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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 09-17-2003 11:43 AM
quote:
What's the cost of living like in Chicago? I can easily see $27+/hour in the big houses and screening rooms in NYC (assuming that the operators are highly competent), but I wouldn't expect it to be common elsewhere. The small-town theatres could never afford anywhere near that, and the cost of living wouldn't justify it.
I'd be amazed if there's any regular commercial theatre (union or not) in Massachusetts that pays $20/hour or more.
How can you say that when you live in Boston, an incredibly expensive place to live. Are you living with your parents? <g>
$20 an hour is $41,600 a year if you work 52 weeks a year, 40 hours a week. In many States that will give you about $30K after taxes. Can one buy a house or co-op/condo apartment within the city limits of Boston for under $300K? A $200K mortgage will take about $17K of that $30K right off the bat.
How many kids do you think you can send to a decent college when one earns only $41,600 a year?
If a movie theater, especially a multiplex, can't afford to pay a projectionist $20 an hour, then let them close (IMO). People need to be in a union in order to earn $2 per hour per screen? How cheap can they get?
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Mike Perju
Film Handler
Posts: 90
From: Toronto, Canada
Registered: Nov 2002
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posted 10-26-2003 12:32 AM
Here in Ontario, there was a massive lockout for IATSE 173 in 1996, and it's been downhill ever since. AMC does not use the Union, Famous Players and Cineplex Odeon do not either for theaters 10 screens and under, so if you want to get $10/hr (Canadian $$!)to run 11 to 18 screens, you can help yourself. However many have left (250 members in 1996, now about 25 or so). Obviously, projection alone will not pay the bills so practically everybody gets whatever job they can. The only jobs that use Union guys are single screen repertoire theaters which pay about $13/hr, but there are only seven of these theaters in town. The best source of income seems to be the Toronto International Film Festival, which pays around $23 for a single screen venue, $26 if you're manning 2 theaters in a venue, and about $29 for a premiere gala single screen venue. There are some other odd jobs, like the Universal Studios screening room (pay hovers at $20/hr), the Royal Ontario Museum theater $22/hr, York University screening room $??, and potentially Unionized new Jewish Community Centre Screening Room. That's it.
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Gerard S. Cohen
Jedi Master Film Handler
Posts: 975
From: Forest Hills, NY, USA
Registered: Sep 2001
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posted 10-27-2003 01:11 PM
With union contracts, you must become aware of the number of hours per week, overtime, etc., in addition to the hourly base pay.
Usually, as the hourly base rate increases, the number of working hours decreases, so that workers' pay does not have quite the extremes you might suppose.
My highest projectionists pay was $34 per hour regular, for a 24 hour week, which I worked in two consecutive days from the replacement list. But on my last steady job I was working a single screen 33 hours per week regular, at $16.53 per hour.
As wages declined, the number of hours often increased.
Today's news is that wages in the USA have begun to climb, but at the cost of widespread unimployment.
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Nathan Guerriero
Film Handler
Posts: 43
From: Chicago, IL, USA
Registered: Apr 2002
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posted 10-30-2003 01:21 AM
1) The cost of living in Chicago is extremely high, especially in any neighborhood in which you would actually want to live. I pay 1100 for a small one bedroom in Lincoln Park (land of the upwardly mobile), but I accept this as premium for living one block from my theatre. It is not as bad as say, Manhattan, but when a deeded parking space costs $45,000, things are pretty bad.
2) I worked several years with Loews Cineplex in Chicago before taking my current position at the Biograph Theatre, and had mixed experiences with the Local 110 operators. I worked with some who were very good, some who were very bad, and one who inexplicably referred to only as "Hathaway."
I've heard many stories similar to Mark's about the good old days of the Chicago union. The owner of the 3 Penny Cinema across the street from the Biograph tells stories about the days when he was forced to employ 2 operators for his one screen (one operator per projector, I can only assume). Only one would show up at any given time, though he still had to pay for two. I understand that time and the stress of running an independent theatre in Chicago could certainly have exaggerated this story, but it's still kind of interesting.
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