I strongly agree with your opinions as stated above. During the lockout I am working a non-union retail job I had previously worked part time for additional income when things were tight. I was getting paid $10.20 as a supervisor for Loews, which is the wage I have been making for the past two years because we are negotiating our first contract. After the lockout I was rehired at Best Buy at $10/hour with full medical, dental, vision, life insurance, great discount, paid vacation, and even 401k which I can option for Best Buy stock (always on the rise). What am I doing at Best Buy? Running a cash register. They pay me almost as much as Loews did to run projectors just to push keys and provide outstanding customer service. Now, I am a very pro-union guy but am I about to organize Best Buy? No. The management (upper and lower) are hands-on with all the staff and it is a very friendly atmosphere. For the job, the price is right and the benefits are the best I have seen. What would a union gain us? A small increase in wages? I believe in unions when they are needed, and they are in most instances. But just once in a while you come upon a company that knows how to treat it's employees. By the way, I am only working because I have a newly formed family to support. In fact, if it interests anyone in the slightest to see the cutest child alive (in my humble opinion) go to: Samantha Rose Martin Otherwise I would have taken unemployment for 6 months and been outside my theater everyday getting kicked off the property.

One thing I forgot to mention in my History of My World Part I" was the cost of FIGHTING a union. You have the Vice President dedicated to fighting us, flying all over the country staying in hotels (I'm sure they are Motel 8's), with free rental cars and meals (McDonald's all the way!). Next you have the lawyer who gets paid $450/hour and has to be flown around the country with the VP and provided for as well. Then you have the money they spend fighting our Unfair Labor Practices, OSHA violations (including a whistle-blower charge), I even filed a criminal complaint in Salem District Court because the head manager of our theater stole or received stolen, my union literature from my desk in the booth. I overheard her describing the contents of this literature to the Regional Director on the phone, when confronted by me and the police she denied knowledge, until the cop threatened court, then she talked. There were emergency staff meetings held to misinform the floorstaff about unions and lie to them about what we were trying to organize them for. For this they flew 5 executives from NYC and a lawyer.

You take the lawyers fees and VP salary and you could support every local that negotiates with Loews for the next 10 years just on what they probably spent last year. But they still fight for the "long-term benefit". I am just awestruck by the lack of desire for a quality show. It is a movie theater, not a restaurant. People go there to see movies, not buy popcorn. On top of all this advertising is EVERYWHERE. You have the Theater Radio Network playing in the lobby and on the phones. You have 5-7 minutes of trailers that have nothing to do with movies running before your show. You have plasma screens displaying rotating ads in the lobby. Cingular wireless displays, Ford Focus cars, Reel Kidz Combo trays advertising movies, toys, and such and you have slides running before your show. Yet the poor theater industry cannot afford quality exhibition...puzzling. Goodness....I certainly am on a rant these days, must think happy thoughts!

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"The greatest thing you will ever learn, is just love and be loved in return."

You probably don't know me but I'm just letting you know that Sean M. did not quit, he transfered to another Loews Theatres location and from what I understand, most of the other managers that are leaving are going because of tougher management, not the union lock-out.

I have nothing to do with the activities between Loews and the union but please make sure you know all the info before you post to the public. Sean is my friend and a very dedicated manager, he knows what it is like to run a booth even if you do not agree. I prefer that people do not get the wrong idea about the person that he is.

Thanks and congrats on your new family.

Well, it's 2 AM. I just got home from a grueling day in the booth on opening night of Signs where it was rumored that the regional booth inspector would be showing up to check up on me. At the same time, I was required to perform all cash out operations on the box office registers and organize all passes, cupons, gift certificates, etc. This was the night from hell. Now like I said, it's 2 AM and I have to be at work in 7 hours for a staff meeting. This kind of thing never would have happened if the IATSE were still as powerful as it once was. I'm very thankful to have a job at all, much less a job in the field I want to be in, but I can guarantee that if everybody decided to unionise (Yeah, right!) that I would be one of the first in line.

However, it's not as if anybody is whipping me, beating me, and forcing me into not taking breaks. I just refuse taking them so I can get all my work done on time so I don't look like a friggin' moron. Plus I don't like leaving the booth unattended for too long. Something seems wrong about that. My point is, from a legal standpoint, I don't think that I could really call my treatment "Unfair" however, I sure would prefer to be running the booth OR the floor. Not both at the same time. It would also be nice if I were making more than what I do which is just barely above minumum wage. I'll stop whining now.

