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I’m told IATSE’s official pro-ratification campaign is entering a new phase. According to an email sent from the International Cinematographers Guild, 
IATSE Local 600, President Steven Poster to a select group of National Executive Board members, a phone bank will be set up to call members and get them to Vote Yes. It is being coordinated by Western Region Director David Behm who will supply the phone lists. But it has raised questions about what Guild resources will be used and/or abused. “First, it is not the role of the Guild to lobby the members either for or against ratification — although there is precedent from the 2006 contract ratification, where the NEB officially authorized an anti-contract-ratification campaign because of the loss of mandatory staffing of camera operators,” one ICG Vote No organizer tells me. “But, unlike 2006, there has been no NEB authorization of this political action that Poster is unilaterally undertaking.” In his email, Poster sounds anything but confident: “This is the first full week that the ballots will be out there and this is the week 80% of the members who will vote will do it… We need to see it pass our local with a decent percentage.”
- 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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“The phone bank that is being vilified in your blog is simply a tool to open dialogue with our members about what is going on at the Local, what factors went into the Board’s decision, and what we hope the members will consider as they make their own, informed decision. In other words: Democracy.”
Actually David, “Democracy” would have been phone banking to find out what members wanted while negotiations were going on not as a propaganda tool after you few have decided what we want!
Of course you’ll sign your name – you don’t work in the field so no blacklisting for you and you get to show your beloved President “See? I did your bidding Mr. Loeb.” You really are a disgrace.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOO
WAAAAAYYYYY
AM
I VOTING
YES
David Behm,
Please don’t try to dismiss the growing number of people in your guild’s dissatisfaction with this contract by implying the frustration is the product of some small faction of sore losers in an internal battle. The ever-increasing number of potential no voters that I know had nothing to do with the guild’s internal power struggles. The terms of the contract didn’t get onto lots of our radar until the past few weeks. It was the memorandum itself (primarily what another poster calls the ‘wild west of new media’) that made us realize that it would be difficult or impossible to vote yes on this on this thing.
You and those in favor of this contract talk about the increased cost of healthcare. Okay, maybe raising the hours is the best way and maybe it’s not. I think most of us would give you the benefit of the doubt. You talk about increase in rates. That sounds good. BUT: It doesn’t matter because of the one thing neither you, Steven, Bruce, Loeb nor anyone else is talking about and that is the terms of “new media.” You won’t talk about it or try to justify the proposed contract’s treatment of “new media” because you know that it creates an enormous loophole for a tremendous number of productions (and not just “webisodes”) that allow producers to run “union shows” as if they’re nonunion.
Please, nobody be fooled by deflection about “the board said this” “the dissenters did that.” That’s how SAG shot itself in the foot. Ignore all that and read what the memorandum has to say about “new media.”
As I’ve said before: It allows you to work under non-union conditions, for non-union pay and to pay dues for the privilege.
To all IATSE members: DON’T DECIDE THIS THING BASED ON SOME ROBOCALL! READ THE NEW MEDIA TERMS AND IMAGINE YOUR FUTURE. Then decide whether you can vote yes to this contract.
The January 11th IASTE Local 600 Special National Executive Board meeting was NOT four hours of “discussion”.
The 10 a.m. Sunday morning meeting (called to order at 10:36 a.m.) was approximately a one and a half-hour “presentation” by Local 600 President Steven Poster and National Executive Director Bruce Doering.
The presentation was followed by approximately two or three questions, at which point, one of Mr. Poster’s supporters made the motion that the NEB recommend ratification of the contract.
The motion passed (as planned) and was followed by approximately two to three more speakers, at which point, another of Mr. Poster’s supporters abruptly called the question (ending all debate and forcing a vote on the motion). The motion passed (39) “for” and (18) “against” with (1) abstention.
It was all very choreographed and scripted, and the sole objective of the “Special” NEB meeting was successfully accomplished.
The meeting adjourned at approximately 1 p.m., although many members stayed afterwards to speak about the issues that they weren’t given the opportunity to during the “four-hour discussion”.
