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PHOTOS: IATSE Strikers vs ‘Biggest Loser’ Scabs
An internal IATSE memo circulated late last night suggesting that NBC’s Biggest Loser producers may have moved up the call time, originally scheduled for 5 AM, so that their replacement workers would avoid facing IATSE picketers. “Do we have them on the run?” the memo said. “Don’t let their scheming work. Let’s get their [there] and inform the brothers and sisters that are crossing the line that there is a better way to get work. Let’s give them the chance to show their dedication to keeping our industry one of responsible professionals. Call Time for Biggest Loser is now 4:00 AM. Please Please Please, meet us on the line at: King Gillette Ranch.” Strikers did indeed gather at 4 AM and have been picketing ever since in Calabasas where filming of the long-running reality series was scheduled to resume today with replacement workers in for striking crew members. IATSE called the strike following a walkout by crew members a week ago. Here is an early photo from the picket lines which CBS 2 reporter Suraya Fadel posted via Twitter.
IATSE says the strike followed a 100% vote by the Biggest Loser crew to support IA, but other insiders say that a little less than half of the reality series’ 100 crew members walked out on last Monday night and have been striking. (About 40 crew members on the show are IATSE members.) According to CBS2′s report from the picket line this morning, all 100 Biggest Losers crew members are picketing. The labor action recently picked up an endorsement by AFTRA. (The Biggest Loser has deals with AFTRA for its talent and DGA for its directing teams.) In addition to disrupting Season 11, which is now filming, the strike also threatens the upcoming live finale of Season 10, which employs many IATSE members. IATSE has tried to organize the show at least on one previous occasion, during Season 4 when Biggest Loser went DGA.
Insiders say this strike came without a warning by the union and may be a part of an effort by IATSE to unionize all major independent reality producers. The action on Biggest Loser came after the show’s co-producer Reveille approached the union about signing a deal for its upcoming CBS reality competition series Live to Dance starring Paula Abdul. “The two sides were in the middle of that conversation when IATSE decided to hit The Biggest Loser,” a source said. The union stopped the negotiations and asked to do a deal that covers every show Reveille ever does as the only way to get reasonable rates, insiders say. Word is other major reality companies have been approached about similar deals too.
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So the workers are going to their jobs at 4 am; working 12-14 hrs; going home traveling in a car or motorcyle tired and stressed from working more than labor lead allow 8 hrs;
then they are getting up early again the next day and again driving a car or motorcyle on the freeway in a stresses and overtired condition.
This is an assault on public safety as much as serving a drunk more drinks at a bar and then letting them drive. Except this is a criminal act because it is intentional endangerment of the public. Los Angeles must step in and shut down productions that allow contining overtime as this is a criminal act by producers. And all permits should require a state labor representative to be present on set at all times.
Perhaps the disasterous act on tge bay set could have been avoided had a federal labor representative been on set (crossing state lines ,production co in la and labor in a different state). Please this is a safety issue for everyones family, fathers, mothers, sisters,daughters,sons,brothers, relatives, friends
I have driven at 4am in the morning after working all day the previous day. I think your comment is a bit over the top.
Hopefully the employees ARE NOT drinking on the job which could lead to an accident.
Have you done so on a regular basis? The previous point is completely valid, so go back to your cushy 9-5′er and keep your comments to yourself.
The comment was NOT over the top. You are just a helluva lot luckier than you realize.
Driving without enough sleep is the functional equivalent of driving drunk. I had a niece who drove drunk and a classmate who drove without enough sleep. They’re both equally dead.
FYI – I do not have a cushy job and I do whatever it takes to pay my bills every month. This whining is perceived as whining by MANY people.
IATSE is also asking its members to be there at 4am and work all day picketing (and the picketers aren’t even getting paid!)…so not sure how your comment makes any sense…
Seriously? You think that union productions don’t go into overtime? A union movie never goes into golden time or turnaround?
You sir (or ma’am) are a simpleton.
we only worked 11 hours btw
Wah Wah Wah… crybabies.
Screw unions! I say disband them all.
I’m all for scabs. If someone doesnt want to work for the pay and terms offered, then the company has every right to give the job to someone who DOES want it.
Yeah! Screw the unions! Let the working class eat Ramen noodles for Christmas so the producers can have yachts in every color!
This is America for God’s sake, if your only skill is building sets or applying make-up or operating a camera you don’t deserve health insurance or a living wage or a Christmas vacation. You want to live decently, become an executive! Then you can screw all the “little people” who make you look good, too.
Funny what some people claim is a needed living wage.
You dont like the terms offered, dont take the job. Dont whine about others who will.
And if it’s your “only skill” and you cant make a living at it, maybe you should change careers.
