This is topic Union Projectionists picket Orinda Theatre (CA) in forum Ground Level at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.


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Posted by Mike Croaro (Member # 3123) on 07-05-2009, 08:51 PM:
 
Interesting...........Went to the Orinda Theatre (Orinda, CA, near SF) today and the Union projectionist are picketing outside. Presumably this theatre is no longer a Union house. It was under former operator Renaissance Rialto Theatres. They gave up operatorship a few months ago.

Mike

Here is a link to the article in the Contra Costs County Times.

http://www.contracostatimes.com/ci_12431179
 

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Posted by Mike Spaeth (Member # 524) on 07-12-2009, 06:57 PM:
 
Boo hoo.

Here's my favorite part of the article...

"Dale Brodsky, an Orinda resident, pointed to problems at the Rheem and said if the presentation quality declines at the Orinda, she'll go see movies in Walnut Creek and Pleasant Hill instead."

So, they'll show their displeasure at the "decline" of quality by not having a Union operator by patronizing non-Union theatres.
 

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Posted by Eric Hooper (Member # 1730) on 07-12-2009, 07:32 PM:
 
You don't need "union projectionists" to run a good show. But you do need capable management to oversee that the show does run good.

I've been to the Rheem ONCE. That was enough. There is no excuse for out of focus and out of frame movies.

Customers "vote" with their business and their dollars. If a theatre puts on a crappy show, and loses it's customers to another theatre because of it, then it deserves to go out of business. That's simple business competetion 101.

The Orinda is a great old theatre. Michaan did a great job with operating it as he does with the Grand Lake. When I heard the Rheem folks took it over, I realized this was the beginning of the end for the Orinda.
 

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Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 07-12-2009, 08:05 PM:
 
People don't know what makes a good show, they just know it when they see it (and hear it). If there is a picket line and some resident is being told that the presentation quality will go down "because of the lack of a union operator", and they notice it and it bothers them, then regardless of whether they go to another union house or not doesn't matter...the customer is lost to a location that puts on a good show, as deserved.

Remember, the projectionist is the "thankless" job of the theater. If he/she is doing their job properly, everyone forgets about them even being upstairs. However as soon as anything isn't right.....
 

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Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 07-13-2009, 01:44 AM:
 

quote: Brad Miller

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Remember, the projectionist is the "thankless" job of the theater. If he/she is doing their job properly, everyone forgets about them even being upstairs. However as soon as anything isn't right.....

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quote: Monte L Fullmer

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But, something went wrong back in the past why the I.A. got a black eye, why owners discontinued union contracts.

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Oh, I doubt it was any one thing... unless that one thing is MONEY. That's what it always comes down to. Why pay a union guy when you can pay someone else less and call them "User B"? Personally I never cared if I was in a union or not. I'd rather not be since that way there aren't any union wages to worry about. But, of course, everyone wants to be paid well and be treated with respect. I know there were many bad apples in the unions. Bleach and ammonia in an auditorium full of people just because you are on strike and/or the owners didn't use union people? Bad form. Makes all unions look bad.
 

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Posted by Jack Ondracek (Member # 1466) on 07-13-2009, 05:19 AM:
 
Probably more a matter of hiding one's head in the sand, denying the march of progress.

When running a single screen booth required the full-time attentions of a skilled individual, Labor built a profession around it. At that point, you could make the case that if someone was going to do that job for life, he should be paid well enough to provide for his support. In that sense, the union's process of training, scheduling, providing for relief operators, and wage and pension negotiations probably made a lot of sense.

Nowadays, I cringe at the thought of a union projectionist striking. If an owner needed a wake up call that things needed changing in the booth, that would do it.

Regardless how you view your professional attitude toward running movies, you really don't have to sit and babysit the projectors anymore. Xenon, platters, automation and the new film base changed all that.

Today, I doubt you could get decent booth training from the union. The equipment is just too widely varied and most owners don't look to a union for that function. Look at Brad, for example. As much as he puts into his booth programs, do you think he would turn training, personnel and quality control over to a union local?

