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So now the leadership of IATSE Local 700 has trotted out Paul Covington, one of the editor reps on the Motion Picture Editors Guild’s board of directors, to beg his colleagues to “Vote Yes” on the proposed IATSE-AMPTP contract. (Meanwhile Local 700′s propaganda to members keeps repeating the blatant bullshit that a “Vote No” is a vote to strike.) Here’s his (pathetic) argument:
Friends and Colleagues:
You should have received your ballots by now, and I want to urge you to vote yes on ratification.
I have seen many articles online that hint at some evil plot, or some malfeasance on our part, or that our representatives are naive, or openly declare the information we have been sending out from the IA and from our Guild is “bullshit” and “blatant lies” and so on. That’s the beauty of the Internet in that it allows people to shout their opinions without any reality seeping in.
Going into these negotiations, we had harsh realities to face. Everyone on the Board agreed that this deal is the best we could get under the circumstances. We discussed these things at length and voted unanimously to support it.
Everyone on the Board and at the Guild knows that these new rules regarding the 400 hours are going to hurt some people. The fact is that our Local will be affected less than the other Locals by this new provision. We will face about 7% of the people currently making their hours no longer be able to make them. This is a lower percentage than all of the other Locals.
That doesn’t mean we view these people as mere numbers. We are all worried about losing health care and finding work. Under the old system, we provided no-cost health care for people who worked under the IA contract only 25% of the time. Now that number is being increased to 30% of the time. Where else in America can you find a group that provides this?
The Editors Guild and the IA itself are only as strong as our members make it. We wish everyone was working union. We want all shows to be union shows and we want Hollywood to be the gold standard for filmmaking. If a lot of work out there is non-union, we need your help organizing it. Until that day when all production is governed by our Contracts, we will have a mixture of union and non-union work, and those who work predominantly non-union cannot be carried by those who do.
It’s really that simple. The Plans had a tremendous shortfall in money. They will become insolvent and go under if this Contract is voted down. I believe, and your Editors Guild Board of Directors believes, that voting down this Contract will be disastrous. Due to the nature of protracted negotiations, we will certainly be offered a worse deal than the one currently on the table, if the Contract is not approved. It will be worse.
Everyone on the Board believes this. We volunteer our time to be on the Board and to try and best represent you and your interests. We argue about the same issues you do. After careful consideration, we unanimously voted to recommend approval of the Contract to our members.
So now I urge you to vote in favor of ratification.
Fraternally,
Paul Covington
- IATSE Hollywood Leaders Sweat It Out
- This Email Is Making The IATSE Rounds
- Ballots Going Into IATSE Members Hands
- Smoke & Mirrors For IATSE & AMPTP, Too
- Remember IATSE/AMPTP Tentative Pact? There Looks Like Lotsa Trouble Ahead…
- IATSE/AMPTP: Controversial Health Plan Eligibility Rollback Causing Complaints
- Details Of AMPTP-IATSE Tentative Deal
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
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i voted no.
Well? Here’s a chance to do something. IATSE and SAG, taking a united stance, with the other unions at least shamed into tacit support?
What is stopping us?
Hey, I’m not sayin we’re not gonna get our hair mussed. 10 -20% off of healthcare TOPS.
Paul Covington wrote:
“The fact is that our Local will be affected less than the other Locals by this new provision.”
There’s the trouble with the IATSE in a nutshell.
The rest of you will be screwed but, “I got mine.”
And he has the nerve to sign his letter “Fraternally.”
Paul, you should be ashamed of yourself.
You’re no brother of mine.
Paul Covington says: “Under the old system, we provided no-cost health care for people who worked under the IA contract only 25% of the time. Now that number is being increased to 30% of the time. Where else in America can you find a group that provides this?”
But, where else in America can you find an industry that makes a product that generates profits 10, 20, 50, even 100 times the production cost, and keeps making profits 5, 10, 20 years later?
When GM makes a car and sells it, that’s it. One chance at making some profit, then it’s gone.
