When your Industry Expects Blood Sweat and Tears:A look into the outrageous working conditions on film sets
Made by The I Refuse to Work Abusive Hours: for Brent Hershman and Gary Joe Tuck Facebook Page
We’re interrupting the regularly scheduled programming to talk about how regularly scheduled programming is killing film industry workers. The demand for more content, and quick turnout times in production has been rapidly increasing. Once streaming services became the norm, there suddenly weren’t enough hours in the day to produce the amount of content needed to satiate the never ending space. The answer to this problem was to use all of the available hours. All of them. This strategy set the stage for toxic and unsustainable working conditions. Without proper protections or any sort of foundational cap put in place by industry unions, this standard was given room to breathe, leading to countless set injuries, exhausted and unstable workers, and in a few cases, death.
In 1997, industry workers independently started a petition titled “Brent’s Rule.” Named after Brent Hershman, a 35 year old AC who was driving home in the middle of the night after a 19 hour day on set. He fell asleep at the wheel and died on impact after running into a utility pole. At the time there were no records in either the industry or the unions of injuries related to long working hours. In fact, the negotiations led by the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees up to this time had only set the stage for these types of practices and allowances for producers on set.
After this incident, IATSE spoke up in favor of implementing a 14 hour work day cap on sets. In some reports, producers who conceded in favor of this cap still vocalized that a 16 hour work day once in a while would be completely reasonable. Not surprisingly, the conversations surrounding a work day cap got quieter and quieter, until eventually, productions returned to the status quo.
With nearly 150,000 film workers represented by IATSE, the fight for any change was maintained through mere concept and zero action. In my last article I discussed how IATSE was negotiating against the safety and interest of its members all the way up until 2018. At this point, streaming services had taken over. This meant there were no longer any filming “seasons” the one bit of respite workers had, was knowing that at some point every year, things would slow down. Once year round programming and streaming took over--the unions in charge of protections once again failed to come to the table. Resulting in zero concessions for workers in this new environment.
Los Angeles Locals Showing Their Support
Fed up industry workers eventually took to social media. The Instagram account @ia_stories was created. Scrolling through there are thousands of stories from people in every department imaginable, recounting how their working conditions have led to medical issues like UTIs due to no bathroom breaks and how they’re barely able to pay rent due to low wages. In one post, the worker talked about how they were informed during the morning safety meeting that a fellow teamster did not survive a heart attack they had the day before due to exhaustion. There was a quick moment of silence, then they went on to work 13 hours straight. The comment section of this particular post was flooded with similar stories, and in some where team members were not informed of deaths at all until after the production day.
For the first time in history, there was a centralized space with thousands of accounts. This time, the workers couldn’t be ignored. Leading up to the 2021 negotiations, IATSE members were clear that they wanted basic human rights on the table. This meant seriously capped working hours, livable wages, sustainable breaks during sets, longer turnaround times, and above all, guaranteed safe working conditions. Heading these fights were the 13 Locals who represented the West coast and over 60,000 members.
After months of negotiations, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) announced they had no interest in IATSE’s proposal. Members of IATSE finally took things into their own hands and decided to vote on a strike. In the 128-year history of the union, members had never collectively voted to strike.
IATSE President Matthew Loeb’s Tweet Calling For Action
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Between October 1st-3rd, in 2021 an unprecedented 90% of eligible voters showed up to the ballot box, and of those members over 98% voted in favor for a national strike. A deadline was set, and if the AMPTP didn’t come to an agreement with IATSE by Monday morning, October 18th, 2021, there would be the largest walkout in the history of the film industry.
While a walkout would make for compelling cinema, the producers decided to finally take negotiation demands seriously in an effort to halt the walkout. It was then announced late on October 17th, that a tentative agreement was made, subsequently avoiding a strike.
The question on everyone’s mind was whether this agreement met all of the demands and expectations of IATSE members. There was immediate contention between union members who now faced the task of ratifying this agreement with another vote. Some say the concessions made by AMPTP prove that we’re moving in the right direction, and should be accepted, while others believe it needs to be all or nothing.
In the last installment of this series, we’ll look at what was discussed in negotiations, and talk about the valid opinions on each side of the ratification line.
Sources:
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1997-04-16-ca-49080-story.html