I agree with you view on why the management is quitting, but the lockout is the source of that pressure. Did any of the managers get a raise for having more work shoveled on them? Is Paul Wehrle not on their back about the multiple problems they are having doing our "overly simple job which does not require skilled professionals" even when they hired several former projectionists and brought people up from Connecticut to train them? I am not against the managers, most of the them are good friends and great people. Same goes for the supervisors who are hourly and still did not get anything for the additional training/work. I rented an apartment from one of them who works at Fresh Pond. It's corporate, they are the source of all evil, I'm sure Sean would even agree with that.

Joseph,

I can see why it would take them that long to place you. Reasons are scattered throughout this thread. If there used to be hundreds of members in a local and all these chains started cutting back and pushing out the smaller houses with mulit-/mega-plexes then jobs started to disappear. A union's first priority is to get jobs for the members who have given the dues the longest, had the most experience, and are out of work. So with no new jobs being opened up, it is difficult to get new members in. Fortunately for me and my co-workers, we organized our theater so we have the highest seniority at our theater. If we want to switch to a different theater we would have to wait in line but for us it is a short line, thank goodness.

I did the same thing you did and thought nothing of it. Doing both, then I realized I preferred having a job where everything was left to me. No managers asking how it was going or suggesting what needed to be done. I spent all 9-17 hour shifts FINDING things to do, and when they were done, I knew it. Projection can be a very thankless job. The only time anyone really pays attention to something they can't see (the booth) is when something goes wrong. I didn't mind that. I actually had a huge ego boost knowing that thousands of people were able to enjoy their show just because I was running the shift. I never took breaks either (as a projectionist) just because I could always find a few minutes here and there to spend relaxing, so why take a break if I can bring a sandwich and a book in the booth? I know some other projectionists will do nothing but thread the machines and leave them to the autostarts, basically giving themselves HOURS of downtime, but I take more pride in my work so "down time" was a little more scarce for me. All you have to do is budget your time right and you can get a chance to get off your feet now and then, plus get everything done.

Thanks for the kind replies guys and gal, hopefully will have some more time to post this coming week. Read you later!

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"The greatest thing you will ever learn, is just love and be loved in return."

I have a question for you, are or/were you friends with Mike that worked at the Salem theater? I'm trying to place you and think that I've actually met you before.

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As for the issue of having to take on extra responsibilities, I could understand them adding a task or two here and there. If these were digital booths requiring almost no daily work, I could understand that. But dividing 5 full time jobs among 7 managers is just wrong. Most of them didn't even want to do it, but what are they going to do, quit? Even I wouldn't quit and I am a pro-union guy! My point on Corporate Greed is I think well founded. Otherwise, why was it okay to employ these people before we joined the union and NOW the company wants managers in the booth and really to elminate us all together. Why were they paying people twice what we were getting for half the screens run? Why were they giving benefits to those projectionists and STILL not offering them to me? When I have a family to support? Why do they spend all this money on lawyers, negotiations, lockouts, bringing people around the country to train the managers who don't want to do the work and end up quitting?

Best yet, what about the floorstaff? Dottie has been with Loews for 15 years, no benefits and she was only making 2 dollars an hour more than I, having been with the company 2 years. They don't pay overtime on Sundays or even for working Christmas or Thanksgiving! The job I have now pays me the same as Loews, only I get time and a half on Sundays, all major holidays, plus 8 hours of regular pay for any holiday, including my BIRTHDAY. I get paid sick days, personal days, vacation. Medical, Dental, Vision, Life Insurance, Death and Dismemberment Insurance.

Now I know, it sounds like I should just stick where I am if I have it so good. The point is, I love projection. Most of the posts I see throughout this board is about loving film, caring about the presentation, and doing quality work. If we had just been left alone to do that in the first place, this probably would have never happened. Instead we were harassed and short changed. The thing I hate most about this whole thing is that I cannot tell people I'm a projectionist in Danvers without worrying about them saying "So it was your fault my movie was messed up last week!" That's reputation, we had a good repore in Danvers. Can you imagine how long it will take to repair that?

Sorry for the rant, but defending corporate is not something positive these days. Look at Enron, WorldCom, etc. Just read my posts and the posts of others in this thread that can testify to the same trend for the last decade or even farther. I'm not going to run around saying unions are the best thing and everyone should have one (although technically we all do, being the UNITED States of America) because I know better. My mother works for MIT and her union is absolutely terrible. The supervisors playing favorites, giving the easiest work to their friends and such.

