"In Search of Liberty", or at least irony
July 9, 2016 10:38 PM Subscribe
Tea Party activist Norm Novitsky crowd-funded for the production of his movie "In Search of Liberty" (preview here), a movie on the US Constitution . Last week, after the crew was dissatisfied with their wages and working conditions, they voted to have the IATSE represent them and went on strike.
(Some more details on Slate.)
(Some more details on Slate.)
It's kind of funny. Most IATSE members I know work other, non union stuff on the side even if it pays poorly (having your main source of income be dictated by a call list kind of ensures it unless you're at a certain level or in Local 1 or something) but if it involves crossing a picket line you can be sure they won't let anyone they even know work on it.
It's been a really crazy thing to follow. On the IATSE facebook group there are posts about people trying to organize smaller things due to working conditions here and there but this has just been the perfect storm of awful working conditions and terrible people. The scabs being plants and failing to actually end up coming was just the best thing.
posted by arctor at 11:13 PM on July 9, 2016 [3 favorites]
It's been a really crazy thing to follow. On the IATSE facebook group there are posts about people trying to organize smaller things due to working conditions here and there but this has just been the perfect storm of awful working conditions and terrible people. The scabs being plants and failing to actually end up coming was just the best thing.
posted by arctor at 11:13 PM on July 9, 2016 [3 favorites]
IA-IA-IATSE!
I used to work in a building that housed an IATSE office; six years later I still can't see the acronym without immediately singing it in my head to the Yahtzee! jingle.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 11:38 PM on July 9, 2016
I used to work in a building that housed an IATSE office; six years later I still can't see the acronym without immediately singing it in my head to the Yahtzee! jingle.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 11:38 PM on July 9, 2016
I wonder if they're also abusing the actors?
posted by Joey Michaels at 12:25 AM on July 10, 2016
posted by Joey Michaels at 12:25 AM on July 10, 2016
Go IATSE!
(Coming up on 20 qualified years via the Animation Guild next year...)
posted by Hairy Lobster at 1:36 AM on July 10, 2016 [5 favorites]
(Coming up on 20 qualified years via the Animation Guild next year...)
posted by Hairy Lobster at 1:36 AM on July 10, 2016 [5 favorites]
In addition to his tea party film producer career, Mr Novitsky was (is?) a Scientologist who founded a company that robo-signed mortgage documents in Florida during the oughts.
What's he going to multi-class into next? Antipaladin?
posted by Sauce Trough at 1:46 AM on July 10, 2016 [40 favorites]
What's he going to multi-class into next? Antipaladin?
posted by Sauce Trough at 1:46 AM on July 10, 2016 [40 favorites]
Tom Solari is a Scientologist, and I'm pretty sure Norm Novitsky is too.
posted by apricot at 2:05 AM on July 10, 2016
posted by apricot at 2:05 AM on July 10, 2016
"The irony and hypocrisy of a Tea Party activist like Norm Novitsky misclassifying employees as independent contractors in order to push payroll tax burdens from themselves on to employees—all the while seeking a $300,000 incentive from the taxpayers of the state of Georgia—is lost on no one."
- IATSE internal representative Scott Harbinson
posted by krinklyfig at 2:28 AM on July 10, 2016 [26 favorites]
- IATSE internal representative Scott Harbinson
posted by krinklyfig at 2:28 AM on July 10, 2016 [26 favorites]
I'm relatively sure you don't want to get that particular acronym wrong
IATSE Local 1 member here. Feel free to get any acronym wrong you desire. Despite what you might hear and what most producers would have you believe, we're not the mob. We're a union.
posted by nevercalm at 3:55 AM on July 10, 2016 [52 favorites]
IATSE Local 1 member here. Feel free to get any acronym wrong you desire. Despite what you might hear and what most producers would have you believe, we're not the mob. We're a union.
posted by nevercalm at 3:55 AM on July 10, 2016 [52 favorites]
Yet another IATSE member here --- Motion Picture Projectionists & AV Techs, in my case.
