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Topic: Union Projectionists
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Frank Angel
Film God
Posts: 5305
From: Brooklyn NY USA
Registered: Dec 1999
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posted 02-28-2005 12:29 PM
Richard, one of the things I would always ask the guys I knew in 306, how come if the leadership was so aweful, why didn't the rank and file just vote them out? He would throw up his hands in disgust and said because most of them are too dumb to do anything. Maybe an over-statement, but I am sure you are right, that the problems with the union are complicated, but apathy among the members certainly compounded them.
The thing about strikes -- the union never used its most powerful weapon when it came to strikes. Many may argue that the state regulation to license all motion picture operators is no longer necessary and that it should be removed from the books, nevertheless, for all those years when it was still ON the books (as it still is today) the law required there to be a licensed operator in the booth at all times. This means that if the union wished to go on strike, management couldn't allow ANYONE to operate the booths who didn't have a NYC Motion Picture Operator's license. That was the trump card, but 306 never used it -- not to stop chains from getting rid of projectionists in muliplexes that had mulitple booths (the requirement would be for their to be a licensed operator in EACH separate booth in those situations). They didn't use that legal weapon to prevent exhibitors from reducing hours so that there were stretches of time when there was no licensed operator in the booth at all. Since there are but a handful of licensed operators who are NOT union, there was no way exhibitors could operate if the union chose to pull all its members out of the booths. They had this legal trump card for decades and never threatened to use it....why? Could be a few reasons -- from the most beneign being they just didn't understand how powerful a trump card it really was or at the very worst, they chose not to step on exhibitors' toes.
Exhibitors are still trying to get this law changed, but so far, have not been able to. And, by the way, when the City Council had hearing about dropping the requirement, I was there to give my 10 minutes and so I was able to hear the union's, and I must say, they gave a very luke warm presentation -- basically moaned a bit about how it would take bread out of the mouths of union members. They didn't even seem to know that even if the City Council agreed with the theatre owner's lobby, the City doesn't have the authority to eliminate the license without first going to Albany because it's a State regulation, not the City's, even though the City is mandated to administer the license.
Just a side note, although the license is still in place, the theatre owner's lobby conspired to get it watered down from the 100-150 some odd questions on the written test to something like 20 which are so easy a half-witt could answer them; this in an attempt to allow managers and assistant managers to get licenses thereby sucking the wind out of that powerful legal weapon for the union. Funny thing is, a the chains sent in something like 40 of their managers to take the test -- all but two failed. Of course with the turnover of lower management at the chains, that's not a solution and they know it. They continue to press to get the license test removed. They've already gotten the Practical Exam section of it totally eliminated. At this point whatever the union does may be too little too late.
I also understand that lots of new blood, mostly from those member who wanted the slate changed for years, has replaced the old guard. It will be interesting to see what the new leadership can accomplish.
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Paul Mayer
Oh get out of it Melvin, before it pulls you under!
Posts: 3836
From: Albuquerque, NM
Registered: Feb 2000
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posted 02-28-2005 03:13 PM
I was a member of Local 720 for 20 years. When UA and Syufy (now Century) bought up all of the local screens here in the early 1980's, they terminated all of the existing projectionist contracts. The local did try to negotiate, but the new owners weren't interested in talking. We ended up picketing but it didn't do any good. There isn't much of a union tradition here in individualist Nevada--people walked right on by or even assaulted the picketers (I was one of them at the Parkway Theater and the Century drive-in at Sahara and Lamb). Nevada is a right-to-work (for less) state so if an employer doesn't want to talk to a union, there is not much from a practical standpoint that a union can do about it, even if the majority of affected employees vote for union representation.
Local 720 is a mixed local (the largest in the IA) and is made up of "craft divisions." The theater projectionists were Craft 2, and over the years tended to keep strictly to themselves. They even voted to not participate in the pension plan that was created by the local for all of its members in 1971. After the UA-Syufy lockout, the rest of the membership of stagehands, wardrobe, and television people quickly grew tired of manning pickets for a small group that had never been particularly brotherly towards the rest of the local. With all of their jobs gone, Craft 2 went dormant and remained so for many years. In the last 10 years or so Craft 2 has been "repurposed" to represent convention AV technicians and is now, along with the stagehands of Craft 1, very active within the local.
Unfortunately Local 720 developed a very heavy thug mentality as it grew, attacking members with great gusto whenever a member voted or talked against thug-favored proposals. I was never one of their favorites, even after 20 years of membership, probably because I vocally refused to blindly shut up and do (and vote) as I was told, like a good little union member should. Finally in 1994 I took a withdrawl card in protest, after the Business Agent I had voted for was summarily fired by the thug contingent (that BA was trying to clean up some of the problems created by the thugs). My work on a movie shoot while holding only a withdrawl card was the last straw for the thugs, who had me expelled in 1995 for conduct unbecoming of an IA member. The west coast office of the IA upheld that expulsion.
I continued to work for a couple of years after that but fewer and fewer department heads were willing to hire me and put up with the subsequent crap put on them by the local. My cards were finally purged from the work list in 1997 even though many newer non-members continue to work from the list. To this day, even after numerous revolving-door regime changes and a stewardship, I am not allowed to so much as set foot inside Local 720's building. I continue to receive threats from them anytime there is an industry show in town like LDI, NAB, or ShoWest (though nothing happened to me at NAB last year, so I am planning to attend both NAB and ShoWest this year). So maybe you can understand how my feelings towards the IATSE in general and Local 720 in particular are mixed at best.
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Sam D. Chavez
Film God
Posts: 2153
From: Martinez, CA USA
Registered: Aug 2003
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posted 02-28-2005 11:43 PM
Amen Brad.
It was not the union that abolished the career position of projectionist, (union or non-union). it was the owners of the theatres.
How many of you can raise a family, buy a house, or even a nice car on booth wages?
I did both, as a projectionist, and my local never burned down a theatre or beat up a patron or scab, er, replacement workers.
Blaming the union for the demise of the craft as some of the people on this post have done is about as valid as blaming Black people for burning down their own churches in Atlanta and Birmingham and Selma, which was in fact claimed and believed by some.
But the bottom line is not whether one can make a living in the craft, but whether the moviegoers are better served by todays booth staff? I've seen it both ways and in my opinion it was far better before.
Someone claimed absolute power corrupts citing union corruption. Well, the union is gone, and theatre owners now have all the power in the workplace. Are they not proving the same adage just as well?
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