On Organizing

Back in the lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer, we put up this crumpet:

... I remember [the Sony Imageworks organizing drive] as though it were yesterday. There we were, the IA reps and the Animation Guild officers (President Koch and I) in the Imageworks theater, rolling out the IATSE contract, Motion Picture Industry Pension and Health Plan and TAG 401(k) Plan (without a match) that we hoped to sell to the Imageworkers.

Organizing, what a concept. A couple of days ago a self-alleged Imageworker added insights to the summertime post that I think are worthwhile ... and you will most likely miss unless you're in the habit of nosing through old posts on medium-sized blogs.

So here it is, with responses from Yours Truly:

- At the time of Imageworks union vote, there was a concerted and collective effort on the part of many artists to analyze and compare the (then) Sony benefits vs. the (then) union benefits. I do remember people asking 839 (and other union local) members about what they liked/disliked about the unions. Most artists came to the conclusion that the Sony benefits were superior ...

I think this is right. The Sony bennies were superior ... for permanent employees. However, our information was that production hires had a lower level of benefits and would be better off with the IA package. The IA's assumption was that the union would carry the day because production hires outnumbered permanent hires and would automatically vote to "go union." This turned out to be wrong.

- Most Imageworks artists that I know were and are fully aware that the good benefits provided by Sony could also be unilaterally revised.

Aware, maybe. But not really believing that the top-drawer benefits would be scaled back. (People are usually starry-eyed optimists about their personal conditions. What good is it to mope around thinking ... "Well, I'm healthy now, but someday, I'm going to get old, then be sick, and then die ..." Nobody would ever get out of bed.)

- While there certainly were more than a few spirited discussions concerning yes/no - I personally did not see or hear about or experience any managerial pressure regarding the vote. Considering that the vote was a secret ballot with Union reps present, it would be silly to think that anyone was personally afraid to vote yes for the union ...

Points taken. And I don't think there was any overt management pressure. There didn't have to be. The permanent employees ran a campaign to scuttle unionization. From their perspective, they were losing more than they gained by unionizing and so worked in their own self-interest. Like most people do.

- As mentioned in the body of the blog - "Everything --the good, the bad, and the indifferent-- is temporary." This applies equally to the fat (seriously, they were/are very very good) Sony benefits AS WELL AS those great union benefits ...

One major difference: union benefits have longer life-spans because they only change every three or four years, at contract renegotiation time. Company benefits can change annually, semi-annually or monthly, whenever the company wants to change them.

(And yeah, if the industry collapses -- think General Motors or Chrysler -- benefits are going to change before the end of collective bargaining agreement term. But I would submit that the entertainment industry is not G.M. or Chrysler.)

- Re: Tim Sarnoff b.s. - I don't personally know anyone who ever "lapped" up his b.s. Most artists that I know were and are too experienced/cynical to take at face value any statements by any company's management.

But some were influenced, no? Here's my suggestion: Listen to all sides, do independent research, then make up your own mind. Because what we need are independent minds who come to their own conclusions and take everyone -- me, Tim Sarnoff, Sarah Palin, Joe Biden, you -- with a healthy dose of skepticism.

- Most artists that I know thought that the Union reps that came to speak at Imageworks were a collection of arrogant and condescending idiots. They had the attitude that they were here to rescue a bunch of poor exploited factory workers or something. Clearly THEY had not compared the then Sony benefits with the union offer. ... Hey, did Mr. Union Rep here tell you that our collective bargaining agreement would not have allowed us to strike. Boy, that's some strong union you got there. And YOU want to represent ME?

The campaign was not artfully run. And I knew by the second meeting that the organizing drive was in trouble. (It's not useful to have a Plan Administrator show up and yell at people, nor have union reps in suits not being open to questions.)

But here's the rub: If the union reps had walked in wearing t-shirts, shorts and flip flops and come off like Mr. Rogers, the union would still have lost the organizing election. Because the permanent employees were convinced that what they had was better than what they would get. (And they were no doubt right. But the production hires -- most of whom aspired to permanent status -- would have been better off.)

- As stated in the blog, the Union got absolutely pasted in the vote because their proposal and presentation sucked. Really, you can spin it all you want, but that is the bottom line.

Yep, the presentation was bad. The proposal, however, didn't suck. It was simply less than what permanent employees were getting.

- Ah, but that was then, this is now. As stated in the blog, now probably is a good time to try to get another union drive going again.

Why? Are Sony benefits and wages that much worse? Profit sharing all gone? (And I'm asking, because I don't know ...)

But the union has already missed the big boat. More and more digital work is going out of state and out of country (egs. Imageworks India and New Mexico). The union is just fighting for crumbs that remain. IA/TAG didn't do so well with keeping all those traditional cell animation jobs here in socal back in the 90's did they. And then they were slow to (try) to organize the digital workers and mostly failed. And now they will try to organize what's left when most of the good work will be long gone ....

Sounds like compelling points, except for this: TAG is larger today than when all the work was "here" and "union." How can that be, if all the work is going away?

Simple. The animation pie has continually expanded. Visual effects, games, animated features and TV shows are products created in all parts of the globe. Sony builds a studio in Albuquerque (and sub-contracts to Texas) at the same time Electronic Arts builds a big honking studio in Playa Vista, even though it's far cheaper to throw one up in Mumbai.

Why the hell is this?

Because labor costs are only one part of the picture. You must also have salable content and the quality to achieve sales. There is a huge and growing talent pool in Los Angeles, which is why work -- and studios -- continue to grow here.

So even if unions have a smaller slice of the overall work, they still have more unionized jobs than in the days of Disney, Hanna-Barbera and paint being slapped onto cells.

But of course, nothing is forever. We'll see what the morrow brings.