Why TV and Film Workers Just Authorized One of the Biggest Strikes in Hollywood History
More than 50,000 film and television workers voted to authorize a union strike this weekend, calling attention to exhausting working conditions in Hollywood and setting the stage for a massive potential shutdown of film and TV sets across the country.
The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) represents an array of film professionals, including cinematographers, camera operators, hair stylists, makeup artists and script coordinators. Union members say that working conditions, which have long been difficult, have been exacerbated by the pandemic and a streaming era in which demand for content has skyrocketed. Through this strike authorization, they are demanding better wages, longer rest periods, a bigger cut of streaming profits, and a level of respect they say they are not treated with.
“Our people have basic human needs like time for meal breaks, adequate sleep, and a weekend,” IATSE president Matthew Loeb said in a statement. “For those at the bottom of the pay scale, they deserve nothing less than a living wage.”
The strike comes at the end of a three-year contract between IATSE and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP). Negotiations for a new contract turned acrimonious this summer before falling apart, with each deadline (July 31, then Sept. 10) sailing by without an agreement. Between Oct. 1 and 3, members of IATSE voted overwhelmingly for the strike: the union announced that 90% of the 60,000 IATSE members who received a ballot voted, and that 98% of those ballots were cast in favor. Ballots were cast by 36 of IATSE’s local unions, including in California, Georgia and New Mexico, with none of them voting less than 96% in favor of the strike.
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