IATSE Pickets Hallmark Channel Over Larry Levinson Productions Using Scabs

COMMENTS (12)

• Didn’t IATSE just vote for a crap contract that specifically allowed for a number of non-union workers on productions?

  It didn’t take long for the chickens to come home to roost, did it?

  Make a note, SAG.

  Comment by Hank Yablonski — Wednesday May 27, 2009 @ 9:30pm PDT  Reply to this post

• I see a lot of staff but…Where are the rank and file members?

  Why don’t you organize Photokem? Something that gives you leverage.

  Just curios what would the IATSE rate be?

  I hope better than minim wage.

  Comment by Gary Watts — Wednesday May 27, 2009 @ 10:32pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Didn’t IATSE just vote for a crap contract that specifically allowed for a number of non-union workers on productions?

  The IA has done successively crappier contracts for the past 30 years (!) now. At this point they don’t have a whole hell of a lot of anything to offer.

  SAG should definitely take note of that – they are now just starting to head down that very same path. Although, to its credit, SAG does have more than a few hundred members who can recognize studio bullshit when they see it. The IA definitely does not.

  Comment by Billy — Thursday May 28, 2009 @ 7:03am PDT  Reply to this post

• That is incorrect. Though the contract isn’t perfect there is NO provision for hiring non union workers. This production company is blatant in its labor abuses and refuses to become a signatory. They pay sub standard wages and provide no protections as far as overtime, meal breaks, insurance, etc. to their crews. They run it like a sweatshop.

  LM

  Comment by lydia — Thursday May 28, 2009 @ 12:49pm PDT  Reply to this post

• You vote for a crappy contract, you get treated like crap. Cause – effect. it’s very simple.

  Comment by rosettaresearch — Thursday May 28, 2009 @ 3:45pm PDT  Reply to this post

• That is incorrect. Though the contract isn’t perfect there is NO provision for hiring non union workers.

  Technically, you are correct. But, as long as we’re getting technical, permit me to point out that there are NO provisions regarding working conditions, compensation, or anything else – besides having to pay IA dues, that is. None – Everything has to be negotiated by the people doing the work.

  So — how is this any different from non-union work?

  Well, it is not, at all. Oh, except for paying those pesky IA dues. Perhaps 1% right out of your checks,
  before you ever see the money. Plus quarterly dues and per capita fees of perhaps another couple hundred bucks.

  As for OT, and meal breaks – the California state law says 1.5x after 8, 2x after 12, and an additional hour’s pay if not meal within six hours.

  These terms and conditions are SUPERIOR to the IA’s contract.

  So – again, how is this different from non-union work?

  See above.

  I could go on, but I won’t. I will say I don’t quite believe your description of LLP, though…

  Comment by Billy — Thursday May 28, 2009 @ 4:56pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Ask Marla Sokoloff about the working conditions on an LLP set.

  Comment by Joe — Thursday May 28, 2009 @ 5:43pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Ask any of the crew who worked on “Meteor” how safe an LLP set is.

  Comment by Bob — Thursday May 28, 2009 @ 11:16pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Dudes and dudettes of IATSE. So I guess you want Larry Levinson to leave California and shoot somewhere else too, huh? Cuz that’s what’s going to happen if you continue to protest his productions. I am so OVER the union lemming mentality anymore. Have you noticed how little work there is left in this state? You’re all just angry and want to pick on someone and so you found Larry. Do you really think by protesting his productions, that it was positively change your lives? Really??? Really???? Really?????

  Comment by Tracy — Friday May 29, 2009 @ 10:37am PDT  Reply to this post

• So Tracy, let me see if I understand what you’re saying here, if IATSE continues to fight to get Mr. Levinson to agree to union representation he’ll move out of California?

  What do you think he’ll do, sell his production facilities, his payroll company, his trucks, etc and move to Canada? Really? Really? Really?

  What’s wrong with being angry? If you were treated the way that Mr. Levinson treats his crews, you’d be angry too. Taking steps to ensure that he has to play by the same rules as everyone else is taking a very positive step to change our lives. If nothing else, he won’t be allowed to get away with having his crews work under unsafe conditions as they do now. Ask anyone who worked on the early weeks of “Meteor” up to and including the producers just how safe those sets were. Ask some of the folks who were hospitalised if they felt their lives were being positively changed by working for Mr. Levinson.

  I am so OVER with people who can’t see beyond their own pathetic lives and who can’t or won’t realize that if one crew member can be abused than any crew member can be abused.

  Comment by Bob — Friday May 29, 2009 @ 2:42pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Nobody seems to realize that Larry offered to sign a contract with IATSE, several times, but they were asking him to sign the same contract the big studios operate under. As much as people would like to think he’s a big mover and shaker, his is a small operation; most of his TV movies of the week are shot for less than 2mil and the mini-series usually around double that. Larry is the king of cutting corners and pinching pennies; witness his ownership of his own production trucks, prop house, studio facilities, etc. Why pay someone else to rent what you can buy to own yourself?

  IATSE wouldn’t care if he picked up and moved to Canada, since their workers up there would be getting work on his shows. As long as it’s union, who cares, right?

  Comment by Quoth — Saturday May 30, 2009 @ 5:52pm PDT  Reply to this post

• I have worked for LLP, and until this recent IATSE activity so did my wife. I have moved on to union work. My wife has not yet been able to make that jump. She is well compensated by LLP. She gets $250/dy and works about 10 hour days during prep and 12 during production. This is better than she would get on a tier 1 union show (which is the budget range of LLP’s shows) She refuses to cross a picket line, so she has not worked since this started. I agree with her decision.

  This is really hurting us financially. For the record, she contacted the union about joining several times and has been turned away curtly. She is already an IATSE member from a local in another state. They don’t care. Told her to stop calling.

  So she lost a good job because she refuses to cross a picket line because she doesn’t want to ruin her chances of getting into a union that told her point-blank to buzz off. Now we are spending a little of our savings just to pay the bills because she has lost the only good paying non-union work she could find.

  I am friends with many people who worked for LLP. We all got our start there. It was a stepping stone. We complain about it now, we joke about the old days. But we are all thankful that we had that opportunity to break into the business. You will not find ANY of us on the picket lines. Let me tell you, there is no breaking in by doing AFI films for $50 and all the bagels you can eat.

  R

  Comment by Robert — Sunday May 31, 2009 @ 11:56am PDT  Reply to this post