But you have to ask yourself, if unions are so bad why are there so MANY of them? Why, when they are always asking for better wages do they give the pennies they do have in dues? I think it absolultely deplorable that firefighters and police have to fight to support their families, these are people that safeguard our very lives, why aren't they the ones in palacial mansions and with luxury cars? Any union can be dissolved as easily as it was started, they aren't permanent. All you have to do is have the membership vote to decertify them. If it was a bad thing and people weren't happy they could just forget the union and go back to being "employees-at-will", where you can be fired anytime for any reason.

Point being, the more money a company makes, the more money the EXECUTIVES get. If they can get away with paying us 10/hour instead of a union rate of 20/hour then they will spend everything they have on it. If they saved that money and energy they could certainly make ALL their staff a lot happier and pay them better as well. Hell, Wehrle's wage alone would pay an increase of $5/hour and the cost of benefits for all the staff in Danvers. Now see where you can get with the lawyer fees, travel expenses, lawsuits, etc. Employees do not get bonuses (unless we're talking 10 cents per Super Combo, that is if you are lucky enough to get put in the concession stand). The theater industry doesn't even give the respect to the employees that retail stores do and those stores are generally making less money.

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"The greatest thing you will ever learn, is just love and be loved in return."

I have nothing but goodwill towards my union and hold no ill-will towards them in any way whatsoever. If I had suddenly found myself in a position where a job was offered to me and those who have worked longer and harder than I have were skipped over, I would have been worried I'd get screwed the same way at some point. I never felt I was being mistreated. Quite the opposite.

Ok, first off I am just going to make this quite clear. I do not believe in posting about misfortunes of other theaters. Salem for example, I ran it about a year after the manager that you are speaking of. That particular theater has done many MANY things to improve the look and attitude of its employees, film presentation, and general reputation. I know the guy who is now running it and as far as I can see, he is doing a great job. In the last two years that theater has really done a turn around and its reputation is definitely showing. Hollywood Hits is where I work, awesome theater, but obviously not perfect. We care about our film presentation as I am sure you know and we are constantly improving the theater as best we can. The staff we have is the best, our customer service proceeds us with every passing day that I get customer after customer asking for the manager to tell me (or one of the others) what a nice "visit" they had. No one is perfect but we try our best.

I still do not agree with you about managers taking on extra tasks. What about all those managers out there at the smaller theaters that run booth/floor for a (lets say) six screen, with less pay then some of the larger theaters. Some managers in the building 6 days a week for 12 hours at a time. That is not too uncommon and something that every manager has to take with a grain of salt. I am not saying that it always happens and sometimes the reason for it can be disturbing, but it does. Money's great but everyone here on these forums knows that the business that they work for is not one to get rich in unless you work real hard for a long time or just get really lucky. I'm glad you have such a great set up at Best Buy but I do not believe that is the norm at most retail stores. Go to most of the other stores in the mall (including the big one right next to you) some offer health, maybe 401K, usually not the rest. No other theater that I know of pays time and a half on Sundays or holidays, I know some do - but not around here as far as I know, I am sorry if I am incorrect.

As far as the statements about unions, I never said they were bad. I believe that a union can work in the right circumstances. But, as you said in an earlier post and I quote "we tried to think of something that would annoy the company who put this knit-wit in charge and possibly improve our job. So we called the local union, IATSE 182 of Boston." In my belief, trying to piss off a company is not a proper reason to bring the union in. It was in my opinion doomed before it happened. I was not there with you or Sean, I do not know what happened and I am not going to judge. Just remember that every argument had two sides and the other side does not necessarily agree that things happened exactly the way you said they did.

I also do not believe that we should be discussing other peoples (Paul Wehrle is this case) wages without their consent. I have no idea what the man makes, nor do I care, it is his business. I do not think it is proper etiquette to discuss it here, even if you were just trying to make a point.