Back when RCA or Altec took care of the sound and all you had to worry about was the two projectors, a training program was probably easier to manage. Now, I don't see how there's much left for the IA to do in most places. In the 37 years I've worked projectors (out of high school), the Seattle local was the only place I was ever around that really gave training a serious shot.

Does the union train qualified operators for digital projection? If not, then any substantial digital rollout is going to be disaster for the few union areas left, I think.
 

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Posted by Rick Raskin (Member # 1561) on 07-13-2009, 06:47 AM:
 
Jack hit it right on the head. But booth monkeys are not the answer either. Out of frame threading, shrill sound and soft focus will do more to drive business away regardless of the affiliation of the booth personnel. What is needed are competent individuals who actually give a crap about presentation quality. When digital is the medium of choice the technical requirements of the job will increase dramatically. While it won't be necessary to have someone babysit the projectors, it will be necessary to have someone on site who is capable of resolving minor technical issues. The concept of an exhibition NOC brings up the opportunity for people like Brad to excel in the future. Unfortunately the union seems to have overlooked anything similar.
 

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Posted by Bill Enos (Member # 440) on 07-13-2009, 10:11 AM:
 
I'm surprised the union hasn't fought the installation of digital as it obsoletes the old fart in the booth with the door locked from the inside and the control he had. Very unlikely his replacement sitting at a keyboard will be union or even the least bit interested in it.
 

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Posted by Tim Reed (Member # 137) on 08-01-2009, 06:58 PM:
 
What union? No one's around to do anything anymore. I know guys who have been working under expired contracts for years now, with no pay increases -- in NYC!

As a teen, a projectionist buddy and I used to idolize union operators as the pinnacle - and we aspired to be like them. Little did we know at the time, that the local in our town was one of the few where nearly every member was a fine craftsman. They were ALL GOOD.

Naturally, this skewed our perception. It was a great disappointment years later (after I began travelling the country as a sound man) to discover that just because someone was in the union did not make them a good projectionist.

You could just as well have told me there's no Santa Claus.
 

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Posted by Phil Hill (Member # 371) on 08-01-2009, 07:08 PM:
 
Tim, hot tip: There is NO Santa Claus.

But! There are MANY Sugar Daddy guys!
 

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Posted by Robert E. Allen (Member # 1351) on 08-01-2009, 09:31 PM:
 
Hey Tim! As a former IA member I was saddened to see the demise of most of the IA locals. But I thought at least the big cities still had active locals. Are you going to tell me things are that bad in NYC? I agree that being in the union does not mean "good projectionist". I remember working as a permit man for the Sacramento local and when I was assigned to work vacation relief at a drive-in I spent the two weeks replacing about a fourth of the speakers in the field because the regular operator apparently seldom went out to the field. He was in his 80s at the time, had emphysema, chain smoked Pell Mells and could hardly walk around the booth. I'm greatful for the apprenticeship I had to serve for six months before I could become a full member.
 

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Posted by Tim Reed (Member # 137) on 08-02-2009, 02:13 PM:
 
Phil... NO! So, do the Sugar Daddies come at Christmas?

Robert... yes, that came as a shock to me, too. I became an IA member as soon as I was old enough to join (actually sooner, because I lied about my age to get in when a job opened up -- I was still 17). Was in locals 346, Lexington, KY; 380, Okla. City; and 163, Louisville.

If the New York local is in trouble, you know it's all over. Actually, I knew it was over when they removed projectionists from the official name of the union.
 

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Posted by Bill Enos (Member # 440) on 08-02-2009, 07:39 PM:
 
I've been told that in the days of yore, the union here had a guy who would go to a theatre and buy a ticket and observe the performance of the projectionist, noting on a checklist issues with his keeping of the lamp, how well changeovers were made etc. The changeover was considered perfect if accomplished while the change cue was on the screen and acceptable if done within a few frames. There was pride in making themselves worthy of their pay.
 