When the AMPTP companies make a movie, they can sell the same product over and over again, to theaters, broadcast TV, Cable TV, Pay-per-View Cable TV, Premium Cable HBO/Showtime/Cinemax, DVDs for sale or rent, webcasting, etc., and make profits from each sale. Then they can re-release it years later, all at no additional cost, and the movie continues making profits for decades.
They just had their “Best Month” ever (Jan. 2009), and theater box-office income is up 17%, based on recent news reports.
This is NOT an industry in trouble, nor is it suffering from the lousy economy Bush left us.
They are making more money than they can hide from the people who actually WORKED on making the film.
The AMPTP companies can easly afford to make up the deficit on the Health Plan, without all the givebacks in this contract.
VOTE NO!!!
Doug Hart
I will never vote for this contract. It does not mean a strike. It means WE’RE NOT TAKING THIS CRUMMY CONTRACT.
Covington says we’ll get a worse deal if we don’t sign this. Nice scare tactics, Paul. And boy, that sure is a great way to negotiate, spread fear. Maybe we will have to align with SAG. If so, count me in.
Pauley, Pauley, Pauley
You guys in post-production always get the caviar while we production locals always get to eat the crow. That is how the IATSE has always been able to deliver your local in ratification votes, generally the progressive wage scale or tiered workforce concessionary agreements have never applied to Editors.
As an Executive Board member what information have you been provided for you to make these declaratory statements, generally the contractual staff has only contempt for duly elected representatives treating them like mushrooms, keeping them in the dark and feeding them shit.
Why did the plan’s see a tremendous shortfall in revenues?
There are 18 union directors on the Plan’s board, have they been negligent in their fiduciary responsibility?
Have you read the final contractual language or are you only relying on an obnoxious overpaid yes man’s word, to fraternally appeal to you fellow members. It’s the IA way.
What real union would expel a member for owing one cent?
You are correct,it is the IATSE.
Good luck with your continued tenure on the Editors Guild E-Board.
Wow. Who can trust the recommendation of someone who says,
“The fact is that our Local will be affected less than the other Locals by this new provision.”
So basically, he is pleading with the editors to screw everyone else because they’ve got theirs. Now there is a class act.
The fact that IATSE has to do e-mail blasts to their membership telling them that a NO vote is a vote to STRIKE should be a large clue that the contract is no good. A NO vote sends it back to the table not to the streets.
With so many newspaper articles saying that the recession has been GOOD for Hollywood, and the box office has never been healthier, why is everyone in IA scared to ask for a minimally improved deal?
The heads of IA remind me of the former WGA head who recently gave an interview to Variety, and who’s views are violently anti-union. These people rep the studios, not their members.
You beat me to it Tim. When I saw that quote in the letter above I copied it to post. You are right in that is the trouble with IATSE and most of you people should have opened your eyes long ago that this is how the AMPTP works.
Just look at the last contract where they picked on Local 600 to get IA to accept cross-crafting by allowing DGA members to do the work of another’s union. Now they are wanting it applied to all the other unions.
Just like 15 years ago where they talked Local 44 into working for 30% less on a Movie of the Week called the “Secrets of Lake Success” and in the next contract all unions got the pay cut for MOV’s.
Well? Here’s a chance to do something. IATSE and SAG, taking a united stance, with the other unions at least shamed into tacit support?
What is stopping us?
Comment by Matt Mulhern — March 2, 2009 @ 7:59 pm
In a word? Organization. The IATSE has institutionalized disenfranchisement amongst it’s members, I’ve tried on a number of occasions to create member driven ‘communications’ committees that would address the lack of member organization only to be pushed back by the leadership of the local (#44).
Not to say it’s all IATSE either, during the WGA strike, I tried to get some WGA members to reach out to BTL to try and personalize the issues, so that ‘we’ would know what they were really fighting for, and might even empathize, specially now that it’s our turn. I talked to a friend at the WGA and they put me intouch with a writer who ended up reading all the talking points, never actually addressed what I was trying to do, and then ended up telling me that the Organizing Dept at the WGA didn’t want him to peruse anything along the lines of what I was talking about.