Look me in the eye and tell me you want everything you ‘deserve’ to visit you RIGHT NOW.
Pretty sure that word is at the root of all of our country’s problems.
I really don’t like unions as a concept. But on the other side the producers running some production companies are really exploitative of their labor. And they obviously feel no shame about enriching themselves while making their fellow man suffer.
Brian M- would you want a life working 12-14 hours per day averaging 12 bucks an hour in Los Angeles? For a real grown up occupation? Would you think that was a good deal for your children?
And what does society get out of this…. A skilled worker making 800 per week isnt going to be contributing too much in taxes, they have less to spend on consumer goods and services- decline in the purchase of goods and service results in lower revenue, lower revenue = lower advertising budgets, lower advertising budgets lead to lower Ad revenue that going back to the producers of the television show…
We are literally starving our economy to death by nickle and diming our workers. When the US has a strong middle class, it helps everyone- it is GREAT for business. But this, this doesnt help any of us- we are ruining ourselves… and for what? Is there a big difference between making 12 million and 14 million? Is it that much better to have 6 expensive cars as opposed to 5?
They make waaaaay more than 800 a week. Try 800 a day for some people. THey don’t know how good their life was. I’m sure if it goes union they will actually make less. I know for a fact people were paid over scale. I was one of them. I didn’t want this. I felt forced into it and scared to make a choice that was right for me. I’m now scared that the union has ruined the show. We had it great there. We were treated well. Because of a few complainers, who in my opinion bitch no matter what you pay them, we are now out of a job. I wish we could go back and this never happens.
I went and did some fact checking. What the union promised did not check out. They also tried to bribe people into standing with them. That’s not a union i want to be a part of. No thanks.
Before SCREWING UNIONS, you should know that If it wasn’t for unions, there would be no 8 hr work days 40 hr workweeks, overtime or health benefits for anyone/ union or not. All things one by unions and then adopted by the rest of the corporations in America.
THe car union did a great job up in Michigan! Not
so i guess you would not complain if the studio told workers that they’d work 14 hour days and get paid 50 bucks a week then?this isn’t communist china
People in the Industry need to start waking up to the changing world. Nobody insists on an American crew anymore, and investors aren’t going to keep putting up with these union demands.
These people should just go to work and be happy they have a job. Because a lot of people don’t.
If they keep up their strike action, they may find they are no longer involved in the entertainment industry. And that the entertainment industry starts going overseas like so many other industries.
Is Canada on strike again?
That South Park episode (when Canada went on strike) was one of the funniest ever. I laughed so hard I was crying. How do you spell the Canadian employees union ? Answer: W – G – A.
How hard would it be to pick up that show and move it to any other country in the world. I mean it’s just a bunch of fat people losing weight. Sure the King ranch is close to Hollywood but, there are other settings. Mexico, Canada, even down south were unions are not strong (just as the UAW).
You are disgusting.
I agree. They going to start filming Master Chef in Peru, and there is no reason they can’t film other TV series and movies there. Americans need to stop acting so “entitled” and start facing the very real world that is around the corner.
Otherwise, Hollywood will become a ghost town.
This could get interesting- Jillian Michaels may not cross the picket lines…
http://www.realityblurred.com/realitytv/archives/the_biggest_loser_11/2010_Nov_15_jillian_strike
So what if Jillian walks? It’s not like the producer can’t find a personal trainer replacement. This is Hollywood after all and she is NOT the star of the show. The fat people are the stars.
Karen, you’re an idiot. everyone knows Jillian is the star of that show. When she left in season 3 the show bombed. Get a clue.
Gee Kelly, I predict you won’t get very far in life if you call people idiots all the time. YOU might think Jillian is the star of the show. Other people think it’s the fat people.
it actually didn’ t bomb and Jillian begged to get back in from what i hear. That show made her and she is disgusting to the crew and others from what i hear. She only does what she thinks will help her image. She is alllllll about herself.
This makes me so angry.
Here’s what you get by utilizing IATSE on a television production. 5% more money on average taken from your show budget to cover union payroll fringes and P&W. THAT’S IT! That’s all!
Do you get a better show? No. Do you get more content on screen? No. Do you get any added benefit to the production at all? NO! And anyone who says otherwise is completely unaware of what they are talking about. And that goes for you union simps who simply want to see your vacation funds pumped up.
You do NOT get better workers. You do not get a more favorable working environment. You get an increase to the budget and a fatter union. That is it. And in case I am not making myself entirely clear, let me explain how a show like Biggest Loser really works (and no, I don’t work on the show or have anything to do with it).