The only purpose of the meeting was to get NEB approval for “ratification” as Local 600′s official policy. Local 600 could then launch their pro-ratification campaign in ALL Local 600 media (website, ICG Magazine, “Camera Angles” newsletter, letters, and a barrage of emails – ALL FUNDED WITH OUR MEMBERS DUES).
The Special NEB meeting was held PRIOR to any general membership meeting, because the real objective was not to seek member opinion, but to elicit the official Local 600 edict from the NEB (the supreme governing body). Mission accomplished.
“… freedom of speech and open debate…”?
Not from ANY IATSE/Local 600 media – unless it’s “pro-ratification” dogma.
“… volunteering their personal time, with no compensation…”?
IATSE & Local 600 staff and employees have been volunteering their time writing these post and organizing phone-banks, etc?
“… to open dialogue with our members about what is going…”?
IATSE to member translation:
“We’ll tell you what we want you to know and think.”
Bill Roberts
1st Assistant Cameraman
IATSE Local 600 WRC/NEB Alternate
Mr Behm,
The Board members who voted on January 11 did not know the terms of the agreement. The Memorandum of Agreement (which is still not the formal agreement) was only released with the ballots. I doubt anyone on the Board knew the details of these health care givebacks: PPO copays up 20%. ER copays up 100%. MPTF visits now $5. Hospital admission now $100. Out of network down 15%. Mail order drugs are mandatory. Drug copays up $5. And there is now a coordination of benefits for drugs which will harm a spouse with an inferior health plan. How different would the vote have been if all the cards were on the table?
Go ahead and call me. My vote is already in, so it will be a wast of time.
Perhaps President Poster is correct when he says we will only get a worse deal if the IA goes back to the table. This may be a prime example of a “self fulfilling prophecy” if there ever was one.
If the no vote succeeds, can we — dues-paying members who are voting no based on the wording of the agreement, our experience with prior contractual giveaways, our consciences, and the needs of our families — trust the same leadership to sit at the table?
I certainly hope we can. We’ll just have to take our chances.
I am surprised and disappointed to see these comments about Local 600’s phone bank cite this effort as evidence of some evil intent, a conspiracy to force the rank & file members of this union to accept a sub-standard contract.
I don’t think “force” is the term you’re looking for here. “Gull” or “deceive” would be more apropos, because yes, it is definitely a sub-standard contract.
All this time and effort on the part of the local which employs you would be best spent working on a better deal. Although a majority of your NEB recommended accepting a bad contract, it does not follow that it is a good deal, nor, even more so, that it is the best deal that can be had.
IATSE History Lesson:
Back in the 1930s and 1940s, the big Hollywood studios could “buy” any IATSE contract they wanted, if the stack of $100 bills they distributed to IATSE Business Agents and Officers in brown paper bags was tall enough.
The IATSE was, and is, well-known as a “Company Union” very eager to please their AMPTP masters by supplying a “compliant workforce.”
I guess nothing has changed, except that now they probably use wire transfers to offshore bank accounts.
And David, at the January 11 NEB meeting that “recommended” this contract to the membership, the NEB based their decision on the false and incomplete information given us by Doering and Loeb.
Now that we have finally seen the 17 page Memorandum of Agreement that the IATSE and Local 600 sat on for three weeks without forwarding to the NEB as Poster promised, we know how much of what Doering and Poster told us in that 4 page Contract Summary that we voted on was lies and disinformation.
I doubt you would get that 2/3 vote to recommend RATification (emphasis on “RAT”) if that NEB meeting were held today.
I am also assuming that your description of this abomination of a contract as “sub-standard” would be one of Doering’s famous “member sellout” euphamisms.
Doug Hart, 1AC, NYC, Local 600 NEB, 34 years
(Proud to be one of the 18 NEB members voting AGAINST the recommendation for RATification)
David, thank you for participating in this discussion.
If some of us choose to remain anonymous, it is because, unlike yourself, we are vulnerable to job discrimination for expressing controversial views. I am confident you understand that.
As I am also confident you would agree that commenting on sites like this would be unnecessary if only Local 600, or the IA, for that matter, would permit the “freedom of speech and open debate” you speak of on their membership-funded websites, which they do not.