And remember, if it wasn't for unions, there never would have been any 'minimum wage' (let alone 'overtime') in the first place; we'd still have child labor; most of us would be working 12 hours five days a week plus 8 more hours on a so-called 'half' day (the 40-hour week came out of unions); there wouldn't be any of the laws about workplace safety; and while not everyone has it, there wouldn't be any sick leave or vacation leave for any of us.
posted by easily confused at 4:36 AM on July 10, 2016 [70 favorites]
And remember, if it wasn't for unions, there never would have been any 'minimum wage' (let alone 'overtime') in the first place; we'd still have child labor; most of us would be working 12 hours five days a week plus 8 more hours on a so-called 'half' day (the 40-hour week came out of unions); there wouldn't be any of the laws about workplace safety; and while not everyone has it, there wouldn't be any sick leave or vacation leave for any of us.
posted by easily confused at 4:36 AM on July 10, 2016 [70 favorites]
The history of unions doesn't justify any of their present-day excesses, abuses, or overreaches. I'm also not sure it's necessary to invoke history to justify unions in this particular case; it sounds like IATSE performed exactly the right function and was both clever and effective in bringing about the right result: if BlueNile Films can't film its movie in compliance with labor laws, then BlueNile Films shouldn't be filming its movie. Problem solved.
posted by cribcage at 4:57 AM on July 10, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by cribcage at 4:57 AM on July 10, 2016 [2 favorites]
My son is working on his IATSE membership and they seem like a solid, well-run organization. Stage and screen work can be dangerous as hell and I'm pretty happy to know that when he goes and works all night tearing down the sets for the Beyonce/Chesney/Joel/etc. show that someone is paying attention to proper safety procedures. If you left that stuff up to the promoters, they'd surely try to skimp on hardhats and safety lines and such.
posted by octothorpe at 5:23 AM on July 10, 2016 [14 favorites]
posted by octothorpe at 5:23 AM on July 10, 2016 [14 favorites]
Stage and screen work can be dangerous as hell and I'm pretty happy to know that when he goes and works all night tearing down the sets for the Beyonce/Chesney/Joel/etc. show that someone is paying attention to proper safety procedures. If you left that stuff up to the promoters, they'd surely try to skimp on hardhats and safety lines and such.
Damn straight they would. One of the few times I've had to flat-out say "no" to a director was when the guy wanted to do something wildly unsafe with a prop gun backstage and I just kept telling him "Nope, I won't allow that" for two straight days until he gave up on it. And the thing that gave me the courage to do that was the knowledge that if he did try to retaliate or pull rank, my Union would totally have had my back and retaliated against him.
And the one time I did have to go to my Union on another matter was when we all learned that after I got hurt on a job, that my boss had neglected to file a Workers' Comp policy and was trying to cover that up. There are some jerks out there.
The history of unions doesn't justify any of their present-day excesses, abuses, or overreaches.
No, but teaching the history of unions in schools would make it more clear to conservatives that the "Good Old Days" they long for in the '50s or '30s (depending on the age of the conservative in question) were in large part created by the actions of progressive labor activists in the 1910's. And it might have also kept us from entering another damn Gilded Age today.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:24 AM on July 10, 2016 [47 favorites]
Damn straight they would. One of the few times I've had to flat-out say "no" to a director was when the guy wanted to do something wildly unsafe with a prop gun backstage and I just kept telling him "Nope, I won't allow that" for two straight days until he gave up on it. And the thing that gave me the courage to do that was the knowledge that if he did try to retaliate or pull rank, my Union would totally have had my back and retaliated against him.
And the one time I did have to go to my Union on another matter was when we all learned that after I got hurt on a job, that my boss had neglected to file a Workers' Comp policy and was trying to cover that up. There are some jerks out there.
The history of unions doesn't justify any of their present-day excesses, abuses, or overreaches.
No, but teaching the history of unions in schools would make it more clear to conservatives that the "Good Old Days" they long for in the '50s or '30s (depending on the age of the conservative in question) were in large part created by the actions of progressive labor activists in the 1910's. And it might have also kept us from entering another damn Gilded Age today.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:24 AM on July 10, 2016 [47 favorites]
cribcage, I'm not sure it's necessary to invoke your opinion on their "excesses, abuses, or overreaches" in this case, particularly when prefixing your account of their "clever and effective" method of "bringing about the right result".
