Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Twenty-five years of employment

Per VFXSoldier's request below, this chart shows the employment of Local 839 members over the last twenty-five years.

Posted by Jeff Massie at 3:42 PM

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thats a lot of Union Dues collected.

Wednesday, March 28, 2012 10:58:00 PM
Anonymous said...

The 99% building strength.

Thursday, March 29, 2012 8:42:00 AM
Vfxsoldier said...

That's also alot of benefits : 3 portable retirement accounts , 2 of which are employer and residual funded, and portable health insurance that covers you for up to 18 months after you leave the union in some cases.

By the way the common argument is that unions drive work overseas to places like India. If that were true why is union membership at a 25 year high?

Thursday, March 29, 2012 10:17:00 AM
Anonymous said...

I'd like to see a graph superimposed over this one of the number of Union Members on honorary withdrawal that cannot get work. It would be interesting and very telling.

Thursday, March 29, 2012 12:05:00 PM
Anonymous said...

Or not.

Friday, March 30, 2012 1:47:00 PM
Anonymous said...

As a former union member, I will respond to Anon above.

I took honorary withdrawal from the union in 2001 I believe, after several years, simply due to no Union shop hiring. It was a tough time in the drawn world if you remember. The union which I did take advantage of their offerings was great to me. But harsh realities sunk in...

I ended up leaving the USA eventually and returned to my country of origin, where for the past 11 years I have had fulltime employment in our industry. Closely approaching my 3rd decade in animation...It's been great. new skills and
a huge overview of our industry.

I cannot help but wonder why this same comment above was also the subject of a thread over at the AN blog? I check
out AN every now again to remind me that it is a perfect example of a lost vision. I point it out to students I lecture to every now and again about what not to do.

I'd like to know a statistic. How many working animation professionals, including myself who once supported AN when they launched in 1999 now look upon that blog as both unproductive, unconstructive and in some instances a vile voice for our industry that I know many does not represent the current opinions of both the union and also many of the professionals I know.

The last thing I would want to be is a laughing stock in my field. I guess maturity doesn't reign on that site. We should all be happy to be working for the greater good instead of tearing down walls that more than a few bitter artists seem to continue to build.

Monday, April 02, 2012 9:52:00 AM

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