While the National Executive Board is the governing body of Local 600, and “their decisions set the policy that we follow”, I do not believe the NEB voted to rescind freedom of speech at Local 600.
You state that “the Board voted by more than a two thirds majority to recommend the contract” and that “those who are criticizing the actions of this Local…are, in fact, the minority voice”.
Since President Poster decided to hold the Special NEB to discuss and recommend the contract before the Special Membership Meeting, it would be impossible for the Board members to know how the MEMBERS felt about the contract. Would not “Democracy” have been better served if the Board had first heard from the membership they are elected to REPRESENT?
Perhaps that “minority voice” you speak of would have turned out to be the “majority” voice of the MEMBERS.
And finally, I have to take exception to your benign characterization of the phone bank as “simply a tool to open dialogue with our members about what is going on at the Local, what factors went into the Board’s decision, and what we hope the members will consider as they make their own, informed decision.”
President Poster’s email to selected Board members doesn’t quite comport with your description:
“We need as many of you as possible to phone bank for the contract.”
“We need to see it pass our local with a decent percentage”
Phone bank FOR the contract?
We need to see it pass?
Again, thanks for your contribution, David.
Really.
-Publius
Voted NO today, If you get a call from these clowns keep them on the phone as long as possible. Ask tons of questions. Get your money out of the deal.
annoyed at the lies wrote:
“if you have a problem with steven (or anyone else) working in canada, maybe you should be calling our GOVERNOR.”
Dear annoyed, (Kim?)
Perhaps you don’t get the reference, but there’s a bit of history in the comments tying Steven Poster to Canada.
While “ac4no” was busy losing his family, his home, his health insurance and his patience to runaway production, there was a group of us trying to put an end to the illegal Canadian subsidies that were stealing our jobs…and our lives.
We tried twice to get Local 600 to join SAG, the Teamsters Local 399, and IA 44, 695, 728 and others in this effort.
Each time, Steven Poster, who was a member of both Canadian camera locals, led the charge to fight us.
He rallied the “no” vote and was largely responsible for the motion’s defeat. Twice.
We were ultimately unsuccessful in getting Washington to pay attention to our plight. “ac4no” was one of thousands who lost most of what they hold dear to the predatory Canadian subsidies.
Who knows how it might have turned out if the Camera union had stood up for its members instead of siding with the MPAA against them.
The January 11th IASTE Local 600 Special National Executive Board meeting was NOT four hours of “discussion”.
The 10 a.m. Sunday morning meeting (called to order at 10:36 a.m.) was approximately a one and a half-hour “presentation” by Local 600 President Steven Poster and National Executive Director Bruce Doering.
So – once again the truth comes out. Silly me, I was giving Mr Behm the benefit of the doubt. Even though I should (and, do) know better.
Moving on to Mr Poster:
“We need as many of you as possible to phone bank for the contract.”
That would be as opposed to, say, phone banking for the membership?
“We need to see it pass our local with a decent percentage”
Yea, one must wonder, why would even say that, what with Tom Short no longer around to ream out those who fail to whip their members into going along to get along. Looking at 600′s LM-2 I see he only got $11,643 in 2007. So, I’m guessing his motivation here is he’s worried about (oh, the irony!) his own ability to get work.
Dear Western Regional Director Behm, let’s have a little democracy in action. First, no one termed it a conspiracy but you. Steven Poster is quoted above as having written, “We need to see it pass our local with a decent percentage.” That doesn’t sound like an effort to, as you state, “…open dialogue with our members about what is going on at the Local, what factors went into the Board’s decision, and what we hope the members will consider as they make their own, informed decision.” Boy, that’s some disconnect between what Poster’s written to a select group of NEB members about what the goal of the phone banking is, and your insincere attempt at defending that poor decision.
See, the whole problem here, and it has been since DAY ONE of the contract negotiations going back nearly ONE YEAR AGO when then-President Short went into the earliest negotiations in the history of early negotiations — namely, barely half-way into a 3-year deal: YOU GUYS ARE DICTATING TO THE MEMBERS, AND NOT LISTENING. Read the posts, read what the members across the Hollywood Bargaining Unit are writing. LISTEN. WE DON’T WANT THIS CONTRACT, IT IS UNACCEPTABLE TO US. YOU ARE DEFENDING THE DEAL AND TRYING TO CONVINCE US OF ITS MERITS, INSTEAD OF LISTENING AND REPRESENTING US. It’s called BULLYING.
