Carl Icahn Now Wants ALL Of Lionsgate 
Action Comedy TV: Showrunner Matt Nix 
SAG National Board Approves Joint Bargaining … 
2ND UPDATE: I'm told IATSE's Local 695 representing Sound Technicians, Video Engineers, Television Broadcast Engineers and Studio Projectionists involved in movie and TV production are also being (mis)educated.
UPDATE: IATSE's Motion Picture Editors Guild Local 700 is (mis)educating members, too. From the FAQ for the new IA Contract pdf document prepared by executive direcor Ron Kutak comes this outright lie:
Q. Is a "no" vote a strike vote?
A. Yes. If you elect to vote "no", you will be electing to authorize a strike.
There's a clear pattern of (mis)education developing that's been engineered by the AMPTP and carried out by the compliant National Boards of certain Guilds -- first, AFTRA, soon the SAG National Majority, and now IATSE as well. I told you back in June how AFTRA underhandedly tried to convince its members that a "Yes" vote ratified its proposed contract with the AMPTP and a "No" vote would supposedly authorize the board to call a strike. Blatant bullshit because a "No" vote in reality would have just sent the pact back to the negotiators for a try at better terms. And, last night, I warned you that the SAG National Majority was likely to try the same maneuver to manipulate its actors with strike scare tactics. Well, today I have evidence that IATSE is trying to pull the same trick on its below-the-liners. (Hey, the AMPTP isn't stupid: since it worked with AFTRA, then why wouldn't it work with the newly compliant SAG and the always compliant IATSE?)
Remember that IATSE leaders are in a panic about growing numbers of their angry members voting "No" on the proposed AMPTP contract calling for a 300- to 400-hour qualifying rollback that will rob as many as 15% of their health benefits. Typical is ICG Local 600 National President Steven Poster who had the nerve just recently to spew nonsense to members on the Cinematographers Guild website:
I would also like to take a minute to talk about the proposed IATSE/AMPTP deal... One of the most troubling misrepresentations I have heard regarding negotiations is that by just voting 'no' we would send the producers back to the bargaining table to re-examine the issue of the increase in hours for qualification of health care benefits in the third year of the contract, along with issues regarding new media. I cannot stress how erroneous this position is. It is absolutely false and naive to think that the producers would return to the table on only two subjects of our choosing.
Let me be clear: the producers won't return to the table without the threat of a strike and a 'no' vote on this agreement means that you will be authorizing a strike. If they decided to return to bargaining, they would be free to start from scratch, in an economic environment that is by far the worst any of us has seen in our lifetimes, and promises to grow worse before we see any relief. Make no mistake about it. A far more likely scenario is that the producers would see returning to the table as an opportunity to "adjust" the deal to the worsening economic situation.
As an angry member of Local 600 emailed me, "Wanted you to read this so that you can see that, like your article with regard to SAG (mentioning what AFTRA pulled), the IATSE are pulling the same shit and are in bed with the producers. I know that you are doing the most important job in this town... telling the truth!"
UPDATE: • Is a no vote a strike vote?
o Yes. If you elect to vote no, you will be electing to authorize a strike.
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This “statement” by the IATSE Camera Guild president simple confirms my long held feeling that the TRUE purpose of the IA is to supply the AMPTP with a “compliant workforce.” Vote no on the contract.
Nikki,
Thanks so much for telling it like it is. Much apprieciated,
What could our union leaders be getting out of this? Every union member on our set ask this question. Is it as obvious as a money kick-back?… A power trip? Tickets to the Super Bowl? Even if we did strike would all of the union leaders and staff who get a paycheck from our union dues, would they be laid off? No.
Scaring people in unions goes back to the 30’s in this country and many on our IATSE set are scared of 400 hours and losing health insurance for their family. But misleading information from union leaders is just an insult to our intelligence. Maybe “60 Minutes” or “Dateline” should do a report on this growing battle.
Thanks for getting the truth out Nikki. Let’s hope there’s a change in Hollywood and truth starts to sell to those who have been buying fear.
