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Freelance writer Dominic Patten is a Deadline contributor.
Spike TV’s 1,000 Ways To Die might soon learn what it’s like to be The Biggest Loser. Teamsters Local 399 and IATSE said today that they plan to take action against 1,000 Ways producer Original Productions over crew members fired last week. The unions did the same thing to NBC’s then non-union reality competition series Biggest Loser in 2010, with a weeklong strike ending in a deal and the immediate resumption of production. “The company is not in production right now but when they are, we will act,” Local 399 business agent/organizer Steven Dayan told Deadline today. More than two dozen crew members from 1,000 Ways, which examines and re-creates the way people have died, saw their positions eliminated after they tried to become union members, Teamsters said. IATSE posted on its Twitter feed Thursday that “@Spike_TV “1000 Ways to Die” crew of 20+ unanimously voted to strike. Shooting is shut down, crew holding out for union contract. #VanNuys”. “The company is not paying industry standard rates to the crew that made the show successful,” Dayan says. “There are safety concerns on the set, concerns about the hours people work, and, of course, health benefits are an issue.” Original Prods, which was purchased by FremantleMedia in 2009, also produces Deadliest Catch, Storage Wars and Ice Road Truckers among other series. Season 4 of 1,000 Ways premiered January 25. “We are going to try to convince (Original) to sign an agreement,” Dayan says. “We have reached out to the company, they have not reached out to us. All they have to do is pick up the phone.”
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Unions = a bunch of lazy people.
Glad to see you’re out there hard at work today, RJ. Sitting on the couch with your laptop and bagging on union workers.
Which Side Are You On?
Oh, workers can you stand it?
Oh, tell me how you can
Will you be a lousy scab
Or will you be a man?
Don’t scab for the bosses
Don’t listen to their lies
Us poor folks haven’t got a chance
Unless we organize
RJ, I invite you to work a week with me. 12-14 hour days, 5, 6, 7 days a week on occasion. I work hard, get paid commensurate with my level of experience and competence.
Steve, $20/hour is not a ridiculous wage – that’s $800/week or about $42,000/year – certainly not a huge amount of money. And who said anything about hating the USA? Why turn this into a pro-America vs anti-America argument?
that’s one heck of a bigoted generalization RJ
The crew was great. Very respectful. Being non union I took direction very well I must say. There was a lunch after. I happily signed the one time contract.
The pay was 90 after 8 hours of work without a break. But hey, I was giving my best so it was ok. There were live insects and a “Bug Rangler,” who was so nice and knowledgeable about the insects I was working with. The director was great. I was told to tear the legs off of the dead ones. The “dead ones” beetles, were still kicking but when that camera is rolling, I removed its leg and, with direction, poked the beetle with its own leg. A joke was made that “they might get in trouble with the animal rights people.” I don’t know if that’s true.
The rest of the shoot was great. The crew made sure I was comfortable with the final stunts. I didn’t mind being covered in dead maggots and live/dead beetles. The makeup artists helped clean me up best they could. Much appreciated. I road my bicycle 5 miles to and from the shoot once off the train in their North Hollywood location. (I lived in Hollywood).
I realized after the shoot how important it is to be union. For the rest of my career, I have promised myself not to sell my soul for any part. Spike TV, which makes sense but I’m kinda bummed about, did not allow my episode to be shown. Again, another reminder how nothing, not even a glamorous career in TV, is worth doing something that just feels wrong. And especially at the expense of what I did. I know they’re just insects but it felt really wrong. Could be just me though.
I mean no cynicism. I will stress how nice the crew was and as for the 10 bucks an hour under the conditions I went through, hey, I signed the thing. They didn’t rip my arm off and force me to do something I didn’t want to do. It’s my own doing. I wish the best of luck to the shows further success.
Sincerely
I was a recent victim (in more ways than one) on this show. While everyone on the crew seemed to be trying their best, the working conditions, food and pay was beyond embarrassing. The show is a success here and overseas, yet while production rakes in the cash, it pays the actors and crew like underage sweatshop workers. Lets hope they get organized (also in more ways than one!)