Let’s be clear about the NEB’s vote after deliberation — since you’ve raised the subject. Let’s get some facts out there. There weren’t “four hours of discussion” as you state — that was the approximate length of the entire meeting. President Poster and your boss, National Executive Director Bruce Doering, both spoke at length about the reasons behind the decisions to go to 400 hours and the New Media conditions (or lack thereof), for almost TWO HOURS. As soon as President Poster opened the floor to questions from the ELECTED MEMBER REPRESENTATIVES, his hand-picked stooge got second-in-line to the microphone and rushed the motion that the NEB recommend ratification to the members. When seconded, that motion ENDED THE QUESTIONING BY THE MEMBERS after only ONE QUESTION. By the way, that stooge is an Associate Member who gets 56 hours paid into the Health and Pension Plans every week through his non-production employment (his work is not covered by the very contract he moved that the NEB recommend). In other words, the stooge who rushed to close discussion and have the NEB endorse this crappy contract IS NOT GOING TO BE AFFECTED BY THE INCREASE TO 400 HOURS, because he gets his 400 hours in LESS THAN TWO MONTHS of a six month qualifying period — JUST LIKE YOU DO, TOO. That’s some way of encouraging freedom of speech and open debate. Let’s call it what it is: hypocrisy. And that two hours of talking-points from Poster and Doering? The NEB voted on whether or not to recommend ratification based on only a “summary.” They did not have the benefit of the Memorandum of Agreement that only arrived with the ballots just this past week. And, the MOA isn’t even the contract language that WE will eventually have to work under! Some democracy!
You want to argue with your own employers on a weblog? YOU ARE NOT LISTENING. As for your holier-than-thou willingness to sign your own name, YOU don’t work freelance and your career isn’t in jeopardy by identifying yourself, so good for you that you signed your name. You get your six-figure-plus salary granted to you by NED Doering, without member oversight or approval. Incidentally, why is it that you are doing the dirty work for him, and why is he hiding in the shadows behind you? Oh, that’s right. He gets to DICTATE while flying under the radar. What a coward.
As for your phone bankers who are volunteering their personal time with no compensation, well, at least one of them has said that his “arm was twisted” (that’s a QUOTE) to make the calls, and the best he could come up with was, “They want me to say this…” and “They want me to say that…” One of his talking points was that “We want a strong ‘Yes’ vote TO SHOW THE AMPTP THAT WE WANT TO GET BACK TO WORK.” In other words, our leadership wants to show that we will BE COMPLIANT and accept a terrible deal that will put as many as 10,000 members and their dependents on the streets when it comes to health care, and allow the Producers to work us non-union while we have to pay union dues for the privilege. Rather than saving the Health Plan, if this contract’s Experimental New Media provisions are ratified, the Health and Pension Plans will further suffer because coverage “shall be at the Producer’s option.” To save the Health Plan — and our livelihoods — WE MUST REJECT THE NEW MEDIA DEAL. WE, THE R&F, GET IT.
Democracy is supposed to protect the minority from the tyranny of the majority. Rejecting this contract defends the THOUSANDS that will be tossed off of the Health plan, and rejecting it protects us from the inexcusable “New Media” provisions. Democracy, indeed!
VOTE NO! DO IT NOW! DON’T WAIT FOR THE PHONE BANKER’S CALL.
“anoyed at the lies” said:
“you guys are ridiculous. if you have a problem with steven (or anyone else) working in canada, maybe you should be calling our GOVERNOR”
I don’t have a problem with anyone else working in Canada.
I DO have a problem with THE PRESIDENT OF LOCAL 600 WORKING IN CANADA.
The message sent by such a selfish act FROM OUR PRESIDENT sends the following message:
I MAY BE YOUR PRESIDENT, BUT I DON’T REALLY CARE ABOUT YOU. THAT’S WHY WHEN THE MOST IMPORTANT CONTRACT IN YOUR LIVES WAS BEING NEGOTIATED, I WAS WORKING IN CANADA. AND I DIDN’T BRING ANY OF YOU, EITHER.
