The Unions

Growing up (and growing into my adult opinions) I've done the tango with the concept of labor unions and whether or not they're a good thing in the contemporary market or not.

The short answer is that they are and they aren't. Because people are both good and bad.

They're bad because they encourage and reward tunnel vision and self-service when any union racks up a record of strong negotiations. It becomes more about getting every dime that can be got than securing decent, fair wages and benefits.

That said, they are still indispensable...especially in my line of work.

I've been out of work (if you except the 4 days of work I had in May) for almost 5 full weeks. To that end, I've been actively cruising for work anywhere I can find it...to a point.

I consistently find productions that want to pay $10, or $30, or $50 for 8-12 hours of work. I know, I know, y'all that do labor intensive jobs or remarkable tedious things like office tasks would like to contend with my labelling of movies and TV shows "work". Take it from the ex-trucker: it beats digging a hole for a living, but it's not like getting paid to go to the day spa. Anyway, I find myself needing to reject these laughable rates purely on principle.

What's that you say? "Work is work"? Well, maybe, but let me explain. Minimum wage in California is $8 per hour. At the cost of living in this state, even $8 per hour is woefully inadequate to make a living. So apply that to $50. That's 6.25 hours of work. And these folks might hang on to you for 12 or 15 hours (especially if they're newbies and don't know what they're doing...which is often especially the case with the projects that offer to pay these rates). I just can't justify to myself the rightness of taking a $40 or $50 flat rate job (read: no overtime) because I'm desperate for cash. It'll only perpetuate the mindset that says, "Movies are so cool, you should be thankful you get to be in one!"

This is where AFTRA and SAG come in. They've negotiated these things out, so that people who aren't starstruck, and realize that people make a lot of money off of actors and extras, and would like a fair slice of the profit, can have a chance at that.

So I got paid for the fitting today, because a long time ago, the negotiating power of SAG got the studios to acknowledge that a fitting takes time that an actor could be using for some other kind of gainful employment.

Again, this can be carried too far. But let me point out that the multi-million dollar figures that big-name actors haul down on their movies are not SAG contract issues, they're negotiated individually by agents. SAG has a thing called scale, whereby you're paid a certain amount for the thing you're doing...to the extent that even the non-union members (like me) are granted some protection by SAG contract rules on a SAG show. I can only imagine what sets would be like for actors working on making a career.

All of this said, one more thing on this post:

SAG Membership, ratify the contract! Now is not the time for penny grabbing. Let's go to work!

Thank you, that is all.