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Author
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Topic: Union Projectionists
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Monte L Fullmer
Film God
Posts: 8367
From: Nampa, Idaho, USA
Registered: Nov 2004
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posted 03-01-2005 03:56 PM
quote: Mitchell Dvoskin was the last to post
Xenons, platters and automations.
One of the big starts of it all was the oil embargo of 1974. When these resources became on the "orange alert" situation in that fall, suddenly there was a huge demand for conserving energy, and electricity was the main one, next to fuel.
As we "OF's" know that the generators/rectifiers to run carbon arc was as effient as a huge bunch of holes in a garden hose in using energy wisely. It took many more amps to run a carbon arc rectifier, let alone a standalone motor/generator combination.
For example, when running 9mm and 8mm copper rod combinations, the average voltage run was between 40 to 55 volts DC. While the amp run was in the high 80's to low 90's. I use this figure to parallel the same amp run for 2k bulbs. 2k bulbs run easy 22 to 25 volts with less amperage - 75 to 85 amps.
Also, the same applies: the cost of a positive case to 250 rods were beginning to hit in the 2 to 3 hundred dollar range. Now, one can figure 3 reels to a positive, and with reels NOT being always full, a case would only get on the average of 600 hrs of light.
600 hrs of light times 6 cases of positives equals 3600 hrs times 300 bucks a case...do the math - 1800 bucks for the positives compared to 550 bucks for a 2k bulb with the same light output. Can we see the "gravy" being made here? I didn't even figure in the case cost for the negatives since they burn 7 to 9 reels per rod, and their case cout was also 250 rods/case and the price was lesser-around 150 bucks/case.
Then add in the amount electricity it takes to run carbon against xenon, and there is absolutely no comparison between the two ... it's a no-brainer situation here.
Then after the introduction of xenon, came the conversion kits to turn those Peerless, Ashcrafts, Strong Moguls, and Enarc lamphouse to xenon. Large arms were attached and the 6k reels were the way to go.
Cinemeccanica sorta beat the market with their V-18 and 4x tower systems using the 13k reels so the feature could be played non stop without changeovers.
Christie had their CH consoles and lamphouses, but bulbs had their "teething pains" so to say in those early days.
...and goes the rest of the story.....
This all had to happen - the change from carbon to xenon. Otherwise, theatre circuits would be crying bankruptcy long, long time ago.......unfortunately.
-thx Monte
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John Walsh
Film God
Posts: 2490
From: Connecticut, USA, Earth, Milky Way
Registered: Oct 1999
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posted 03-01-2005 06:21 PM
Mike S said... "So ... with the new automated equipment ... the projectionists should still be retained at the same rate of pay that they received to replace carbons, run changeovers, etc.?"
I understand your point, but I feel you are not comparing 'apples to apples.' In 1978 I was running a single theater with carbons and c/o, and getting a good hourly rate. Ten years later, I was running a 3-plex for about the same rate, except now I had to makeup and break down prints for no extra money and maintain four projectors (one house had automated c/o's.) Still, I thought the pay vs. work was fair. By 1998, I was running an 8-plex maintaining eight projectors, changing out several ads and trailers at all houses every week, maintaining eight slide projectors. With stereo sound systems, I'm now three times more likely to have to climb up and replace a HF diaphram or surround speaker, amplifiers, etc. All for about 1.5 times my 1978 rate. Again, I thought the pay vs. work was fair, but it wasn't like I had nothing to do.
So my point is: while technology did replace some functions, others filled their place.
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Mitchell Dvoskin
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1869
From: West Milford, NJ, USA
Registered: Jan 2001
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posted 03-02-2005 09:09 AM
So ... with the new automated equipment ... the projectionists should still be retained at the same rate of pay that they received to replace carbons, run changeovers, etc.?
Are you trying to imply that someone running a 6-plex (or 20 plex) has less work to do than someone who was running a single screen carbon arc both 30 years ago? Yes, the tasks are different, but it is still a lot of work.
