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Author
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Topic: Union Projectionists
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Martin Brooks
Jedi Master Film Handler
Posts: 900
From: Forest Hills, NY, USA
Registered: May 2002
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posted 03-03-2005 12:47 PM
quote: Richard May
Another problem today is that most customers don't care so much about a perfect presentation. I have gone on many service calls, and while being there, went in to check on other screens. The maskings are not set right. The print is scratched. It's out of focus. Do the customers complain? Mostly no. Theater owners know this. If someone does actually complain, they give them a free pass. The theaters don't care. They know the people will come back and buy more at the concession stand. There are few, if any theaters in this area, that care about a perfect presentation. It's all about the money.
Just because customers don't complain doesn't mean they're happy. Theatre owners are committing suicide by cheaping out in the booth. Within five years, they'll be selling HDTV at mass-market prices and customers will simply stay home and watch Hi-Def. Customers may not know the specifics of what's wrong with the presentation, but they just won't feel the desire to see a movie in a theatre as often as they have in the past.
As far as unions are concerned, I think the need for unions has gone though cycles in this country. Unions were originally necessary to force employers to maintain a living wage, decent benefits, a safe workplace and equality. When joining a union, you traded away promotion through individual achievement for a guaranteed wage and increases, usually based on tenure rather than individual effort or skill.
IMO, unions made a strategic error when they got over-involved with work rules. This led to defining positions so narrowly, it made it difficult to run businesses efficiently and it made it almost impossible to get rid of poorly performing employees. Large companies, in order to keep unions out, offered wages and benefits that exceeded what union contracts provided, especially during the late 60s and 70s. In many industries, unions were no longer necessary.
Over time, the unions lost strength. But now we have a situation where corporate America is once again taking advantage of the work force. There is no justification for not paying a living wage. Even in places where the cost-of-living is relatively low, I don’t understand how anyone can live on $12-$20 an hour. It’s one thing to pay minimum wage to a student who is working part time and serving Coke. It’s quite another to pay that to a projectionist who is working 10-20 screens and requires technical knowledge.
So now we have a situation where an effective union is once again necessary. Obviously, a corrupt or disinterested union is useless, but a union still remains the only truly effective bargaining chip an employee has. Without unions, we are going to become a third-world country, where most citizens have jobs that cannot support a decent life. You cannot live in America on minimum wage.
I’ve written this before, but I don’t understand why the chains cheap out in the booth. If you have one projectionist for every 8 screens and from the start of one show to the end of that show on the last screen is three hours, even if you pay $30 per hour, that’s only a little over $11 per screen per show. If you can’t afford to pay someone $11 to show a movie, close the damned theatre.
I still think that if the incredibly poor wages cited on this Board are typical of the industry, every projectionist in the country should walk out one Saturday in protest and wake up the industry. If it means the studios/dsitributors have to give up 1% in their deal with the theatres, so be it.
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Monte L Fullmer
Film God
Posts: 8367
From: Nampa, Idaho, USA
Registered: Nov 2004
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posted 03-03-2005 01:14 PM
quote: Mitchell Dvoskin
Every time someone went up to the booth, the guy seemed to be stretched out on the recliner watching HBO.
..and some employees wonder why earlier theatres (and even some of the new ones being built) have "water closets" upstairs - we were just confined up in the booth! We didn't need to leave the area. It was our "second home" up there. (LOL)
I remember seeing booths in old and newer theatres down in SLC that were massively laid out for projectionist comfort. One theatre, that is now torn down, had a booth as big as a massive living room, and half of that booth was just that. One half had the machinery (Bauers and Strongs doing 70mm presentations most of the time)and the other half was an actual living room. Coffee tables two sofas, an actual kitchen completely decked out, TV and radio, big viewing window to the screen with stereo monitor speakers...and the 'water closet.' And some other booths in that city were laid out in a similar fashion.
Hey, if the guys were "quarantined" ustairs in their "dungeons", they made sure that the high confort factor was there as well.
Being confined and if we wanted something from the snak bar, we would call downstairs for such items and the concession attendant would bring them up and we would pay the attendant right there.