The crew people who are hired on reality shows in all cases that I am aware of get paid more than the union minimum hourly wage. This is a fact. They generally work union standard hours with overtime hitting at the appropriate times. Occasionally, in order to make a budget work, a production company will indeed make flat rate deals, say $600.00 per day flat for a camera operator. The operators know this going in. If they don’t want it, they don’t have to take it. They can go somewhere else. There is a ton of work in this town. There is nothing wrong with this scenario. And, quite frankly, there are thousands and thousands of people in this country who would be exceedingly happy to make $600.00 a day. This is not a crappy wage. Even working twelve straight hours, this is $50.00 an hour. Not too shabby. Now go to your IA blue book and see what the actual hourly wage for a union camera operator is. Uh huh.
The unions are promoting scare tactics in order to keep themselves in business. Let’s see them go the extra step and help their members find work. Let’s see them create an environment where they work with the Producers (the so-called people on the yachts who actually make it possible for there to be work in a television and movie business) rather than against them. Let’s see the unions try to be considerate of budgets rather than simply running them up and laughing about it. I used to be IA, and I stopped paying my dues when I realized I could not call up the office in Toluca Lake and have them help me find a job. They don’t “offer that service”. Don’t believe me? Try it.
There is a reason producers sometimes shy away from the unions. And it isn’t because they want to cut corners, be unsafe, or any of the other ludicrous reasons that the unions and members promote. It is because unions are expensive. And there is no added benefit creatively. And that’s a fact.
Don’t get me wrong. I am all for union members getting their pension and welfare and providing for their retirement. I just wish that there was an added benefit to the world of production to make it a symbiotic rather than an aggressively caustic one sided affair.
Several good points. Here’s one point of mine. Take your $600 for a 12hr day (although I think BL pays $550). Now, knock it back to a union 10-hr day. Production has just saved itself some money that can now go to paying fringes.
Right. Take two hours of content out of the show.
You are a genius!
(doesn’t anyone on this blog have any brain cells?)
What an excellent post Dan. $50 an hour is about 1/3 of what associate attorneys make and they had to go to school for a lot longer.
read again: continuing overtime converts to:a month or more of daily 11-16 hr days.
@Karen ; continuing overtime: 10 or more consecutive days working 12-18 hr days. ie.hire another employee required by federal labor laws. Arrest.
What are you talking about? Biggest Loser? I know they have days they shoot 6 hours and leave and get paid for 10. I’m not sure what show you are talking about.
I have zero sympathy for IATSE. During the Writers Guild strike, IATSE crossed the picket lines and has for years undercut the position of the WGA and other unions.
Remember, it was IATSE’s Local 839 “Cartoonists Guild” who happily jumped in after Nickelodeon fired writers who the WGA was trying to organize and signed a deal which forever locks the WGA out of that network.
It was IATSE who jumped in and wrecked WGA efforts to organize at “America’s Next Top Model” by cutting a sweetheart deal with the show to use IATSE editors, thereby allowing the producers to fire the striking employees.
And want to know why most Teamsters were crossing the WGA picket lines to drive their trucks? Because IATSE drivers are ready and waiting to drive the trucks of those Teamsters who wouldn’t cross the picket lines.
So why should I care about IATSE?
8 hour day. What is this a bank. Gimme a break. 12 hour is a norm. No wonder jobs are leaving this state. If you don’t want the job replace them with the many millions that do.
I’d love to earn $600 a day. And I can’t believe anyone is complaining about it.
UNIONS ARE THE RESULT OF BAD MANAGEMENT!
PUT YOUR MONEY IN A PENSION WITH THE UNION AND WATCH THEM BANKRUPT THE PENSION. GOOD JOB IATSE. RAISE THE HOURS SO YOU CAN PAY FOR IT. FORCE SHOWS TO TURN SO THEY DUMP THEIR CREW AND HIRE THE OLD UNION MEMBERS SO THEY CAN CONTINUE TO WORK WHILE THE OTHERS PAY DUES AND THEN DON’T QUALIFY AS THEY DON’T GET THE HOURS. BRILLIANT.
As an employee working in reality tv, I hope this union bid fails miserably. Unions are outdated and haven’t been relevant since the 1930′s. Reality TV is attractive to the networks because it’s cheaper to produce than scripted shows. If you unionize these shows, they then become less attractive to the networks and scripted will take more of the time slots that we currently command. Less reality tv jobs, means less employment.
It’s been my experience that when there is a big push to unionize reality tv, there is usally a wizard behind the curtain (guilds that represent scripted tv workers).
I’m just sayin’…
I worked on the first few seasons of BL and have to admit that the pay and working conditions were the best of any reality show I’ve ever worked. However, for them to sign deals with AFTRA and DGA while leaving out the rest of the crew is unconscionable. If I weren’t (thankfully) working an IA show right now I’d be on the lines with the rest of the crew.
