TW: Suicide, abuse.
“I was too young and too new and too scared to speak up that I was physically exhausted,” read one anonymous post from ia_stories. A photo of a totaled car above the submission indicates how lucky this person was to walk away alive.
Another submission from a former executive assistant reads, “I was left with no choice and forced to live out of my car because my bosses didn’t organize pay for me.”
And another one, from a mother after her daughter tried to commit suicide. She feared telling her boss or HR would result in her termination because taking the time to care for her daughter would interfere with her work. She was told not to cause any trouble for her department head.
Countless stories of intimidation, fear mongering, and personal health consequences have been anonymously posted to an Instagram (and now Twitter) account ia_stories.
I reached out to the account for this article, but at the moment, they are at capacity trying to get to the word out about just what has been going on for years in the film and television industry. Even the union members’ pets are taking a stand on the account @petsofIATSE, where they are putting their paws up for living wages.
To get you caught up, The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, a.k.a the IATSE is the union behind your favorite television shows and movies. You might recognize their logo from the end credits of literally any piece of media you’ve consumed since forever, no really - the union was founded in 1893 and is headquartered in Manhattan. I’ve actually passed by their building once or twice; they have a pretty cool spot here in The Big Apple.
Behind the logo are thousands of people who crew the shows and movies you watch to unwind after a hard day’s work. Some of those are Emmy, Golden Globe, and Academy Award winners, but somehow those behind the scenes cannot afford to make a living wage. Due to unsafe, unsanitary, and unfair working conditions, many local guilds are encouraging members to strike for a better way, and if change doesn’t happen by October 1st, then the entertainment industry may come to a screeching halt.
Hollywood is no stranger to strikes. From the writers’ strike back in 2007, the 2007 stagehand strike, John August bringing to light how terribly underpaid assistants are in 2019, to the most recent writers’ strike in 2020, the general consensus here is that the people who put in the often thankless hours aren’t getting compensated properly.
This has been tricky to write about because even though many are sharing their stories, they are doing so anonymously. I reached out to countless people for a quote for this article, and many declined for fear of retaliation. That alone speaks volumes to how tangled this web is. One big item up for debate is “new media” pay vs. regular media pay. You can read about that and more here from Brenden Gallagher who was kind enough to speak to me for this article. Brenden and I chatted about this article that suggests that if the union strikes, COVID-19 safety protocols will be nullified as it applies to any production working under a bargaining agreement negotiated by the guilds who developed the protocols. The exception would be for “for pay” tv networks like HBO and for commercials and music videos.
I asked him if the union does strike, will that mean companies will hire non-union employees and go forward without COVID-19 testing and safety? His response:
“That would be scabbing, and scabbing would be crossing a picket line. They may try to get people to cross the picket line, but it’s incumbent upon union and non-union workers understanding that would be the worst-case scenario. If you have scabs, the union’s bargaining position is weakened. If you want the strike to end, the best thing for everyone is to not take any union work. I don’t recommend scabbing. I think it’s morally wrong and it’s also not a financially smart idea. There’s no worse way to start your career than to cross the picket line and stand on the wrong side of history.”
Brenden got his start on sets in the New York indie scene a decade ago. He’s been a location assistant, unit PA, set PA, first AD, as well as having started his own production company. Since moving out to LA he’s worked in TV as a showrunner’s assistant and writer’s assistant, before finally staffing on a show. “@ia_ stories are sharing the frustration, and I feel that,” he said. “People are tired of being exploited, working long hours, and having to wait a long time for their careers to start.”
Brenden told me he became a writer’s assistant right around the time writer’s assistants unionized in 2018. It struck me as a surprise that writer’s assistants had unionized relatively recently. Brenden recalls while working as a location scout in Harlem, having to shovel dirty diapers off the roof of a building where people had thrown them instead of putting them in the trash in order to make room for the setup of a shot. When Brenden was a writer’s PA, he had not worked at NBC Universal long enough to become eligible for health insurance. So when his gall bladder became swollen, he was left with a $3,000 dollar emergency room bill and had to wait to find a job that would give him insurance in order to have the surgery. That job would be granted a year later with Warner Brothers. During the year he did not have insurance, he could not eat a variety of foods due to his health because he was always at risk of collapsing. When he got out of surgery, the doctor told him his gall bladder was so big it was starting to wrap around his stomach.
“That was a radicalizing moment for me because this is how people are expected to live when they are chasing their dreams,” he said. “A lot of people end up leaving the business and end up working in other fields and those people are prominently the people who come from more disadvantaged backgrounds; so not only is it an inhumane place to work, but it creates an entertainment industry that skews towards the privileged and those who have generational wealth who are able to take these jobs.” This echoes an episode from John August’s Scriptnotes Podcast (Episode 422: Assistants Aren’t Paid Nearly Enough) where Craig Mazin states:
“They don’t care if they’re trying to start a family. They don’t care if they have bills or medical problems. They don’t care at all. They just want what they want. And if you can’t give them what they want then they get rid of you. And I will say it again. In our business it is disgusting to think that this is how companies treat our lowest paid people.” Craig later goes on to debunk the notion that being underpaid motivates people to work harder to get promoted.
“One thing I know for sure is getting underpaid doesn’t make you want to be successful more. What it does is zap your energy, demotivate you, make you believe you’re working in an unfair system, because you are, and it makes you resentful. It is bad for your health. It’s bad for your family. It’s bad for your relationships.” For this article, I also spoke with Alison Golub, a current writer’s assistant about the impact a strike would have. “There’s sixty thousand people who will be affected by this strike if it happens,” she said. “You’re not going to be able to replace sixty thousand people - you’re just not.” Golub also reiterated what the people behind @ia_stories have been telling the world. When she was on an on set job, her experience was the following: “For me, the (on set) hours were horrible - 5:30 a.m. calls and working until wrap which is usually around twelve hours,” she said. “There’s not enough turnaround time. With writer’s assistants, our main issue is that there are incredibly low wages. You make one dollar more than minimum wage, and you cannot live off of $16 dollars an hour in Los Angeles. It’s an issue because it drives out people who don’t have family support. We just want to be able to afford to live, and that’s considered too big of an ask.”
On September 28th, Quartz released an article titled, The Most Watched Popular Netflix Shows of All Time. The article is behind a paywall but gives stats on Netflix’s usually private data. The graphs made public on their Twitter account show that the 2020 film EXTRACTION starring Chris Hemsworth was their most watched movie having been viewed by more than 99 million Netflix accounts. With presumably more than 99 million views – a number that is almost the entire population of Japan alone – you’d think the studios behind these films would be able to pay and take care of their crews accordingly.
But if they refuse to do so on their own, then the IATSE strike might be necessary. For more information on how to help, consider signing this petition, and keep an eye out for strike funds if IATSE members are forced to strike.
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