Unity is the only silver bullet, and the AMPTP will fight that as long as they can. Matt, if you’re able to get something going, more power to you. My main point of contention w/ the WGA is they went it on their own, with some idea of being able to unilaterally change the way business is done, with out taking into consideration their sister hollywood locals- kind of the antithesis of Organized Labor.
I’ve had the good (or bad) fortune to have spent time on the inside of both the WGA and the IATSE, it will be a huge up hill, thankless battle to forge any kind of real unity.
“Dear IATSE Member:
Please vote yes on this crappy contract, because even if you lose your health benefits and work for no conditions, we, your leaders, still get our paychecks and benefits.”
I am Local 700 Editor and we are gaining momentum on voting NO – Please don’t taint all of us with the “Covington Brush” When the economy was good, our Reps sold us down the river, now that’s it’s bad they want to hold us under and drown us. If this is a year of CHANGE, I want it to start in my Local 700.
I bet Covington didn’t even write the letter. Just a pawn…
Speaking of tremendous shortfalls, I’d like to urge everyone to actually do the math before voting. The claim is a $587 million shortfall, but the actual number (estimated from publicly available data) is $148 million.
Then, it’s said the producers have oh so graciously kicked in $200 million.
What’s wrong with this picture?
Answer: The same thing that’s wrong with the MPTV Fund.
Well? Here’s a chance to do something. IATSE and SAG, taking a united stance, with the other unions at least shamed into tacit support?
What is stopping us?
The IA itself is not a democratic organization, and its leaders would never do this. This contract my be the tipping point for its membership – but we’ll have to wait until the votes are counted to find out…
“The fact is that our Local will be affected less than the other Locals by this new provision.”
Wow. Just… wow! That just about sums it up and tells you exactly how this vote will go: “Fuck them, I got mine.” Way to stay united, guys.
If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention.
I VOTED NO !!! The Local 700 members are angry with the misinformation being spoon fed to it’s mermbers. Please don’t paint us with the “Covington Brush” We were sold out when times were good, now were supposed to suck it up when times are bad? Screw it. Kutak is making his 300,000 and not worrying about losing his healthcare.
IMO, Paul appears to be a pawn…
Everything that is wrong with the IATSE in Hollywood is exemplified by this “appeal” and the other tactics that the IA leadership is employing to coerce a “Yes” vote from the membership.
If this were a fair, level playing field, the OFFICIAL position would be something along the lines of, “Vote in your own self-interest, and everyone’s collective best interests. If you individually choose to vote either for or against this contract, WE WILL SUPPORT YOU AND WORK FOR YOUR BETTERMENT, NO MATTER WHAT. If collectively this contract is voted down, then we will work our very hardest to negotiate a superior contract that will meet with the membership’s approval.”
What we get are veiled threats that, “A no vote is a vote to go on strike,” and, “We will not return to the negotiating table.” Now the IA is rolling out their coordinated campaign to scare the members — to coerce the members — into voting AGAINST THEIR OWN BEST INTERESTS to ratify what one conscientious WRITER AND SERIES EXECUTIVE PRODUCER TERMED “…the biggest rollback any union in this town has seen since its inception?”
The spin employed in Covington’s appeal is astounding, given that it focuses solely on the 400 hours provision, and IGNORES THE NEW MEDIA PROVISIONS WHICH ARE AT THE HEART OF THIS CONTRACT’S GIVE-AWAYS — THE LARGEST IN THE HISTORY OF ORGANIZED LABOR IN HOLLYWOOD. Besides the anti-union “I got mine, you get yours” attitude, this Editor’s Guild member conveniently leaves out what easily amounts to 75% of the Memorandum of Agreement that we have been supplied with while only appealing to the 25% issue (400 hours is 4 pages of the 17 page MOA; “New Media” is THIRTEEN PAGES of a SEVENTEEN PAGE MOA).