Another win for the union…right…RIGHT?! Looks like they were dumb enough to drink that union koolaid and then lost their jobs as a result.
Once the union shows up there is a very strong ‘with us or against us’ stance. IATSE brags that it was a unanimous vote, but once a union rep has the call sheet (with the crews name and phone numbers on them) you are screwed. If you don’t vote to switch, then you’re on a list with the union and you’re fired by the production company anyway. Lose, lose.
I’m not anti-union, but I don’t know how IATSE intends to follow up, Original Productions and SPIKE-TV won’t really be losing a lot of sleep over this, but over two-dozen skilled crew lost weeks of work and weeks of pay, IATSE gets some press.
Oooohhh – the fabled union “black list”. I voted “no” a show years ago when the IATSE deal wasn’t right for us. I’m in IATSE now working just fine. I’m no where near a big union fan. I find them arrogant and powerless. But they’re health care is nice – when you can get it and if you can keep it.
Lol I bet these union clowns claiming sweatshop work were making 20$ and hour. We need to ship these people overseas if they hate the USA and let them see sweatshops
I know some people who have worked on this show as well. They are constantly casting. They pay actors $100/Day and Extras $50/Day not including taxes that are taken out. They do not feed them either. I have also herd that part of the crew works for minimum wage and even below and they are not allowed to put in the actual hours they have worked on their timecards because they alter them. I am from New York and here on the East Coast me and my family would not have lived a middle working class life without the union. Unions are as American as Apple pie. I hope they get a resolution!
that’s not true, i’ve worked as an extra on this show and they fed everyone.
Ya they fed everyone and the one time they didn’t I got a meal penalty on my check and I was only there for 6 hours.
I know for a FACT that they were not paid $20/hour and they worked long hours and were not compensated for driving their own vehicles all around Southern California, not even LA County. They were hard working people and collateral damage in the fight.
Hi Steve, you would lose that bet! I was paid $100.00 flat for what turned out to be 8 hours work. I’m no mathematician, but I’m pretty sure that comes to less than $20.00 an hour. Oh and that was a flat rate, had I gone over 8 hours it still would have been just the flat $100.00. Also I worked deep in the Antelope Valley at a movie ranch with no compensation for gas/mileage. I’m not actually complaining as I agreed to these terms upfront, just wanted to shed some real facts on your conjecture.
Obviously the remarks of some wifh little or no production experience…
Dear IATSE and Teamsters,
Good job. Such “strikes” help keep thousands of unemployed union members convinced that you actually give a shit about them — allowing you to continue to profit and ignore the real issue: runaway production.
The last twenty-years of “runaway production” has done far greater damage to your members than a million “Biggest Loser” or “1,000 Ways To Die” combined.
Keep fighting for these few POS productions that remain, while telling your unemployed, dues-paying union members that runaway production doesn’t harm them.
UNIONS = HEALTHCARE for workers we would not otherwise get.
@ Chris – it’s illegal to fire workers for attempting to unionize. @ Steve – you clearly have no idea how a television production works or what proper compensation should be. And why should we all be racing to the bottom of a pay scale? @ RJ – clearly you’ve never met anyone who’s worked on a union show, as they are some of the hardest workers around. I’m sick and tired of people who have no idea what they’re talking about denigrating the Hollywood trade unions and their attempts to better the working conditions for non-union workers. Seriously get a clue.
@ Editdroid
it may be illegal to fire workers trying to unionize. However, they are not employees and their agreements expire at the end of the production period.
If the prodco doesnt want to agree to the union deal, they’ll hire replacements and simply wait until the production period expires for the striking employees.
Now the striking employees wont have weekly paychecks for the rest of this season and will be blacklisted from ever working again for the prodco.
The union gets to say they are working for the exploited little guy while exploiting the little guy themselves. The only people that lose here are the striking workers.
