At tonight’s membership meeting at the Guild office, we will be discusssing endorsing proposals for the upcoming contract negotiations, as well as soliciting active members to serve on the Guild’s negotiating committee.
The following anonymous letter was slipped into our inbox last night. It’s a good starting point for discussion at this evening’s meeting.
We look forward to seeing anyone with an opinion on this letter, or on the state of our union and its future. at tonight’s meeting. Pizza and refreshments at 6:30 pm, meeting starts at 7 pm.
Dear Local 839,
For years now, it has become apparent to me, that no real support is given to the artists, who report workplace issues to the Union, such as tighter schedules, more complex storyboards and unpaid overtime. Instead, we are given only a sympathetic nod, in the Peg Board. This is not to knock The Animation Guild. We the members appreciate the 401 k plan, health plans, pension plans as well as grants and quality classes offered; but historically, the purpose of Unions has been to protect workers from being underpaid and overworked. The purpose of our Union should be to protect artists from being robbed of the thing of value they have - the ability to creatively work and get the job done, under reasonably competitive conditions.
The culture of the animation industry is very mercenary when it comes to artists and designers. We're work for hire or perma-lancers. Year after year various workplace issues get brought to the Unions attention but at the studio level, it does not seem like any changes are being exacted; and the workloads continue to increase.
There is systemic exploitation, across the studios, when storyboard artists are given a script and schedule but are expected to render layouts and animate scenes. What recourse does the artist have? If the artist honestly works eight - nine hours and calls it a day, knowing that the studios will not authorize OT (unless the production is winding down and shows have to be shipped), that artist will most likely fall behind schedule, be viewed as a non-team player (by others who choose to work ten-eleven hours) and does not get called back to the studio, after layoffs.
Local 839 is supposed to be our collective voice and offer corporate protection. Our Local 839 business representative has the ears of studio heads without repercussion and has to be well-informed with state labor laws; such as, the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement in the California Department of Industrial Relations' overtime regulations.
Some may say that barking too loudly will cause studios to take the work overseas. That's been happening for years. What's the artists' recourse? If the animation union is too small in number, why not expand and include animation artists in the gaming industry? Some of these artists face similar issues but they aren't unionized and would probably appreciate some corporate protection.
Furthermore, it is difficult to understand, in the Master Collective Bargaining Agreement, why a Union would have a "No-Strike - No Lockout" clause. Not that I'm advocating a strike or lockout, but it seems like it weakens a Union's leverage.
There are too many artists working unpaid overtime, under exploitive conditions because the artist truly enjoys the work that they do, desire to pursue excellence and are afraid of losing their job. The overtime worked, isn't for overtime pay, rather, it's the artist attempt to keep their job (which consequently affects marriages and families).
One of the Union's solutions is to "build a culture where nobody works overtime until management agrees to pay for it" which is impractical in a mercenary workforce; however, if the Union organized its members not to work unpaid overtime until management agrees to pay (with documentation to back it), this could exact practical change.
Will Local 839 exact significant change in workplace conditions, favorable to both employer & employee?
If you could field these concerns, in an upcoming issue of Peg Board (but not Peg Board alone), it would be much appreciated!
Thank you for your time,
A Member of Local 839
Steve Hulett: Attending recent negotiations, I asked other union reps what their members faced with uncomped overtime. They told me it was an ongoing problem.
Uncomped o.t. has been rearing its head since the day I started as business representative. There's a variety of ways to combat it: Studio visits after hours; collective complaints and action by the crew; discussions with show runners. All of these have proven useful, but there is no one "magic bullet." I urge anybody who works uncompensated overtime to contact the office.
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28 comments:
Ever hear of TIMECLOCKS? That'll put an end to the question of who's doing what.
Let's see who wants timeclocks - raise your hands....
Kind of what I thought.
"Let's see who wants timeclocks - raise your hands....
Kind of what I thought."
Right. And neither do I want them. Its been nice not to have them for so many decades. But what has this led to?
You can feel squemish about timeclocks and being held accountable for your arrival and departure, but this issue is about THEM as much as you. Making them accountable is the way you prevent yourself from being abused. So why dont you want that, or do you like the abuse?
Timeclocks take away THEIR power as much as it gives you.
Me! I would be THRILLED to clock in at 9am sharp each day and work for 40 honest hours if I could finally know the pleasure of free weekends, a social life, and schedules that allowed me to take actual vacation days.
If artists can't be disciplined to do that and rally their co-workers to demand better, we kinda deserve our fate.
I really think that in this industry, timeclocks would ultimately benefit the overworked artist.
What recourse does the artist have? If the artist honestly works eight - nine hours and calls it a day, knowing that the studios will not authorize OT (unless the production is winding down and shows have to be shipped), that artist will most likely fall behind schedule, be viewed as a non-team player (by others who choose to work ten-eleven hours)
I think it's important to highlight that in some instances, we're shooting ourselves in the foot.
This has been a hot topic as long as I've been doing this.
It comes down to: "Stop me before I kill again!"
Tough, old grouch that he was, Walt Disney actually restricted our overtime on "Sleeping Beauty." The old man wanted the artists to have time with their families and not spend all their life working at the studio. Walt put a cap on how much overtime we could work.