“in an economic environment that is by far the worst any of us has seen in our lifetimes”
So then why is Warner Bros building new stages on the backlot? Not because the other stages are empty?
So much for collective bargaining. The main reason to be in a union is for the benefits, and now the producers see a chance to use the “perceived” doom and gloom to reduce benefits by about 10%
Local 700 (Editor’s Guild) sent out the same message.
”
• Is a no vote a strike vote?
o Yes. If you elect to vote no, you will be electing to authorize a strike.
“
And how about those Effete IA Tools who picketed SAG last week with their “BACK TO WORK” signs?
P.S. They were joined by several Teamster Sissies. (”We’ll back you, if you strike, but, please, make a deal soon.”) REAL teamsters would never come out to picket AGAINST another union.
They all carried big, identical (except for COLORS) professionally-produced picket signs. The street-value of each sign was $20, not counting the professional “design” which was donated.
An AMPTP-friendly vendor, worried about HIS bottom line, gave the silk-screened FOAMBOARD signs to the IA
wimps for FREE. Somebody donated the lumber for the sticks, and a sweet, misguided, would-be camera operator named Christie had the privilege of nailing 100 signs to the sticks. (She did a good job. She also did all the phoning to find the vendor-donor.)
Of course the spokes-persons for the “Back-to-Work” clown show were all spokes-MEN.
We’ve been barraged from our own union leadership with harsh criticisms of our union brethren in WGA and SAG for over a year now. Just last week, the member newsletter directed readers to an absolutely ridiculous article in a so-called trade magazine blaming the WGA for all the industry’s current woes. By officially directing members to this kind of pro-conglomerate propaganda, the Local 600 leadership is de-facto endorsing this kind of dangerous, anti-labor nonsense. The strike was obviously not the only cause of the current woes, which are economic and technological too. But it is particularly wrong for one union to blame the strike itself on the workers fight for fair treatment rather than on the AMPTP’s egregious proposals and bad-faith negotiating is just sickening. What kind of a union leader sides with the conglomerates over other union-members trying to hold onto their livelihood?
It’s a joke.
Maybe the current offer really is the best IATSI can get. Then they should say so and not pretend that the new rollbacks are a good thing and that everything would be fine if all the unions just stopped fighting for what’s right and just rolled over and accepted what’s wrong from the AMPTP. At least that would be honest. But to try to spin these rollbacks as a good deal and to try to spin the willingness on the part of the WGA or SAG to actually fight for something better–to do what unions were invented to do–is shameful.
I might vote yes but it won’t be because I think the rollbacks are right or because I think my other unionists who actually fought for the future of people who work in the industry were wrong. I’d vote yes only out of a sense of frustration from the realization that the AMPTP and the IATSE leadership are on the same side and the union membership is all on the other. I’d vote yes out of despair of ever seeing my union be a union and if a bit of this “hope” that’s sweeping the land takes hold of me, then I’ll vote no because it’s the only morally defensible way to vote on this healthcare rollback.
The only thing I get from the IA is medical care. With the 400 hours I wont even have that, so I have no reason to continue in this Union.
Working 600, what the AMPTP does is woo union leaders who they think can be swayed, make them feel like they’re one of the cool kids and part of the club. Then when negotiation comes around they play off their “personal relationship” and explain wide-eyed to their best bud how this is simply the best that can be done and the WGA/SAG/whoever is just gosh-darn unreasonable, thank god YOU’RE not like that, and Golly We’re All Part Of The Team Here. Then the union leader bends over backward to show how reasonable they indeed are. They’re not like all those other unions that are greedy and troublesome and nasty and want to crash the whole business throwing good American families out of their homes and taking food out of their puppies’ mouths. In effect what they’re getting paid in is pats on the head. Leaders who this doesn’t work on they vilify and go after specifically in the press. Tom Short and Patric Verrone are good examples of each form of treatment. Hollywood is the land of the fictional “personal relationship”.
695, of course, is feeding us the same BS!
695, of course, is feeding us the same BS!
All the locals are sending out the very same IA bullshit. And I do mean word for word. You can find copies of the originals on 695’s web site.
