Steve

I apologize if my discussions seemed "heated" or angry, I was only trying to add my opinion of unions based on my experience. I, too, have seen it from both sides. If you read back to my experiences as a corporate trainer, I was basically the guy the company was sending around to insure lack of union in the booth. I had only heard stories from management about the union, but ended up joining anyways. The appreciation you speak of, I had. Every corporate trainer I worked with in Methuen thought I did a fantastic job. They all worked maybe 10-12 hours a day, because I was the only person who knew anything about projection I had to work from 8am-2am. Now, I'm not complaining, in fact they had to force me to take a day off. This was one clue to me as to how much I love projection. I could spend all day in that booth, get 5 hours sleep, and be ready for another day. I was only getting paid $100/day so I was basically making $5.55/hour (minimum wage in MA was $5.75 I believe).

Anyways, like I said, the Corporate Trainers and the managers at that theater all thanked me, as well as the Regional Director (being from Boston you might actually know of him, Bruce Taylor? They let him go too which is a damn shame, he was a good guy and kept neutral in everything) and they said I did a good job. As I posted before, my managing director had other opinions and despite the managers at my theater wanting to promote me, he had the final say. Of course, once the union got going, he said that he would promote me right away if I wanted to. It's that lack of appreciation for very hard work that got me going. I listed the reasons everyone had, not just me. As I said we are still learning a bit about what IATSE is supposed to mean to workers and company alike. That is why I'm here as well (in this thread), to figure out what you all have to say from your experience with IATSE and exhibitors which can go back as far as the 60's and 70's or earlier. I don't like just taking my local's word on the matter, outside resources are always a good idea.

As for my posting, I have posted in the favorite booth, 112 closings, and I know one other thread. Last night I searched through page 15 looking for something to "bring back from the dead" but couldn't find anything to add. Most of those like the "SW:ep2 in digital" thread are a bit dated and have already been talked out (or at least my opinion is already in there). My general practice is to check all the new posts for the day, respond to what I can, then search through a few pages to see if there is something else. Unfortunately, not being at work in a booth or seeing any movies doesn't allow me to post regarding booth problems/film problems (such as the "Signs scratched" thread) and as I said in the beginning, the union is the biggest thing that was going on in my projection career at the moment.

I am glad for this discussion, otherwise I might never have considered going back to Hollywood Hits or Salem to see if Rachel is right about them pulling up their reputation. That is one of the many things I have taken away from reading this thread. Mainly the reason why I started posting now rather than last year was because I was doing 50-60 hours/week as a projectionist so I really didn't have the time to add another message board to my daily internet routine. Now, I am only working 40 hours a week (if I'm lucky) so I have a bit more time and would rather discuss important things with good people instead of playing games on my computer. If I am really not adding anything to this forum, feel free to ask me to leave. I won't be offended, but I cannot promise I would stop reading. I like it here.

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

If I am an employer, I have no problem finding a worker who I am satisfied meets my requirements just is done in any other work situation -- you interview candidates, you review their qualification and you, the employer, get to decide who it is you want to hire. If that person then choose to join a union, all well and good, I have no problem with that. But *I*, the employer get to choose the worker I want, I get to hire him, and if I am not satisfied with his performance, I get to fire him. If he joins a union that requires certain procedures for firing, fine, I have no problem making the firing procedure honest and fair, but the hiring and firing are solely my decision, governed by applicable equal opportunity employment laws.