As shown earlier in the thread, unions have a history of being smeared (don't you dare get their acronym wrong or you'll be sorry), and it IS necessary to be reminded that unions are the entire reason we're not standing next to our toddler age children on the sausage lines.
posted by dozo at 6:28 AM on July 10, 2016 [28 favorites]
As shown earlier in the thread, unions have a history of being smeared (don't you dare get their acronym wrong or you'll be sorry), and it IS necessary to be reminded that unions are the entire reason we're not standing next to our toddler age children on the sausage lines.
posted by dozo at 6:28 AM on July 10, 2016 [28 favorites]
The history of unions doesn't justify any of their present-day excesses, abuses, or overreaches.
The current state of the vast majority of productions and companies, with their excesses, abuses and over-reaches continues to justify unions. If anything we've backslid into a more abusive corporate and industrial atmosphere.
posted by nevercalm at 6:30 AM on July 10, 2016 [55 favorites]
The current state of the vast majority of productions and companies, with their excesses, abuses and over-reaches continues to justify unions. If anything we've backslid into a more abusive corporate and industrial atmosphere.
posted by nevercalm at 6:30 AM on July 10, 2016 [55 favorites]
I want a Data Processing union. IATSE, Teamsters, SEIU, UFCW TAKE ME AWAY!
posted by mikelieman at 7:03 AM on July 10, 2016 [11 favorites]
posted by mikelieman at 7:03 AM on July 10, 2016 [11 favorites]
Oh my god yes, seconding a data entry and processing Union.
posted by Caduceus at 8:04 AM on July 10, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by Caduceus at 8:04 AM on July 10, 2016 [3 favorites]
The union discussion is worthwhile and interesting but no one has mentioned that this movie is about a time traveling Ben Franklin (not clear if a hot tub or a circle K are involved) driving corvettes and shooting guns. Something tells me that in spite of all this it probably wont be very funny.
posted by kingv at 8:34 AM on July 10, 2016 [4 favorites]
posted by kingv at 8:34 AM on July 10, 2016 [4 favorites]
I'very noticed that a lot of complaints about union "excesses" are driven by a crab in a barrel mentality.
posted by Mavri at 9:04 AM on July 10, 2016 [7 favorites]
posted by Mavri at 9:04 AM on July 10, 2016 [7 favorites]
Mr. BlahLaLa's membership in IATSE Local 44 -- Affiliated Property Craftspersons (aka Props and Set Dressing) -- means his hard work and verrrry long hours on the TV shows and films we all love to watch translate into a decent wage and health care coverage. Unions build a strong middle class!
posted by BlahLaLa at 9:55 AM on July 10, 2016 [9 favorites]
posted by BlahLaLa at 9:55 AM on July 10, 2016 [9 favorites]
There is at least one clerical Union that I know of, part of UNITE HERE if one wants to take a look, there may be others. They should be able to rep data entry?
posted by drowsy at 10:24 AM on July 10, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by drowsy at 10:24 AM on July 10, 2016 [2 favorites]
All I know about IATSE comes from the You Must Remember This podcast--they're not to be trifled with!
posted by orrnyereg at 11:11 AM on July 10, 2016
posted by orrnyereg at 11:11 AM on July 10, 2016
mikelieman: "I want a Data Processing union"
There are several large unions willing to organise your workplace if most of the staff feels the same. OPEIU is one of the larger multidisciplinary unions I'm aware of. Also several unions one might think as narrowly focused have become diverse in their membership. The United Steel Workers for example represent
There are several large unions willing to organise your workplace if most of the staff feels the same. OPEIU is one of the larger multidisciplinary unions I'm aware of. Also several unions one might think as narrowly focused have become diverse in their membership. The United Steel Workers for example represent
"call centres and credit unions, mines and manufacturing plants, offices and oil refineries, restaurants and rubber plants, sawmills and steel mills and security companies. We work in nursing homes, legal clinics, social agencies and universities. [...] We serve you at banks and teach at universities. You’ll find us in oil refineries and grocery stores. At utility companies and in chemical plants. We work in the public sector and in the forests. We drive taxicabs and work in airports. We’re security guards and electricians. We’re miners and pharmaceutical workers. We work in all these places and so many more."posted by Mitheral at 11:37 AM on July 10, 2016 [2 favorites]
This is fascinating.
Norm Novitsky is a pretty heavy-duty Scientologist - he's done OT VIII twice, plus the L rundowns (L11, L10, L12), which are VERY expensive.