Maybe AFTRA or SAG could ask their member (who is a SAG National Board Member) that narrates the show to strike as well.
For a show with only 20+ crew members and maybe what 4 PAs (out of those 20) driving pass/cargo vans to ask 399 to step in is ridiculous. I can see IA crew asking for benefits, but how about a commensurate pay raise instead?? The only reason 399 is backing the crew is there are so many of their members out of work because all of the feature work has left to Louisiana, New Mexico, Michigan and the like. For a reality show to need drivers for a Pass Van to pay them $500 to $600/day and take the $200/day PAs gig is fing retarded in the reality/unscripted world.
I can see the show bailing to Utah asap. I understand that the show is successful, but there really is not need for 399 to step in on this one. For Godsake has anyone worked reality??? It’s like grown ups working on a student film. You’re lucky you get paid what you do to point a video camera and turn it on. . . I take great shots with my i phone.
Again, I can see the 4 man griptrician staff complaining, but no need for Teamsters to take this action. Why don’t they go after all the other dozens of reality cable shows in LA and run the rest of the work out of town. Filming in LA has increased in the last 2 years after it’s worst year in 2009 after the mass exodus of features due to State tax incentives elsewhere. These increases in days of locations permits issued is a direct result of reality shows being cheap enough to film here in town. Once IATSE and 399 put the pressure on these shows, the same as they made features unaffordable in LA, they will pick up and leave to an incentive state. As a former union member, I loved nothing more than telling my spouse that I promise to call her once a day and that we will promise to fly to or from a distant location to see each other and our children, when we are not working a 6th day so the Producers can cut down on hotel room days and per diems for us LA folks. We are lucky to have these shows in LA since we don’t have features anymore. Please stay out of it so I don’t have to sell my house and relocate my children to a state where they will have a tough time adjusting or better yet, my wife will allow them to come visit their father when he’s not working on the weekends once a month. We need sustainable employment in LA and this doesn’t help.
You want to do something helpful, cut IA and 399 rates here in LA to make it affordable once again to film in the city that was created for making movies and has the best unemployed crews in the world by a mile.
Thanks IA/399.
Well said!
The show has way more than 20 crew members; that is just the amount of people that fall under union agreements that decided and want to unionize. Talented crew members on a successful show should make more than close to minimum wage.
This is a scripted television show. It would be impossible to shoot a “reality” show in which stories of bizarre deaths are recreated. Check out imdb.com there are no words describing it as a reality genre.
Like water, production companies will always find the path of least resistance. On this low end of a reality show, consider yourself fortunate if your paycheck doesn’t bounce.
I have worked for this company as an Editor and loved it. Nobody held a gun to my head and demanded I take a non-union job. If you want a job with health care benefits and higher pay then you are free to go find it. I took the job, because I felt it would be a great experience and it was. People are complaining that they only pay extras $50 a day. What’s the problem? If people took the job, then good for the show. If people are willing to work for that rate, why would they pay more?
I would like to know what changed in their job that was different when they were hired. I wouldn’t buy a house next to train tracks and then shut down the trains because they are too loud for me. You knew what you were getting into.
I worked on this show and was friendly with most of the crew and not once did I hear anyone grumble about their wage or express concern over safety or the number of hours they had to put in. What happened is that one day 30 crew members walked off the set from a show that they enjoyed working on. I never saw anyone approach the producers. And, it’s not that they weren’t accessible. Everyone had contact with them. If there was something to be said, there was ample time to say it. It never happened. This isn’t a case of a grievance erupting because management was deaf to the concerns of labor. It was a selfish stand by a handful of employees who signed on to do a non-union show and decided that they were not happy making the money they agreed to when they signed on. To be clear, I’m not anti-union. I just don’t like it when people break their word. And even more, I don’t like it when they lie, which is what’s happening now. Not every show can be a union show, not pulling in the numbers this did. The production costs would be prohibitive. So either we get to work on a show that we all enjoy for decent, if not altogether favorable, wages or we don’t work at all. I preferred working and being honest with myself.