 300-pound hog carcasses, hour after hour:
“Going to work on the kill floor was like walking into the pit of hell,” says Morrison. “They have these fire chambers, big fires going, and this fierce boiling water solution. That’s all part of the process that the carcasses have to go through after they’re killed. It’s so hot in there. And it’s dark and noisy, with the supervisors screaming, and that de-hair machine is so loud. Some people can’t take it...”
“The United Food and Commercial Workers Union has been trying to organize the 5,500 workers at the plant for more than a dozen years,” Herbert continues writing. “But the company has ferociously resisted. The union lost votes to organize the plant in 1994 and 1997, but the results of those elections were thrown out after the National Labor Relations Board and the courts determined that Smithfield had prevented the union from holding fair elections.”
According to a December 15, 2000 decision by Administrative Law Judge John West, managers at the plant committed “egregious and pervasive” labor law violations during the elections. West ordered that the company adopt a number of policies giving the union, the UFCW, a fair shot in its next election.
Such criticisms were buttressed by a painstaking 185-page report by international labor rights advocates Human Rights Watch, called “Blood, Sweat and Fear: Workers’ Rights in US Meat and Poultry Plants,” issued in 2005.
Citing unsafe working conditions, constant harassment and illegal campaigns against union organizers, a group consisting of labor unions, religious leaders, community activists and former Smithfield Packing workers have launched a multi-city public education campaign to pressure the giant pork processor to change its workplace practices and accept the union, writes Jordan Barab in the online Confined Space.
“The big issue at Smithfield is not necessarily money,” adds Herbert. “Workers are drawn there from all over the region, sometimes traveling in crowded vans for two hours or more each day, because the starting pay––until recently $8 and change an hour––is higher than the pay at most other jobs available to them. But the work is often brutal beyond imagining.”
FCC to Revisit ‘Relaxing’ Media Ownership Rules
The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in June launched what
is expected to be a fierce battle over whether to relax media ownership
restrictions on television, radio and newspapers, a move that could
spark consolidation in the industry, writes Jeremy Pelofsky in The
New York Times.
The FCC tried to ease ownership restrictions in 2003, but an appeals court put them on hold, saying the agency failed to justify the terms and limits it set. The public comment period will last four months and the effort could take a year or more, adds Pelofsky.
“Even under the old rules, consolidation grows, localism suffers and diversity dwindles,” said FCC Commissioner Michael Copps, a Democrat. “If we make the wrong decision, our communities will suffer and our country will suffer.”
Jeff Burman represents Sound Editors on the Guild's Board of Directors. He can be reached at jeffrey.burman@nbcuni.com.