His Global Vision film company appeared in at least three WISE directories, suggesting that he uses L. Ron Hubbard/Scientology practices in his businesses.
Looking at the crowdfunding list on the website, I'm seeing a lot of Scientologists who put money into this production, including maybe half the "Patriots".
posted by kristi at 11:57 AM on July 10, 2016 [1 favorite]
Norm Novitsky is a pretty heavy-duty Scientologist - he's done OT VIII twice, plus the L rundowns (L11, L10, L12), which are VERY expensive.
His Global Vision film company appeared in at least three WISE directories, suggesting that he uses L. Ron Hubbard/Scientology practices in his businesses.
Looking at the crowdfunding list on the website, I'm seeing a lot of Scientologists who put money into this production, including maybe half the "Patriots".
posted by kristi at 11:57 AM on July 10, 2016 [1 favorite]
International Alliance Of Theatrical Stage Employees
They changed their name, you know. They used to be the Global Organized Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees. People complained.
posted by Faint of Butt at 2:30 PM on July 10, 2016 [11 favorites]
They changed their name, you know. They used to be the Global Organized Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees. People complained.
posted by Faint of Butt at 2:30 PM on July 10, 2016 [11 favorites]
One of the older students let us know that they were abusing the kids – not just with the pay and conditions, but verbally abusing them.I've worked at a handful of places where people were cheated out of overtime pay, and I know one thing: If you're gonna try it, you better be friendly and appreciative to your employees. Being verbally abusive to your employees is asking for rebellion.
posted by clawsoon at 2:34 PM on July 10, 2016 [1 favorite]
The history of unions doesn't justify any of their present-day excesses, abuses, or overreaches.
Excesses and abuses? I'll see your Jimmy Hoffa, and raise you all the Walmart employees on food stamps.
posted by panglos at 4:17 PM on July 10, 2016 [21 favorites]
Excesses and abuses? I'll see your Jimmy Hoffa, and raise you all the Walmart employees on food stamps.
posted by panglos at 4:17 PM on July 10, 2016 [21 favorites]
They changed their name, you know. They used to be the Global Organized Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees. People complained.
I came for the goatse and left satisfied. You don't say that every day.
posted by ActingTheGoat at 5:10 PM on July 10, 2016 [3 favorites]
I came for the goatse and left satisfied. You don't say that every day.
posted by ActingTheGoat at 5:10 PM on July 10, 2016 [3 favorites]
Holy crap, this is in Savannah GA, it's almost my backyard. I'll be in town in a couple of days for the MST3K encore show.
posted by JHarris at 5:14 PM on July 10, 2016
posted by JHarris at 5:14 PM on July 10, 2016
IA-IA-IATSE!
I used to work in a building that housed an IATSE office; six years later I still can't see the acronym without immediately singing it in my head to the Yahtzee! jingle.
Oh, I was thinking of a totally different IA! IA! jingle.
posted by FatherDagon at 3:28 PM on July 11, 2016 [4 favorites]
I used to work in a building that housed an IATSE office; six years later I still can't see the acronym without immediately singing it in my head to the Yahtzee! jingle.
Oh, I was thinking of a totally different IA! IA! jingle.
posted by FatherDagon at 3:28 PM on July 11, 2016 [4 favorites]
Iä! Iä! Cthulhu fhtagn! Ph'nglui mglw'nfah Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn!
posted by porpoise at 4:44 PM on July 11, 2016
posted by porpoise at 4:44 PM on July 11, 2016
Meanwhile, just the other day I fielded a complaint from an employee that someone (name unknown) had left brochures about a union in the breakroom for people to pick up and read. "I'm pretty sure that's illegal," he said worriedly.
The corporations have already won the PR war, which is the war that really matters.
posted by Scattercat at 5:13 PM on July 11, 2016 [5 favorites]
The corporations have already won the PR war, which is the war that really matters.
posted by Scattercat at 5:13 PM on July 11, 2016 [5 favorites]
One of the ironic things is because organizing efforts can be completely derailed by illegal actions most unions are very careful to not step even near the line.
posted by Mitheral at 8:04 PM on July 11, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by Mitheral at 8:04 PM on July 11, 2016 [1 favorite]
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Other than that, this is a very interesting story.
posted by figurant at 10:48 PM on July 9, 2016