I was hired by the Performing Arts Center. I put the booth together for them, lugging all the equipment including pedestals up 5 flights of stairs, and then started the cinema program here. All this in addition to running a sound/recording studio and mixing for all the major concert events in the theatres. I became the chief (and at the time the only) projectionist for all three booths and a few years later, the cinema director. When I discussed my becoming a member of Local 306 with the then Brooklyn branch manager, I was told that my becoming a union member would also make the booth a "union booth." The union would then be able to dictate who would be assigned to my booth, and in all likelihood, that I probably WOULDN'T be me, based on seniority. So, says I, "So you are saying that I should join this union so that I can loose my job AND pay you dues for the privilege?" Needless to say, our booth remains to this day, unencumbered by Local 306. In actuality, I do belong to a union, Local 2334, which covers all technical workers in the theatres. Over the years, they have negotiated a very decent living wage (when I hear some of the other stories in this thread, I feel like a millionaire compared to what IATSE unions have been getting for their members). We get superior benefits including prescription drugs, dental, eye, full health coverage, plus 5 weeks paid vacation, all major holidays and a 35 hr week....and the contract provides strict firing rules with a grievance committee to fight for you. Is there any reason in the world why I would join another union that openly says they will replace me with someone else as soon as I sign on the bottom line based on their seniority scheme?

I have nothing against unions -- only this IATSE local -- which wanted to bully its way into my booth and told me I'd better come down to talk to them "if I knew what was good for me." That's all I needed to hear.

They put up pickets lines three times in the 25 years since, each time only for two or three days. Once was in the dead of January with a 55 mile-an-hour wind blowing and 15 degrees temps. I went out and brought the guys hot coffee.

My Local 2334 is great and I am a proud member. If Local 306 had presented the same kind of respect for me that my local did and continues to do, I might be a 306 member today (although probably not, given the way it has let down its members over the years, giving up wages and benefits, all with the incredibly lame and defeatist excuse, "well, this is better than no job at all").

Frank

Steve

What International Union is Local 2334 part of?

I started on the extra board. To cover a friends vacation.
It worked out fine. For the next few years, I worked every
theatre the Business agent sent me on. I made many connections
for work without the business agent's help. Other projectionists
would and still call me to cover work. It's funny the operators with the most time in got the best jobs, for a time. Till the company's
found they had people who could not keep up with the times. (No this
is not anti-union post) Unions are good as long as they are run well , by people who know what is good for the membership. Because
Los Angeles in the 90's, was not run well. We lost alot of work,
because of Poor Management in the local. You got work if you were
part of the business agent's klick. Why would a operator get the
same rate to run a grind house, as a operator would get to run a
first run house like the Cinerama Dome??? Ask the business agent.

Sorry to you other operators, about being so mad about poor
union management. But it happens.

 |  IP: Logged

Yes, Things did get better. I moved from theatre operations to
Motion Picture Post-Production Projection. After running theatres,
I spent 11 years in Studio Post-Production Projection. Now I run one screen with all 35mm and video formats.

One major issue I have seen with this is that Loews denied hiring some of the local's best including one guy at my theater in Danvers. We couldn't figure out why they wouldn't hire him in Boston if he was good enough for Danvers AND had been offered a $3/hour raise before the union organization. A grievance was filed and the company ended up hiring him citing the excuse they "didn't know we had sent all qualified candidates".

So the union doesn't so much control hiring, but the firing is supported by grievance. There have been issues with operators being banned from companies because they were doing something unethical (taking snipes of film, leaving the booth while working, etc.) but those are fairly rare (once a decade or more) and were taken care of by both the management and the local.

I think I would have to agree with how my local handles it, that they refer any qualified applicants and the best man/woman gets hired. It doesn't really matter if they hire outside the union since that person would probably join anyways. (Why pay dues if you're not going to get a vote in the union?) As for coverage, I have the least amount of seniority in the LOCAL (the most at my theater, Danvers) but was being sent all the time around the local to cover theaters with higher wages. The local is only about 45 members so everyone has their plate full pretty much and most of the guys were very understanding about my recent need for increased funds.

Scheduling is pretty much handled by each individual booth, the operators just writing on a calendar each month who is going to open/close on each day. I've never had management complain because this way the booth is almost invisible. As long as there are no problems there was no reason to come upstairs, they didn't have get availability from projectionists, and didn't have to worry about coverage. If an emergency came up the president or BA would call around to see who could cover. Is all this pretty standard or is the other example pointed out above regarding 306 the norm?

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

Like all unions, my local is not perfect; it has fallen down on the job on occasion, but overall, it has done very well by us.