I don't see how posting about the ways other theaters have let the public down is a no-no. Everyone has a complaint about most theaters they have been to. I believe it was Brad (if memory serves) that posted regarding the Cheri and Copley theaters and how poor their facilities were. Sean himself posted about the quality in a Showcase cinema in one of the threads I posted to recently. I responded to your asking if I had been linked to the Salem the best way I could, by showing why I hadn't been there. I most certainly can identify with things out of a projectionist/managers' control. Ask Sean about cinemas 5-8 and 17 in Danvers and how Loews could have consolidated 5,6,7, and 8 into two theaters instead of four with much better presentation. As is, the projectors are too close to the screen and have the wrong lenses in them for the minimal distance they are from the screen causing HUGE vignetting issues. At Methuen, the architect designed the stadium seating in some theaters so that SITTING DOWN in the back room puts you in a position to obstruct the presentation. At Salem and Hollywood Hits I'm sure it wasn't the managers who put the exit signs there, and there may even be a code against moving them or replacing them with the "glow-in-the-dark" type I have seen in other theaters which do not shine nearly as brightly. But I can't just let that go either, if I am watching a movie there should be NO light on the screen other than that which is projected. Period. Now Salem and HH are discount houses, so you pay for what you get, I just prefer getting free admission to what used to be much better presented shows. I am glad to hear that improvements have been made and if you were in any small or big way involved mucho kudos, but I am one of those people who get two bad runs in a row and I just never go back. We'll see though, maybe I can get through my stubbornness on this one.

As for the managers, I would have to say at least 90% of those people have also been doing that for a long time. It wasn't sprung on them the last minute. Generally pay is equal to two things: performance and responsibility. As a superivsor, I got a raise for each stage of learning. (i.e. Kitchen certification, projection training (only because I demanded it, it is not standard) corporate training) Managers are paid different for each level of responsibility as well, going from Manager to Concession Manager means a raise, next level being House Manager and then a Managing Director.

As for typical retail practices relating to my descriptions of Best Buy, I have seen the same offers first hand (I work part time or full time in addition to projection because as you pointed out, we're not here to get rich) at other stores. Examples are The Sports Authority, Home Depot, Staples, Sears, and Toys 'R' Us. Those are just the examples either I have worked or have friends who are working. There were others I interviewed for before Best Buy which had similar offers, just not the use of discount on many useful things (like an air conditioner). The only thing I have seen at Best Buy and nowhere else is the rule that if a part-timer works more than 28 hours, they get paid time and a half. That blew my mind.

The reason why most theaters don't is because of a loophole they created in law through lobbying allowing them to get away without paying the time and a half. Otherwise, how is standing 8 hours in front of a steaming popcorn bin any different/easier than standing 8 hours at a register? People deserve these things, they just don't know it. That is why unions are so politically active, they want to change things for the better just as they did 100 or 200 years ago. Hell, my favorite motto of the AFL-CIO is "The ones who brought you the 'weekend'." Someone else, I think Gordon, pointed this out. That people would work 6-7 days in a row, 12-15 hours/day. Perhaps if the "regular" staff at the theaters got organized like the ones in the Loews theaters are trying then the competitors would realize they have to match the trend. In other words, if Loews employees win time and a half on Sundays, perhaps HH will do it just to keep their staff interested and to attract new hires as fast as Loews. The ripple effect can be very powerful when it comes to change.

I never said you said unions were bad, I don't recall you taking any stance whatsoever. I just keep trying to work in a bit of the original discussion in case Ken is still reading and wanting to learn about unions. There was a pretty interesting debate going on in this thread about whether they were good or bad things, I think they are good so I pointed out my view. True that forming a union out of spite may not be the best reason, but it wasn't our only one either. The primary reason was to get rid or at least put a leash on Michael Goldstein. Scott at HH can tell you what a gem this guy is, so can Sean. Hell, Sean does a pretty damned good impression of Michael, especially with the flailing arms and all. When he was transferred out of Danvers to Copley because of his illegal activities involving the union I had both management and staff saying how gled they were. Three managers I know (some of the best the company has seen) left just because of him. Nobody had any love for the guy, he even threw salt at a customer one time! We were tired of the verbal abuse this guy delt out so we found a solution. At the same time we found out that the union operators got twice what we were making for less screens and were getting health/pension. This all added up to a unanimous decision to organize. The fact that Loews and Wehrle got so annoyed with us organizing was only a bonus. Perhaps now they will treat their staff better and be more careful with their managers, allowing for a more positive work environment.

As for my comparison of Paul's salary, this is public information that was published during the bankruptcy proceedings. I most certainly didn't ask him how much he made last year or anything like that. I did not even state how much he does make, just using an example. If anyone here knows the comparison between Loews corporate structure and Redstone (National Amusements) then you can see why Loews could afford to cut so much from Corporate and executives. Redstone runs the entire company out of a building not much bigger than Hollywood Hits, Loews has Regional Directors all over the country, offices, and their Corporate HQ is in NYC on 5th Ave. Redstone is based out of Tennessee (if memory serves). I should also mention the Showcase guys make between $30-50,000/year, much more than the Loews projectionists yet Loews wants cuts to make us more comparable to their wages.