With all of these priviledges that we had, true it was the reasoning for the other theatre employees, including the manager to have the 'bitter attitude' towards us.
But the other theatre employees are never told WHAT we really represent in that theatre: We're taking care of the actual theatre. We're taking care of the main reason why people come to a movie theatre -to see the FRIKKEN movie!
I also agree fully and to this day as a tekkie: If I go outside of my range of work and do something else to help out, I have to be careful on this, for as the one mentioned of the MO of "mowing the lawn": I can easily get trapped in the situation of "well, Monte can fix it, so why bother call in a service repairman." or, "Monte will sweep the lobby since the one assigned to to that chore now can do something else including being lazy."
There is actually nothing wrong with teamwork atmosphere, but unfortunately it's an atmosphere that depletes the feeling of pride, self esteem, self worth and all of the other factors of humanity, to where the employees and even the mangers themselves have reduced themselves to the level of a street rat. And this atmosphere is created by the company who runs it as such.
This is where I have some problems with-being with pride as a tekkie projectionist and the company wants to keep me in check and remind me that I'm suppose to be as a team player. I still ignore their plan and do what I want to do and I know it torques them some. But, they'd be in a world of butt-hurt if I left them, so they leave me alone on this.
Yet, the sad thing is that even though we didn't look like we were busy, we are actually on constant awareness while we were "watching TV, reading a book, listening to the radio, cooking dinner..et.al." of our main goal and that is to do a perfect presentation. The theatre employees, including the manager(s) never could see this...or, they were jealous and pissed off royally of our trade and whined to their superiors since "they couldn't have what we have".
I do believe this last statement, and I've ran into this many-a-times, is one of the main reasons why some MO's have such a "knee jerk" about projection unions is that they simply "can't have what we have" and they knew it and DIDN't like that at all!
And the other possible reason is that the manager couldn't control us union personnel as they do to their theatre staff. They had to go through the "chain of command" to get to us.
It was a tough world at times with our trade.
-thx Monte
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William Hooper
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1879
From: Mobile, AL USA
Registered: Jun 99
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posted 03-04-2005 02:33 AM
quote: Mike Spaeth
In most Manager/Operator situations that I have seen ... no positions are actually eliminated
My observations have been the reverse.
My favorite example: A MAJOR chain five years ago opened a new 12 or 14-plex & instead of new hires, made an existing 12-plex manager-operator. The projectionist at the older theater became the MO at the older theater, the manager from the older 12-plex became the MO at the new theater. I went to the older theater to visit the projectionist (now MO), & found that on busy nights his sister was coming in to help. He told me the company had shown their (new, but had been in the business many years) manager how to thread, start, build-up & break-down, & sent him to the new theater.
I went over to the new theater, asked the girl at the concession counter to see the manager, was told he may be down shortly he's getting ready to start a show. It was a busy afternoon, & I was thinking the guy must be as busy as a one-armed paper hanger. A while later, the guy comes trotting down the stairs, eyes darting, as if he's been pursued by demons, runs to the boxoffice, and I notice that, ironically, he's got one arm.
Larger than 14 or 16's seem to split the booth duties from the floor, but most that size or smaller I've seen have a guy constantly running up the stairs, threading, pushing start, running back down the stairs, pulling the money out of the concession stand, covering a problem with people, back up the stairs, nonstop.
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John Walsh
Film God
Posts: 2490
From: Connecticut, USA, Earth, Milky Way
Registered: Oct 1999
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posted 03-04-2005 07:34 AM
quote: Mike Spaeth
In most Manager/Operator situations that I have seen ... no positions are actually eliminated
quote: William Hooper
My observations have been the reverse.
I would agree with William. Reducing the payroll is the whole idea. Of course positions are eliminated. The only exception is when, say, another new theater is opening nearby. Then some staff can be off-loaded there, but that rarely happens.
People shouldn't blame all the members of a union for the action of a few. But in the same way, theater owners shouldn't be blamed for needing to reduce payroll. (I feel) it's the studios that have 'sold-out' the theaters with high percentages for poor product, DVD sales 2 months after release, etc. forcing them into this state.