I wonder if the crew on Sarah Palin’s reality show are Union.
I heard they said Survivor is Union but i work on it and its actually non-union.
@voice of intelligence: actually you are agreeing , you are saying the same thing: ALL producers whether union or non union, EXPLOIT
workers by forcing them to work overtime because it’s CHEAPER than hiring another employee. State and federal labor representatives must be on set at all times to protect ghe health and safety of workers and shut down illegal acts by producers (forcing any continuing overtime instead of the more expensive hiring of additional employees).
You, sir, do not have the knowledge or capacity to argue this point and therefore do not deserve a response.
However, since I am in a friendly mood, let me just say this.
First, every crew person loves getting overtime. Ask any crew member. Within reason, this is the money that buys Christmas presents, pays for college tuitions, buys groceries, etc. Your point is simplistic and stupid.
You cannot swap out a camera person in the middle of shooting a sequence. If you were a camera person, or at least a thinking human being, you would understand this. Consistency and knowledge of the existing production flow is key.
Further, it is far cheaper for the Producer to hire a new person into an existing position than to let someone go into extreme overtime. Think about it. It just isn’t intelligent creatively or logistically to break up a show in the middle of production.
You need to think before you respond.
You mentioned a camera man making 50 dollars an hour as a reduced pay rate by working extended hours from a flat rate as a lot of money; a handy-man makes 50 dollars an hour.
If a handy-man spends 2 hours fixing my gutter for $50 an hour, I pay him $100. If a non-union camera op shoots my show for 2 hours and gets wrapped early, I still have to pay him $600 because he is on a minimum flat deal for the day. And to be clear, it is not $50/hour, it is actually $42.86/hour for the first 8 hours, time and a half for the next 4 hours to complete the flat and any hours worked beyond the 12 hour flat deal are paid at double time of $85.71/hour with any infringement upon meal break required every 6 hours paid as 1 full hour’s pay, all per California labor law. Boo-hoo.
Lets say you are a recent television and film graduate looking for a job that thousands of others are looking for. You submit a resume to the biggest loser, they asks if you would like a job.
What should you do???
If you’re smart enough to graduate college, you’re smart enough to think for yourself and make your own decisions.
It’s much cheaper for the prods to get employees to work overtime than to hire another employee. and it is illegal. the prods need babysitters; state and federal labor representatives on set at all times to protect workers from intentional criminal acts of endangerment.
It is absolutely true that our working conditions were established by unions and thank them for that!!. It’s not true that if we go union then “they” will make less reality and more scripted. It is so much more expensive to make a scripted show that union benefits are not going to be the breaking factor, people. The networks make so much money from reality shows, the profit is insane. I realize that the production companies look like the greedy ones, but it is actually the network which is really making more of the big money from ad sales. Unions help people support each other and we have a right to join forces just as much as people have a right to agree to terms as an individual. The question is, really, when you employ people in this day and age, the common practice is to provide benefits. It’s primitive that we still see employers of large businesses not offering this and taking advantage of the poor economy as an excuse. If the execs at the network have benefits, so should everyone in their company. It’s just poor business and kinda gross.
By the way, story producers are also losing out – the wga stopped trying to help them. they get paid less then the crew and many times work longer hours since there are no boundaries, weekends, 16 hr days. The crew gets a false sense of security with 12 hr days and then ot. story team doesn’t get overtime and sees their rate dwindle as they work more and more hours, weekends, etc. I am certainly not saying who has it worse. I am simply asking those who support the strike and the unions to also consider supporting the “story team” which are called “producers”, but are actually by wga standards writers and should be receiving wga benefits. I would love to see all crew on reality be united and get the same benefits as our scripted brothers since we are making the same advertising dollars!
Are you so simple to think that these people are only capable of developing these skills? Working is a privilege, its not a hobby or something that has to be supplied. Do you remember the auto union rejecting propositions forcing the government to save their companies? Unions were created to ensure fair and equal wages for people that WANT to work. How about this, I work a minimum of 12.5 hours a day and try to get as much overtime as I can because I’m not entitled to a free ride, I’m not afraid to work for my pay, if I get tired on the drive home I pull over and take a nap. Please, if you don’t want to work for your pay, go to a socialist country because I didn’t spend the two and a half years in the desert so I could come back and see people complain about how hard they have it. Sign up as a civilian contractor in Iraq or Afghanistan you’ll make at least four times as much as the soldiers that will gladly step infront of a bullet for you. Oh but I guess that would be too hot over there and you couldn’t call your mint every day, friggin cry babies.