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UPDATE 5:47 PM Saturday: Producers of the TNT competition reality series The Great Escape have reached an agreement with IATSE. The union called a strike this morning after declaring Profiles Television Productions unfair for interfering with IATSE organizing efforts. The crew is back at work after walking a picket line for seven hours today in Santa Clarita, Calif., where the show is shooting at the Placerita Canyon Power Plant. IATSE said the union and producers will negotiate a contract that provides crew members the health benefits, pension and safe working conditions that other entertainment industry workers have.
PREVIOUSLY, 10 AM Saturday: The IATSE has gone on strike today against Profiles Television Productions, producer of TNT’s new competition show The Great Escape after declaring the company “an unfair employer” earlier this morning. The union accuses Profiles of obstructing efforts to organize the show’s crew. The action-adventure reality series is hosted by Rich Eisen, one of NFL’s on-air talent. Headed by co-founders Bertram van Munster and Elise Doganieri, Profiles is the parent of both World Race Productions and Earthview Inc. The Great Escape is also produced by Ron Howard and Brian Grazer’s Imagine TV, Fox TV Studios, and creators Justin Hochberg and Charlie Ebersol. Picket line is set up at Placerita Power Plant, 20885 Placerita Canyon Road, Santa Clarita.
TV Editor Nellie Andreeva - tip her here.
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Good Job IATSE. SHAME ON YOU TNT!
TNT, Grazer and Howard can’t hire a union crew? Shame on you!!!!!! Go IATSE!
How does this effect the editors?
The Editors are MPEG which is part of IATSE. They are covered under this deal. In fact the strike was over so quick because the Post Crew stood in solidarity with Production.
Congrats to the crew for standing up for
Healthcare and benes. REALITY PRODUCERS BEWARE– Your greedy non union days are numbered. Workers want respect so Go Union or we will strike you all!
Thank goodness!!! Now the production costs can rise 2 or 3 times what they were. Bravo unions. Keep nailing that coffin shut.
Production costs rise 3 or 3 times? WRONG. LIES. Being union only adds at most 10% of the budget. Did you know to be union adds about $6-$9 per hour per union employee, in order to pay your crew benefits incl health & pension. That’s pittance to what producers and companies and networks make. Most crew would gladly take $6 an hour less, or meet in the middle, because there is NO OTHER WAY for working crew to get Healthcare.
The only nail in the coffin are the days of non-union reality TV. Those days are over soon. ALL SCRIPTED TV is Union. Reality soon to follow. People Powered Change!
You’re an idiot. You know nothing of the accounting process and how Union work affects Production. Refrain from spreading these untruths. Keep them in the hall between the brothers.
So then just move the little extra money for crew benefits from the Non-Union column to the UNION column. We want Healthcare so I’m sure You can Deal With It!
The writer on the show still isn’t covered by any union. It’s too bad the WGA doesn’t have balls like IATSE. (does the WGA still exist?)
How do you know?
Way to go, IA!
Unions are the reason CA has 1/2 the work it used to. Keep it up Iatse. That way more work will move into my state where workers still get paid well, but don’t rape producers for working 20 minutes over an 8 hour day. Gotta love an organization that doesn’t pay anything but wants to tell you how to run your business!
Bert van Munster is NOTORIOUS for being anti-union.. amazing race is on 20+ seasons and still isn’t union. Glad to see a little comeuppance here
None of you seem to have a clue about these kind of things. The culprit here is not the Production Company. They are the shill. They are hired to be the entity that gets shat upon when this comes down. Fox, Imagine, TNT, all stand by silently in the background and rake in the real profits. Van Munster is a working man just like anyone else that holds a picket sign but he probably pays for his healthcare out of his pocket. As for the crew, they get paid less, but have POTENTIAL benefits. That is, after they work their 30 days, pay thousand to be initiated and then quarterly dues and now, they have to work Union shows. No more scab work. But don’t worry, the Union will get you work. Before you get your benefits, make sure you work your 600 hours and are in good standing. Need that non-union job to get by? Make sure you use a fake name. They’re watching you.
We all get paid well to work in this business. Far more than we should and would get doing something else for a living. The problem with the IA is they have not changed in 40 years or more. Would they present a reasonable solution for productions to become union, there would be more work in town. Instead, they drive it away and have had a large part in creating reality television — especially the kind of television that has permeated the non-scripted world over the last few years.
the IA, unlike the DGA, is not an exclusive only union. Plenty of IA members work non-union jobs all the time, we don’t need to use fake names. Non-union work in reality is the exception not the norm, but that will change as crew stands up for benefits more and more. We can’t just pay privately for our Healthcare, private care sucks. We want a good decent group plan that the IA provides, and our employers need to pay into it like every other employer in America does (or at least every other employer in scripted TV!)
Reality is getting all the ratings and ad revenue, the top shows are Reality not scripted. So it’s time to ORGANIZE UNSCRIPTED TV. You are correct that the networks like TNT are the ones that need to pick up the costs of going union, not the production companies. When we stand up, the networks will fold and eventually pick up the tab, because they will never allow their Reality Golden Goose to get cooked.