Nobody forced Steven Poster to actively conspire to impeach the previous president and usurp the office himself. Only self-interest did that. If he can’t afford to turn down runaway productions on principle. HE SHOULD NOT HAVE RUN FOR PRESIDENT OF A LOCAL HURT BY RUNAWAY PRODUCTION.
If you want to be “annoyed”, try that on for size.
Talk about “ridiculous”.
The concern about funding health care and pensions should be viewed in light of previous concessions we’ve made about how gross profits feed into that system. AMPTP should roll back some of those concessions and share the risk of the modern economy more equally with all involved.
Here’s the problem with President Poster working in Canada: he represents approximately 5700 American members, who work (hopefully) under the Hollywood Basic Agreement, unless they’re unlucky enough to work under a Low Budget, HBO, Disney, Digital or whatever Side Letter that they never voted for nor agreed to.
When he goes to Canada, guess what, “annoyed?” He isn’t working under the Hollywood Basic Agreement, he’s working under a Canadian IATSE contract. By doing so, he UNDERMINES EVERY ONE OF HIS MEMBERS. He’s actively going to work UNDER A DIFFERENT CONTRACT THAN THE ONE HIS OWN MEMBERS HAVE TO WORK UNDER.
And, because he’s a DP, he gets a waiver to work in Canada, but Canada’s Cultural Protection laws prohibit HIS OWN MEMBERS FROM WORKING THERE.
If, as Publius wrote, he chooses to work on runaway productions, he should have the DECENCY to refrain from running for the presidency of our union. It makes him a hypocrite.
While our contract was being negotiated — and it’s the ONLY Hollywood Basic Agreement that will be negotiated during his current term in office — he was not present and, worse, he was undermining that very contract by working out of the country under a different contract. That’s some leadership!
Now, he has the nerve to come back home and tell us what a great deal it is and we’d better sign it –or else. Okay, let’s be fair, he’s admitted that it’s not a great deal, but, hey, it’s the best we’re gonna get or we’re just gonna have to go on strike, ya know?
How does he know? I guess he got a full report from the people that actually showed up at the “negotiations.”
Any contract that both rolls back benefits and creates non-union workspace within, without or around a bargaining unit is going to be a very hard sell with even the most adept telemarketers manning (and womaning) those phone-banks. It would almost be worth reversing my early retirement in order to be able to vote NO on this excrescence.
Davey,
You overpaid IA punks got this all wrong.
You don’t try to eat the whole elephant in one sitting.
You do it like we did it in the old days one bite at a time.
You had it right for awhile, first you gave away night premiums, then Studio Zone requirements, 1st class travel, 8 hour minimum calls, drive to, cancellation of call notice, weekend rates, prevailing rate requirements and then allowed ungodly long hours to go unchecked until the media machine ground the flesh of your members into disease or death….now that’s the way you do it.
Not this way.
You are not promoting democracy in trying to sell this Alice in Wonderland POS of a contract, this contract promotes anarchy with membership requirements and removes the basic provisions of any real “union” collective bargaining agreement.
Indentured servitude doesn’t sell that well with the rank and file, it has to look like you care more about the members than that new motorcycle you have your eye on.
After reading posting on this site and other sites, I must respond.
I have been a member of Local 600’s NEB as well as a member of the Western Region Council for years and I’m constantly amazed by Bill Roberts, who has built a reputation for saying “no” to everything.
I’m not surprise that Bill is asking all of you to stand beside him and vote “No” on this Basic Agreement. What’s that saying, (Misery loves company), and Bill is looking for a little TLC from you.
I’ve long suspected Brother Bill, and others, of being more-or-less a union buster – first off, he has mentioned at past council meetings that dues should be voluntary, which is an argument for right to work. Now, he’s posting information on other sites as to how a local can decertify from the IATSE, which goes against the oath he took when he was elected as an alternate. This kind of talk does not sound like a brother who actually wants the IATSE to negotiate a better deal. It sounds like a person who wants to throw our union to the dogs, so that we may all lose together.