I cannot believe through this economic crisis, it is us, the below the liners who are expected to bare the brunt of this injustice. Not to mention it is our union leadership, the ones who are supposed to protect us that are asking us to bite the pillow. I am starting to question why I am involved in an industry that no longer cares about the craftsmen that put them in this power position in the first place. I am disgusted with the state of affairs. I just want to get back to work.
Only in Hollywood would someone expect that 300 hours a quarter, 8 days a month of employment, should secure them full time medical coverage in a gold plated plan that most working Americans can only dream of. Everyone in LA should vote no on the Basic and let all the work flow out of LA and into the Studio Mechanics jurisdiction. The work will get done, it will be done IA, it just won’t be done in LA.
My God.. how does Ron live with himself? He is sickening.
Have some self respect local 700 members.
I mean really. This guy is disgusting. He is flushing us down the toilet.
I am not happy with my local (80). In our last newsletter that discussed the new contract the additional 400 hours was not even mentioned. The Local 80 leadership is now taking the position that people who work only the minimum amount of hours are getting away with something. A fantastic strategy to pit our own members against one another. That attitude sickens me. There is a large pool of IATSE members who survive as day players while they pursue other interests such as being parents in one of the most expensive cities in the country. If NBC’s cutting 5 hours of weekly programming with a variety format takes off you can bet CBS,ABC and FOX will follow. Oh and while I’m at it how much longer will the HBO rate be around?
Can you imagine, all the locals involved in the negotiations are for ratification. They are all liars.
They all don’t care. How can they live with themselves? There is no shortfall! Just vote no and it will force the producers to give us all the money we need. Jeez.
you assholes want the actors to give up their residuals so you can go to work while they lose their health care and basic ability to earn a living, which is tuff enuff already when you are an actor…so why don’t you guys just roll over the amptp like you want us to?
c’mon…don’t destroy the business….Matt Damon needs a new pool dug…get to work and give in…
“FREEDOM begins with an act of DEFIANCE”. We can no longer accept the word of our Union leaders that “this contact is the best we can get”. It is not. It is no coincidence that this contract AND the move to close the MPTF Hospital and remove the 138 long-term-care residents come at the same time. This time when we are weary of the loss of employment due to strikes, strife, the economy, and fear … a time when the ravages of corporate greed, lies and criminal acts have reigned down on us from all sides. This IS the Great Depression. We MUST take a stand HERE AND NOW. We must VOTE NO! on ratification of the proposed IATSE – AMPTP contract.
JR, everything you say is true except for one thing. IATSE’s not “bending over backwards” for the AMPTP, they’re bending over frontwards. It would be understandable if they came to rank and file saying, “The cartels are too big, we’re too small. Thank us that you still get a day rate or lunch or kit rental because that’s all going away too soon.” That would have the same result but it would be honest. Instead, they lead AMPTP’s charge for them by sending out divide-and-conquer missives to turn one union against another, one local against another and even members of their locals against one another. To hear the IATSE leadership tell it, EVERYBODY BUT THE AMPTP is an opponent in the battle for pay and benefits.
That’s the really crazy thing. Okay, cave in the negotiations if the conglomerates are too powerful to fight, but don’t also be their propaganda organ. Don’t side with the AMPTP against other unions. Don’t side with the AMPTP against your own union. If you’re going to comply with pay and benefit rollbacks, don’t ALSO preach their message to your constituency.
IATSE and SAG Members fight the AMPTP together!
Come for coffee and donuts with the STARS !
AND ALSO let them know we are MADE as HELL!
BIG RALLY at the Indie Spirit Awards
WHERE- Santa Monica (south of Pier)
WHEN-Feb 21 2009
TIME- 10AM MEET AT (Pacific Ave and Ocean Ave)
Join all your Union Brothers and Sisters!
WE WILL BE PROTESTING THE UNFAIR THE “TENETIVE CONTRACT”
Made as hell? The Unfair The “Tenetive Contract”? Brother Kevin, I’m in IA 700 too, but I think protesting the Spirit Awards is going to be counterproductive at best and also wish you’d learn how to bloody spell. That being said, I think this contract sucks too.