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Also, I don't expect to get paid $20 an hour to thread a few machines, press start, and sit around the rest of the time. I want to be a real projectionst. The best I can. It sounds to me like some people have had bad impressions of union projectionists because they got away with doing very little. I don't know if that's the case, but that's not the way I would be.

What you have to understand is what it was like when unions started. The average workday was 12 hours. The average workweek was 6 days. Sometimes, people were forced to work 'swing shifts,' in other words work 24 hours straight. Since government would take no regulatory action in these matters, workers had to organize to be able to negotiate better conditions-collective bargaining. Needless to say, the factory managers were not keen on this idea. Armed thugs and many times the police would come in and 'break a few skulls' with clubs to disperse picketers. Many times the national gaurd was even called out and fired upon the picketers. Death was not an uncommon thing on the picket lines. This was the struggle for workers rights in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Now enter the projectionist union. I am not certain how and when it started, I'll let someone else fill in those details. Naturally early projectionists did not have to contend with 'swing shifts,' but I imagine the hours could be atrocious. To understand the working conditions, you must understand how film was shown back then. There were no platters, all movies were shown on a change over system. There were no xenon bulbs, light was provided by carbon rods that had to be changed after every reel. Most importantly, the film had a different chemical composistion than modern film. This film-Nitrate film to be exact-was highly combustable. If the projector stopped or jammed with the film in front of the light for just an instant it could burst into flames. Nitrate film is self-combusting, it does not need oxygen to burn since it gives off oxygen as a byproduct of combustion. This made any nitrate film fire very dangerous.

SO all those factors meant that the projectionist had to be in the booth all the time. Can you imagine being in a little box not much bigger than what was needed to fit in all the equipment for 10 hours with no air conditioning? Thus, the projectionist union.

For many years things were good in unionland. Running projectors back then was not an easy task. One had to be an expert in mechanical and electrical matters, being able to do repairs on a daily basis. And then something terrible happened, TV. When TV became big in the 50's, theatres saw their attendance drop by 50%. The golden age of movies was over. Thus began the 'decline.' I don't know too much about this and what I do know is second hand, but relations between owners and the union declined steadily. When automation and platters came about, it spelled doom for the union. When owners realized they could 'get by' paying a guy $3 an hour to do the job of a $20 an hour union guy, the union was dumped.

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IATSE can be a an excellent way of insuring qualified technicians in the booth, excellent source for apprenticeship programs, insuring honest wages and benefits, etc.

On the other hand, IATSE members (and any union for that matter) must be willing to do an honest days work for these type of wages!

Century Theaters has a relatively new theater in Chicago. Now Century Theaters is definately anti union, but I did hear that they were going to try and negotiate with IATSE. IATSE refused to negotiate so Century gave up and went with non union projectionists. Anyone know/hear about this?

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