I heard the same information that everyone has heard at membership meetings, including Brother Roberts.
In fact, I remember Steven seating Brother Bill and other unseated alternate guests at the Special Board meeting to recommend the ratification of the contract just so that these people could participate in the discussion and vote. If that isn’t Democratic, I don’t know what is–being that every one of these alternates seated by Poster at the board meeting had been a very vocal “No on the Contract” person’s even before anyone knew what was even in the contract!
There are no conspiracies here. I thought Local 600 did a great job of presenting a consistent explanation of the Agreement and how we got to this point. No, it’s not the best contract for sure.
The most important issue for me and I’m sure for the members,
Is to get back to work now!
I’m not for anything that would delay or stop more JOBS from being created.
I voted “yes” because it is the right thing to do. The arguments against ratification posted on this discussion board doesn’t stand up to common sense and relies too heavily on conspiracy theories that don’t exist.
For more work NOW!!
Here are my ramblings …
I am thankful to all who wrote into this website. Smart, educated and researched–Thank you all.
I see that most members here will be voting no, as I have done so don’t call unless you want me to try to talk you into voting no.
I don’t understand how one writer would say the NEB meeting went on for “about four hours of discussion” and then a vote was taken and somebody else, who I presume was at the meeting, reports it was was “approximately a one and a half-hour presentation” then a vote was taken. I have to say it sounds like it was decided in advance. I would like to hear somebody say different here.
Also I have to say I am very surprised to hear that the President of Local 600 took work in Canada. Not that Canada is so bad but he is supposed to uphold certain values in my mind. And if he is taking work away from this country why wouldn’t anybody? I would, but not if I was the head of Local 600. For all I know he worked one day on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls. But he knows how long he was working there.
I wonder if I was on the E Board would I feel any different. I have been in 659 and now 600 since 1989, I have paid my dues every year and organized two shows personally and several other with help …. blah blah. Now I heard people saying “Darwinism” will decide the fate of the non-working members, will weed out the non-working like myself. Do we have to many members for the work going on now? Yes. Is that to many members for when it “gets busy again” Perhaps. Did I/we vote on a open door if you have the money to join policey?” I don’t think so.
Is that how it’s always been in the IATSE and local 600 now? Should I have stayed a loader? Would I be working today and making my 300 hours to get insurance for my family? Would I be on the E Board? I don’t know. Should I cash in and take the money owed to me, find a job in the solar industry as one person suggested?
I was hoping to work ten to fifteen more years and still have the very good health insurance plan that we do now. Lets see 15 years of dues, plus producers percentages …..
DTz
Local 600
David, hang in there, I appreciate your comments and the Studio Mechanics appreciate your support. Most of these postings don’t seem to notice that the world is shifting under their feet. Eisenhower is no longer president and Detroit is no longer the car building capital of the world. Let LA rail about the injustice, the rest of the world (my card does say International on it) is ready and able to do the work. Oh, by the way, I’m also a 30+ year member of Local 44 who has cast a yes ballot. I chose to move out of LA and these postings remind me why.
“You know something is happening but you don’t know what it is, do you Mr. Jones” Or “there’ll be no shelter here, the front line is everywhere” . Pick your generation.
FYI, the Governor will not do anything to either help or hurt IATSE. During the Writers Strike, he betrayed the WGA and SAG by not appointing a mediator to help solve the strike. Since your leaders are trying to supress free speech, you have the right to vote “no” to the point that each “no” vote is only worth 1/1,048,576 of a vote and each “yes” vote is worth 9,000 times its actual worth.
FYI, I am willing to bet that the 1/1,048,576 is the actual worth of each slave by plantation owners in the pre Civil War South. Translation, IATSE members are slaves to the AMPTP.
moreworknow,
Your attack on Bill Roberts is completely out of line.
As a member of the Local 600 National Executive Board and Western Region Council, I have personally witnessed Bill’s dedication to the members of our union. And while he and I have not always agreed on every issue, there is no one who pays more attention to the members hard-earned money in our local’s $10 million annual boondoggle.
Obviously you can’t attack the message, so you vainly attempt to attack the messenger.