Are you trying to imply that 30 years ago, all projectionists were skilled service techs, who could fix anything? While projectionists were better trained to handle common problems back then, major repairs were still handled by either a senior operator or an outside service company, depending upon the nature of the problem.
Are you trying to imply that management liked unions any better 30+ years ago than they do to today? ![[Roll Eyes]](rolleyes.gif)
Are you trying to imply it takes less skill to run and maintain a Xenon, Platters, Automation booth on a day to day basis than it did to run a reel to reel, carbon arc booth? I would have to disagree, other than it frees the projectionist up to run more than one screen.
There are many reason why being a projectionist ceased to be a skilled profession. As pointed out by others, the primary reason is that the owners wanted to get rid of the union. But, this is not new. Owners, have always wanted to get rid of unions. What was new is that the union did just about everything wrong a union could do, just as the technology progressed to the point that it became possible to eliminate them.
By the late 1970's, the IA (at least here in Northern NJ) was arrogant, somewhat corrupt, and rife with nepotism, while excluding talented individuals who wanted to be projectionst but did not have the right connections or were not willing to pay large bribes to get in. Like the Perfect Storm converging together, you had the technology available, a pool of talented people outside the union, and theatre staffs who did not support their operators.
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Jeffry L. Johnson
Jedi Master Film Handler
Posts: 809
From: Cleveland, Ohio, USA
Registered: Apr 2000
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posted 03-02-2005 11:11 AM
Cuyahoga officials boycott film festival over union
quote:
Cuyahoga officials boycott film festival over union
Wednesday, March 02, 2005
Clint O'Connor
Plain Dealer Reporter
The 29th Cleveland International Film Festival could draw nearly 40,000 movie fans starting next week.
The Cuyahoga County commissioners won't be among them.
A protest by a local union representing projectionists has caused the three commissioners - Jimmy Dimora, Tim Hagan and Peter Lawson Jones - to boycott the festival.
"We can't go," said Dimora on Tuesday. "We're not going to cross a picket line or offend the union leadership and the union members."
Jones agreed, but said, "The film festival should not be punished. They don't have a lot of options on where they can show this. Downtown is an appropriate place for this event." Hagan did not return messages.
The festival runs March 10-20 at Tower City Cinemas.
The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees Local 160 plans to protest the festival because of a labor dispute with the theater's owner, Cleveland Cinemas. The company, which also operates five other area theaters, employed Local 160 members as projectionists until last year when it consolidated positions. Projection duties are now handled by nonunion managers.
Local 160, which represents about 50 projectionist/video technicians and 80 front-of-the-house employees in Northeast Ohio, filed a complaint that is still pending with the National Labor Relations Board. The new conflict arose when the union was told its members would not work at the film festival.
"We had worked the festival for 28 years," said John Galinac, business agent for Local 160. Galinac filed a new charge of unfair labor practices against Cleveland Cinemas and the Cleveland Film Society, which runs the festival, with the NLRB, but withdrew it on Monday. He said he wanted to wait to see who works at the festival.
"We've been operating Tower City for the past year without dedicated projectionists," said Jon Forman, head of Cleveland Cinemas. "Loews, Magic Johnson, AMC, and most Regal Cinemas also operate without dedicated projectionists."
Galinac said Local 160 members work for Atlas, Cinemark and some Regal theaters.
Galinac said the union is trying to contact filmmakers and distributors to get them to pull their movies from the festival.
Forman said the matter is between his company and Local 160 and that "the film society is being needlessly dragged into a labor dispute. I founded the film festival; I would never do anything to hurt that organization."
The society rents theater space from Cleveland Cinemas. "We're stuck in the middle," said the society's executive director, Marcie Goodman, on Tuesday. "This has nothing to do with us."
Dimora said the commissioners are sending a letter to Forman today to urge him to reach some sort of temporary agreement with the union.
The kicker is the county gave the film society $15,000 last fall, a grant that allowed the festival to expand from four to five theaters for the first time. Dimora said the dispute won't affect the grant. "We are not going to pull the plug on them in the 11th hour."
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