The last thing I want to add is something I should have pointed out long ago, which is another tactic corporate uses to win these labor struggles. Misinformation. They lie to their managers about what they can and cannot do so that when they break the law, corporate can deny responsibility brushing it off onto them. My wife worked for Loews as a floorstaff for a short period of time during the height of our organizing of the floorstaff. They held an emergency meeting the day after we started complete with suits from NYC and a lawyer to tell them a bunch of lies about unions and why we really wanted them to join. (Actually, we were suggesting they form their own local under IATSE, seeing as how 182 doesn't appear to have a guaranteed future in exhibition). I know these were lies not just because my fellow union brothers and sisters told me so but because I asked the attorney at the National Labor Relations Board offices in Boston. I did my homework, I don't usually trust a person on their word alone.

Anyways, the point I am always trying to make here is that if the company just put their time and money into supporting the staff in the first place, they wouldn't have to bother fighting them on labor issues. All my numbers may seem big for what they spend on fighting us, but now multiply that by adding Chicago, NYC, San Francisco, LA, and all the smaller locals. Is it really worth it?

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"The greatest thing you will ever learn, is just love and be loved in return."

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I can definitely understand what you are trying to say, I can only give two explanations for why that reason was mentioned. As I said before, we were all on the verge of quitting, this is how bad the manager had gotten. At that time there were about 10 different people running the booth, now we have kept 5 on since then. We are mostly between the ages of 18-25 and hadn't been brought up to believe this is a trade or craft. Most of what we heard about union operators was the "laziness" and how they wouldn't even bring movies up to the booth (something I have seen discussed here) That is why I was speaking in the past tense. A bad reason basically opened a window onto what projection is supposed to be and more importantly for me what unions really do. Since then I have become involved in several other union struggles (SEIU 509's Janitor "living wage" struggle and UFCW's fight with Shaws/Star Market) and a delegate for my local to the North Shore Labor Council CLC (one of the most active councils I have seen and most helpful with our efforts).

I admit I came into this thinking that it was just a way to possibly get higher wages, benefits, and to "piss off the company". Since then I have done quite a bit of growing up and been at the table with the company and while we don't see eye to eye on "sharing" the booth with managers and can get fairly steamed over that and other issues, I have seen the relationship between the membership of the local and the company by observing their behaviors at the table.

I am willing to admit my flaws when I know them, that is why I tried to reconcile my statemnt in my last post to Rachel. The main reason they were pissed at us was because the 8 screens split between 2 houses were union operated until the 20 screen opened up and of course Loews did not transfer the jobs over. They were SUPPOSED to make sure all the projectionists were supervisors (so we couldn't organize) but they never kept up with it. Turnover is also of course a big problem in our industry (with the floorstaff/management) so they were promoting people at least once a month, with an almost complete purge of staff every 6 months thus making training a constant issue.

The only staff that remained the same at that theater since it opened is 2 managers, 3 supervisors (2 of which part time, the other being me), a couple scattered concessionists and box office cashiers and almost all of the projection staff. Before we organized in 2000 we had only lost 2 projectionists since opening in 1998. One moved and one became a technician for Boston Light and Sound for a short while, then DDTS. After we organized, we have lost a couple others to the better paying theater in Boston, where they get double pay and benefits. So, obviously there were better reasons to do it, we may have started off wrong but I would like to think we have straightened out fairly well and become greater assetts to our local. I guess we'll see once this all gets settled.

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"The greatest thing you will ever learn, is just love and be loved in return."

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Please answer me one question. Did you come here to stir up union issues and "vent" to everyone reading about how terrible your work conditions are and how much you hate this manager and that manager, or did you come here to participate in all aspects of proper film handling and a quality presentation as a professional? You seem to have come out of nowhere and every post of yours has been hard core pro-union related and with a lot of anger toward non-union and management...and yet with thousands of different topics on these forums, you have concentrated your efforts on this one subject with only one exception that I am aware of. It looks to me like you have some other motive at work here. I know you were recently locked out of your job and due to this we are only privy here to hearing your side of the story. Perhaps it might be in the best interest to lighten up a bit and not post union issues until this lockout is resolved.

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