Most regular operators do not make anything like $30 an hour, but if any job pays much less than $12, it's not a professional position. There's no shame in working for around minimum wage when a person needs extra money, or just likes the work, but it's not a career. I'm all for testing to weed out the dumbies to maintain a professional level.
I'm not just saying a projectionist (union or not) should get a decent wage. I'm saying they should be worth a decent wage.
Note to Rick Raskin: I was also in telcom...designed protocol analysers. It's been a tough past 5 years... ![[Frown]](frown.gif)
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Frank Angel
Film God
Posts: 5305
From: Brooklyn NY USA
Registered: Dec 1999
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posted 03-04-2005 09:11 PM
Exactly. Whenever you go into a theatre (or any other establishment for that matter) and there are workers who have bad attitudes and work ethics, I never blame the worker; it is almost always should be thrown right in the lap of management. Because there can only be one of two scenarios, and each are the purview of the manager. 1) The worker is not being trained and/or motivate properly (management responsibility) to perform up to an acceptable standard, and if this is true, it's the fault of management. 2) If the worker HAS been trained and properly motivated yet still has a bad attitude and a lousy work ethic, then he should have been fired. The fact that he is still on the job, it's STILL the fault of management who should have had his sorry ass fired already.
Unfortunately, because of the particular setup of this projectionists' unions, the theatre owner isn't allowed to hire and fire the projectionist, because in truth, the theatre owner is hiring the union. They can send whomever they want. Unlike most other situations, where a business owner interviews and after deliberation, hires the individual. If that person wants to join a union, all well and good, but it remains that it's the individual that most owners get to hire (and fire, when necessary). The projectionist union has somehow figured out a way to thwart that direct connect process, and not for the better, IMHO.
Tell me what's wrong with this scenario. The theatre owner puts it out in the trade papers that he's hiring for a variety of positions, projectionist is one. He interviews applicants, reviews their qualifications, reads their resumes, checks out their references and after looking at a number of applicants for the job, settles on the one he feels would be best for his operation. He would take many things into account, not the least of which is that personal "gut feeling" about an applicant (assuming every applicant would have to have the minimum requirement and that would be a licence which says he's allowed to run motion picture equipment). The theatre owner, like any other owner of a business would get to make an evaluation on his own, without benefit of a union coming in and saying, today you get this guy because we say so. Then, when the owner hires him, he is free to join the union (or not), just like thousands of other crafts work. I think this would engender greater respect between boss and worker and it would not negatively impact the union because the union would still represent its members as their bargaining unit, but it would take much of the cronyism out of union politics.
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Justin West
Master Film Handler
Posts: 271
From: Peoria, IL, USA
Registered: Jul 2001
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posted 03-04-2005 10:16 PM
Mitchell: You raise a good point about "perception" and, indeed, many unions (not just the IA) had been lax to stay involved in the community, failing to keep themselves intertwined with society-at-large and, as a consequence, the next generation grew up not being very knowledgeable about the benefits of organized labor or the importance of maintaining legal rights, protections, and a voice for workers. As you say, lost-opportunities to expand their representation into the lesser-skilled ranks of the theatre-biz came back to bite the IA. I like what you say, Martin, about a call for a "living wage" in this country...I have a suggestion for anyone who shares this thought...just because the IA has moved away from MPMOs and theatres-in-general does NOT mean that a NEW union movement could not be started, one that WOULD take a theatre-wide effort into account, an avenue for theatre-workers to have both DIGNITY and a VOICE on the job. Maybe some of you non-management people on this board ought to approach (privately, of course) some of your co-workers and see what kind of interest might exist at your place of employment. Start with people you trust (who are not moles for the boss) and ask questions like, "What are the good points of your job and employer? What are the bad points?" You can build from there...and, again, it does not have to be a national AFL-CIO union, you can organize your own local union, like the "Bijou Workers Union" or similar. I forewarn you, there are risks (Big Business will stop at nothing, including the commission of illegal acts like firing union activists, simply to shut down any union organizing campaign) but nothing worthwhile is easy! Keep good notes, refrain from serious activities on the job (or at least on-the-clock) and check out various union websites on the net...many have good tips on how-to-organize your place of employment.
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