WORKERS VS. MTV: IN THE REAL WORLD, THERE ARE UNIONS

[AmericanErrorist]

Union members from the city's construction trades picketed for two weeks outside the Seaman's Church Institute in Old City and prevented the production staff from entering a building being renovated for the so-called reality show.

The message from Teamsters, painters, carpenters and electricians to the show that claims to define "hip" was clear: Union busting isn't cool!

Bunim/Murray Productions, producers of "Real World," had sidestepped organized labor in 13 previous cities, including New York, Chicago and Boston. In Philadelphia, they hired a non-union suburban construction company that had been picketed by the carpenters' union at other job sites. Although city officials pressured the unions to compromise, Bunim/Murray refused to set a precedent of using union labor, packed up and left town.

In the aftermath of Bunim/Murray's departure, the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News--the city's two daily newspapers, both owned by union-busting Knight Ridder--led a barrage of attacks on the construction union leaders, labeling them ," "oafs," "bullies" and "Neanderthals" for standing in the way of letting "Real World" portray Philadelphia as a "cool" place for young tech-savvy professionals to spend their money.

But even Daily News staff writer Ellen Gray had to ask just how "cool" is it that "Real World" producers Bunim/Murray and MTV, a division of Viacom--the same media conglomerate that owns CBS--"don't want to pay union wages to produce a show that celebrates conspicuous consumption?" (Philadelphia Daily News, March 18) Gray explained that she was attracted to Philadelphia precisely because its newspapers were unionized, and paid enough so she could afford life in the city.

http://www.workers.org/ww/2004/philly0401.php

[Township75]

1. The most depressing thing about this article...

is that it tells me that show still exists. A bunch of no brained, no goals, air heads who's solution to everything is to cry about it...and that is the "real" world?

[Pale Blue Dot]

2. This has been a HUGE story in Philadelphia

You would not beieve the amount of fighting, jaw-clinching, and union-bashing there has been over getting a piece of crap TV show to come to our city.