Bill is not anti-union. Bill is anti-corruption. It’s unfortunate you can’t discern the difference.
And from reading his comments, he is smart enough not to trade “more work now” for no work later. He knows that a contract with no pay scales, no classifications and job interchangeability has no place in any union.
And, unlike those who hide under rocks, Bill even signs his name to his posts.
If only everyone here were that courageous.
I am shocked and amazed that Steve Poster–the president of Local 600– was not even at the negotiations and, I can’t believe I am even typing this, he was in Canada working on a feature film ….. It can’t be true, can it? I thought it was just a one day commercial in Nova Scotia. Like I said I’d go work in Canada right now BUT NOT if I was the President of a local with 5700 members AND FAMILIES. Thanks Greg Toland for a good letter.
DanTeaze
Hey Moreworknow,
Once again, someone who is in favor of the contract is not answering any of the specific concerns about “new media” “experimental new media” or insurance but simply trying to conflate protest of the proposed contract and specific personalities who are doing the protesting. They must be crazy, conspiracy theorists, in bad faith, out to bust the union. It is simply not possible in your mind that their concerns can be legit and correct and that someone could vote no on this proposed contract without an ulterior motive.
There may be crazy, conspiracy theorists among the dissenters but there are also people as sane as you who have read all the material available and come to the conclusion that this contract will NOT in any way mean MORE WORK AS WE’VE KNOWN IT NOW.
The local 600 leadership is arguing furiously that the terms are “as good” as those in the AFTRA and DGA contract. They are right. And those terms, especially the “new media” and “experimental new media” provisions were designed by the AMPTP to neuter the unions.
That’s not a conspiracy theory. Read the memorandum, learn some history of studio bookkeeping and do the math.
Moreworknow and everyone else who’s pro-contract, argue the points please and stop trying to dismiss professional people’s concerns with personal attacks.
The personal attack on Bill Roberts by the anonymous “moreworknow,” for simply and honestly speaking his mind in a public forum, is typical of what Doering’s thugs, slime and freeloaders do on his orders, and demonstrates exactly what they think of the “democracy” and “free speech” that they keep talking about.
They have to only talk about it, because we certainly don’t have any of it within Local 600′s NEB, or in our publications or website, where no dissent is tolerated or will ever appear in print, no opinions other than Doering’s have any value, no request for more information is ever answered, and the few of us who continuously stand up for the rights and futures of the members are targeted for intimidation and threats, and blacklisted from employment.
No Local 600 member is more consciencious, caring or courageous than Bill, and his recent posting about how the Special NEB meeting of Jan. 11 was really run as an undemocratic travesty and insult to elected NEB members, is dead-on accurate.
I was there, and I support his description of the meeting 200%. If anything, Bill is too kind in his choice of words.
The NEB member who made the motion to recommend RATification, and the one who made the motion to end debate to prevent the NEB members from finding out exactly what they were voting on, are both freeloaders who are scamming the system, with Doering’s help, to get their 54 hours a week without actually working for them the way the rest of us have to do.
I’m sure they will both be featured in future articles in the ICG Magazine, the usual reward for blind obedience to 600′s administration.
Neither of them will be affected by the increase to 400 hours, or by the New Media language, but they felt the need to help Doering and POster railroad through the RATification recommendation vote, against the best interests of our membership.
The worst travesty at that NEB meeting was that the NEB members voting only had a 4 page “Summary” of a 17 page “Memorandom of Agreement” of a 212 page contract written by a squad of highly paid AMPTP attorneys to go by.
Now that we have seen the Memorandom of Agreement (delivered with our ballots, though it has been available for several weeks), we see that there are a lot of items conveniently left off the Doering/Poster “summary” we had to vote by, and never mentioned by them, things that could have and should have turned that vote around.
So much for “free speech,” “democracy,” and “fair exchange of ideas,” Doering and Poster style.
Then to top it off, Doering’s thug “moreworknow” is too chickenshit to sign his name to his drivel.
Don’t worry, though, by now he’s back under his rock, awaiting more orders from Doering for more attempts at character assassination and intimidation of his betters.
Doug Hart, 1AC, NYC, 600 NEB, 34 years