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Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 08-02-2009, 08:05 PM:
 

quote: Bill Enos

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The changeover was considered perfect if accomplished while the change cue was on the screen and acceptable if done within a few frames. There was pride in making themselves worthy of their pay.

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Ok not to nitpick here, but perfect is NOT as the second cue is on screen. It is a second after (or sometimes 3/4 of a second, depending on the lab). It should have been deemed acceptable to change with the cue on the screen and perfect if there was half of a second after.

Of course every ex-union "changeover" guy I have ever worked with always insists on punching it right as the second cue hits the screen, so their heart always stops when I wait that extra 3/4 second or so before punching it. Its actually kind of funny because they expect to see black.

quote: Jack Ondracek

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Today, I doubt you could get decent booth training from the union. The equipment is just too widely varied and most owners don't look to a union for that function. Look at Brad, for example. As much as he puts into his booth programs, do you think he would turn training, personnel and quality control over to a union local?

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quote: Joe Redifer

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Why pay a union guy when you can pay someone else less and call them "User B"?

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Its actually "Usher B", but I don't think you (or anyone) actually cares. That was a term coined by Cinemark in 1991 in a desperate effort to keep the union out by claiming "but we don't employ projectionists so there are no projectionists to unionize", and they still use the name to this day. It was nothing more than a lame union-busting tactic at the now-closed Cinemark Vista Ridge 12 in Lewisville, Texas.

The fact of the matter is that Cinemark was treating their staff like absolute shit at the time. Once the threat of organizing was brought to their attention, the local management very quickly started treating their employees (projectionists and downstairs floor staff) like actual human beings, and that practice spread quickly across the entire chain once they got that wake-up call. As a result, the union was called off a few months later, because the benefits that were strived for were obtained by the mere threat...and that was to be treated decently for a job well done. Its really not too much to ask of any company.

Before anyone starts calling bullshit, save your breath. I was there and I was the one who initiated the threat after seeing it wasn't just the local management at the Vista Ridge 12 that was treating their staff with the amount of respect you would give to a cow turd. So yes, the term "Usher B", as lame of a title as it is, was a trade for Cinemarkers around the world even today to be treated well and to be given a decent working environment. For those of you who have heard the story before, what you may not have heard was that in the end it was I who called the union off and stopped it from happening. (They always seem to forget that little tidbit.)

So to all of you Cinemarkers out there who go to other theaters and see a spectacularly clean presentation and then wonder why you can't get FilmGuard and make your presentations that good, or why you can't get a platter safety ring to keep your prints from tail wrapping and getting thrown, well its very simple...it all boils down to a grudge. Cinemark never let go of that grudge against me for the potential to unionize, even though the end result was better working conditions for everyone across their entire chain and as such, a better company overall. Still today, almost 20 years later, the grudge is still going strong. But hey, its their company and they can do whatever they like with it. At least I know that I have helped tens of thousands (or maybe more) of employees be treated with respect for the last 18 years at that chain, and at the end of the day it IS a good company (despite the dirty prints. )
 

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Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 08-03-2009, 09:12 AM:
 
IMHO all the present Locals need to look towards the Seattle Local as a model of existance if the rest of em are to survive. They have a number of locations for Landmark where the Projectionist was kept on rather than the theater manager. Thus the projectionist is now also the Theater's manager. This makes 100% more sense to me then keeping the manager that hasn't a clue about the upstairs equipment!!! I can't believe the guys picketing in this local are as blind as they are!! The Seattle guys have more foresight then the rest of the locals combined....

Mark
 

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Posted by Rick Raskin (Member # 1561) on 08-03-2009, 12:20 PM:
 
In the 70s some of us advocated the same thing for the Washington DC local. We were met with resistance.
 

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Posted by Jack Ondracek (Member # 1466) on 08-03-2009, 12:42 PM:
 

quote: Mark Gulbrandsen

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IMHO all the present Locals need to look towards the Seattle Local as a model of existance if the rest of em are to survive. They have a number of locations for Landmark where the Projectionist was kept on rather than the theater manager.

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