I know this sounds like a fantasy compared to the workplace today. It simply shows how bad things have gotten since the fifties.
Fuck timeclocks. I manage my time just fine without them. I take gym breaks and walk for coffee or run errands during "core hours" and no one cares because I get my work done. The last thing I need is some PA telling me what specific times I should be here.
I already fill out time allocation when I submit my timecard so they know what shots are getting what kind of time, and thats all they really need.
^ Wooo, such a badass!
Congratulations on missing the point entirely.
If artists can't be disciplined to do that and rally their co-workers to demand better, we kinda deserve our fate.
It's not a matter of discipline, it's a matter of the mercenary nature of our business. Artists think that if they actually talk to each other and stick to their guns on things such as crappy schedules and unpaid overtime, they'll ALL get fired and replaced by students who don't know shit.
I see writers run around studios in little groups who actually TALK to each other about residuals and giving each other advice on how to get the best deals. I see the same from executives. Artists? They just complain without doing anything. Very telling.
Funny how this topic comes up again and again yet nothing ever gets done.
Collective action starts at home. Get your compadres to go to lunch together and TALK. Agree to work your core hours and NO MORE. If that gets you threats from management, call the union! That is what they do: back you up. They can't do it for you.
Believe me, if you can't get your team to agree to go home when the work day is done, you're definitely not going to get them to join you on the picket line. That's just a fantasy.
I've said it for years..... with a "No strike" clause agreement with the studios.... The Union carries no weight.
Anon 9:09:00 - I don't think you'd need a "no strike" clause to have your crew agree to work only the time they're being paid to do. Work your hours, GO HOME. NO UNPAID OVERTIME. If the studio squawks, tell them their schedule was unreasonable. ALL OF YOU tell them it was unreasonable.
If we don't stand up for ourselves and each other, then the abuses and whining will continue until morale improves.
"Collective action starts at home. Get your compadres to go to lunch together and TALK. Agree to work your core hours and NO MORE. If that gets you threats from management, call the union! That is what they do: back you up. They can't do it for you."
That is interesting. It would work IF all the artists got together and talked, agreed and acted accordingly. It would work if on each show, in each department, in each Studio, there was a person that would spearhead,conduct the organizing of such talks, and set up communications with all the cooperating artists to work with the cooperating Union at moments notice. However, there are mostly UNcooperating artists that are too scared to speak up and act accordingly in the interests of all artists in the department, and studio, and all studios. Because of that, and that the Union CAN support them if they speak up, perhaps the Union would benefit by leving a fine on those artists who do not cooperate with the artists would are keeping communication on the issues of doing overtime and being overworked. Oh, thats too much to ask. The Union LIKES doing nothing and being powerless. It gets them enough money to pay themselves and have a nice building with climate control features that make their lives just peachy-keen. Including pizza and sodas at the Union meetings that few show up to.
It's amazing how little people know about what a union can and can't do.
Did your daddy always go into the school and talk to your teachers for you when you got a bad grade too? Just grow a pair and not work for free. Or if you want to work for free stop blaming someone else for your own chickenshit behavior.
Is there a way that during our next collective bargaining we come up with fair quotas for a skills that would be expected in a 40 hour week. That way if an artist is not hitting those quotas, that would be grounds for termination, but if the quotas are increased then the studio must pay OT.
Also define exactly what is required of each job category and if the studios are still demanded more from a category, then the minimums should go up and again the fair quotas put into play.
Also a uniformed testing parameters that the union and studios can agree on to stop unfair testing.
Just a thought.
Is there a way that during our next collective bargaining we come up with fair quotas for a skills that would be expected in a 40 hour week.
Unit rates and quotas, over time, don't work well.
What works are eight hour days, overtime rates, and weekend premiums.
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If the Union keeps putting it back in our court to "stand up to the company" etc... Remind me again why we're paying them Dues?
Funny how SAG, WGA and other unions don't have this problem. Maybe you should sit with their leaders and pick their brains a bit.
As was mentioned earlier, writers talk to each other and back each other up. Until the artists do that, the union won't be as powerful as SAG, WGA, etc.
^ see Anon 11:05:00
SAG and WGA are above the line...we're below the line. you're comparing apples and oranges. Most SAG and WGA have agents and contracts that spell out the pay for the project. We're hourly workers.
You should be comparing us to other BTL workers. Even this is still oranges and pears as we have different types of jobs than most BTL people
Steve could you please elaborate on why quotas don't work? If one studio expects an 11 minute episode to be boarded in 5 weeks, and another expects it in say 4 weeks, then how couldn't here be a set quota that we propose across all studios so if a studio is asking something that is unreasonable then they need to expect to pay overtime.
This will curtail people taking work home and working unpaid OT to hit a quota dictated by the studio. Just like with wages, if there as set guideline then everyone knows what is expected.
NOT.ALL.WORK.IS.EQUAL.
Sometimes even on the same show not all episodes are equal. How can you come up with a guideline that could possibly take everything into account?
Well we're given end dates i.e. quotas and they do not fluctuate per episode, but the work does, So they do exist but are being dictated by the studios.
REPOSTING:
"Anonymous said...
If the Union keeps putting it back in our court to "stand up to the company" etc... Remind me again why we're paying them Dues?
Wednesday, March 28, 2012 11:05:00 PM"
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