Covington’s assertion that, “[The Plans] will become insolvent and go under if this Contract is voted down” is another lie, because he ignores the FACT that over a decade of Runaway Production has undermined the Health and Pension Plans — regardless of the spin from the IA leadership that “Runaway Production hasn’t hurt the Plans.” Runaway Production essentially has meant that the membership that participates in the Hollywood Basic Agreement HAS BEEN UNEMPLOYED ON THOSE PROJECTS AND NO CONTRIBUTIONS HAVE BEEN MADE INTO THE PLANS ON THEIR BEHALF.
To the contrary, IF RATIFIED, THE PLANS ARE GUARANTEED TO BECOME INSOLVENT, because when everything is re-classified as “New Media,” the AMPTP won’t have to make residual payment contributions into the Plans, and they will collapse under their own weight in short order.
What’s the IA leadership’s answer to the problem caused by the 33% increase to 400 hours? “We HOPE that Obama will have done something by then (2013).” Why 2013? Because that is when most members’ Banks of Hours will have been literally bled dry 100 hours every six months to maintain HEALTH BENEFITS FOR THEM AND THEIR FAMILIES.
HOPE THAT OBAMA WILL HAVE DONE SOMETHING BY 2013 with regards to Health Insurance to help those disenfranchised by their own union’s contract? That’s some pro-Labor contract position.
I took my Sharpie and marked a big black check in the NO box for the new IATSE contract. They are using scare tactics to strong arm us into signing a contract that really hurts us, and even when the economy gets better we will not regain what we are poised to lose. Conservatively, 7 to 15 percent of IATSE workers who CURRENTLY qualify for benefits will lose them under this new contract–these are working men and women and their families. New media clauses will further weaken us and just allow for more non-union jobs. I simply feel like I must think of our most vulnerable brothers and sisters and say NO. I can’t let fear steer me into voting against my conscience, I won’t let short term insecurities blind me to the long term picture.
Matt Mulhern wrote:
“Well? Here’s a chance to do something. IATSE and SAG, taking a united stance, with the other unions at least shamed into tacit support?”
See you Wednesday, Matt
——————————–
Actor Activists To Protest Fox Wednesday, March 4th
The rally is being called for 11AM to 2PM at Fox Studios at 10201 Pico Blvd at Motor Avenue. Unvalidated free parking across the street at Rancho Park. “Peter Chernin, CEO of Fox, has stated that there will be no reruns on Fox network and all programs will go directly to streaming on the Internet, eliminating our residuals and contributions to health coverage and pensions,” the protest organizers say. “We must express our concern at this attack on our ability to earn a living and make it clear that we intend to vote NO on the contract.”
Covington Urgeth the Covenant with the Money Changers.
“Fellow Cutters, Be not dismayed.
“We shall fare far better than our crafts-brethren.
“For OUR Open-faced Shit Sandwich cometh with a BEARNAISE SAUCE!”
“The fact is that our Local will be affected less than the other Locals by this new provision.”
As a member of local 700, I want to say this ass-hat doesn’t represent the feelings of those he claims to represent. Almost every one of my editing brothers and sisters are planning to vote no on this craptacular contract. Unfortunately, there aren’t nearly as many of us as there are set crew. Folks, get the word out. This contract stinks and they need to vote no.
…when everything is re-classified as “New Media,” the AMPTP won’t have to make residual payment contributions into the Plans, and they will collapse under their own weight in short order.
The IA’s only interest here, as can be clearly seen in the MOA, is getting jurisdiction over “New Media.” (Yes, those are sneer quotes.) One wonders – why?
Well, that locks out all the other unions (like the IBEW), and allows the IA to collect dues, and initiation fees. This money is then used to pay the IA leaders. Ron Kutak (head of the editor’s local) got $379,612 in 2007, for example, and health care.
And what will the members get for their hard earned money paid to the IA? Nothing. No terms and conditions, no minimums, no guarantees, no staffing requirements, no nothing. Except for the health insurance and pension hours – if they’re lucky to work enough hours to qualify…
I am an editor and I am voting no. The editors I work with are also voting no. I have been lied to by IATSE for years. I am not going to start trusting them now.
Robin hood Days are coming!