Chapter 3: Crises and Concessions

This section goes into the crisis years where the entertainment industry campaigned for huge cuts in the rights of entertainment workers from the 1980s to 1990s. The section will go over how the locals reacted. The paper will also discuss Local 161’s strengthening of its Florida Jurisdiction. Then the piece will discuss how the script department of NABET 15 joined Local 161 and finally how the production accountants became affiliated with Local 161. The 1980s and 1990s saw the Local 161 steadily increase in size and jurisdiction despite factors such as limited financial resources, stalemates, and cuts. Spurred by encouragement from above as well as by regional competition it actively recruited interested craft members into its local. The Local 161 local had a different strategy from other unions which focused on organizing whole industries or whole companies, but Local 161 seemed to focus on organizing individual members' into the union. Within this decade the Union was able to incorporate NABET 15’s script department, another entertainment union local, into the union after a lengthy negotiating process.

‘The 1989 Hollywood Agreement’ and the New York Film Boycott of 1991

The local union’s history is interwoven with the developments of national and international trends in the entertainment industry. In the 1980s companies became more aggressive against unions due to Reagan’s response to the Professional Air traffic controllers (PATCO) union strike for better pay and working conditions. Reagan's repression of the PATCO strike and his appointment of labor-hostile the National Labor Relations Board ( NLRB), the government agency that is responsible for enforcing labor laws,signaled to corporations that they did not have to cooperate  with unions.^[1] This inspired a number of business-provoked strikes and lockouts to break unions across various industries including entertainment.  Hollywood aggressively waited out the Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike in 1988. Instead of negotiating, Hollywood pushed back production leaving workers on the picket lines for 155 days until workers' savings and resources had plummeted. This situation left the WGA in a weak position allowing Hollywood to win concessions when they did enter negotiations. Hollywood also locked out the Hollywood Basic crafts, a coalition of five bargaining groups representing electricians, drivers, plumbers, laborers, and animal trainers and other trades in 1989. These actions ended in both unions making steep concessions.

Claiming victory and feeling emboldened, Hollywood then demanded concessions from IATSE such as the end of the Monday through Friday work week, reduced meal penalties, ending double time on Saturday and Sunday, and getting rid of the night premium wage. These changes overturned the work life balance of entertainment workers. Now instead of working eight hour workdays workers were forced to work 12, 15 even 19 hour workdays without any recourse.  

The news of this 1989 Hollywood deal sparked heated debate in Local 161. Among one of the demands that sparked rank and file distaste was the reduction of Saturday work from double time to time and a half; moreover that triple time was changed to two and a half. However, it was noted that by 1988, film companies in the area had already succeeded in taking away double time provisions in contract provisions. In 1988, Local 161 was the only local in the area that had double time provisions in their distant location sets.^[2] Unfortunately for Local 161, after overcoming labor’s resistance in the west coast, film companies turned to the east to finish the job.

 In 1991, the New York film industry boycotted the east coast film Locals in order to get a contract similar to Hollywood. This boycott lasted seven months.^[3] In 1991 the boycott ended when the East Coast Council of IATSE agreed to lower overtime pay and other compromises.  The 1991 agreement saw members lose the end of double-time pay for Saturday and Sundays, an end to night premium wage differentials, and an end to the Monday through Friday five day work-week. Workers could be called to work during their weekends to work long hours. Despite wins such as a 3% annual wage raise and increased employer contributions to health and pension plans this was considered by the Local as well as later scholars to be concessions.^[4]   

This caused significant emotional, psychological, and physical strain on all workers causing injuries and even death. These deteriorating conditions even resulted in the death of Brent Lon Hershman. Hersman was an assistant cameraman in Pleasantville, who after working 19-hour work days fell asleep when driving home and slammed his car into a utility pole. This 19 hour day was preceded by working four 15-hour work days. He died on March 6, 1997. There was no judicial investigation that pointed to the studio industry being at fault, but both the local and rank and file union members across the entertainment industry asserted that the studio industry was to blame.^[5] The event inspired a petition signed by 10,000 industry workers, including Julia Roberts and Sally Field asking the film industry to limit the workday to 14 hours.^[6] His death inspired a 2006 documentary by Haskell Wexler as well as a renewed demand within IATSE for shorter work hours.^[7] The east coast film agreement that ended the boycott brought business back but without the conditions that made working in the entertainment industry a safe place to work.

Already in September 1990, the Local’s finances were described as being in a bind.^[8] Reasons for this included lack of work opportunities for members, high expenditures for new technology, and issues with payments for dues.^[9] Thus, when the film industry withheld productions for seven months it compounded financial hardships for entertainment workers. It ignited discussions to merge with IATSE Local 644. Local 644 represented camera crews, cinematographers, and cartoonists.^[10] The talks ended in 1998 and never amounted to a merger, but it did lead to a sharing of the business representatives between the two locals for several years.^[11]

Local 161 in the 1980s consolidating the Florida Jurisdiction

 The film boycott exacerbated the already dire financial situation of Local 161, but it continued to expand. During the late 1980s the Union focused on establishing a stronger presence in Orlando when Universal Studios built a production studio there. Universal Studio was one of the 5 major Hollywood studios. By building a presence in Florida large amounts of capital was coming into the state and turning Orlando into a major hub of business. Since Local 161’s jurisdiction was Florida, these changes in the business atmosphere were noticed with great interest. Part of this push had to do with the international leadership’s encouragement to organize. Mike Proscia on September 26, 1988, who was the Vice President of the IA at this time, encouraged 161 to organize various crafts and advocate for key causes.^[12] The leadership of the local as well as the membership took this message as a mandate to organize.^[13] For unions, the decision over where to organize is based on several factors including how much money they have, whether or not the shop they want to organize will be profitable, and how much it will cost. In a climate of political hostility to labor during the Reagan administration many unions reduced their investments in new organizing not wanting to deal with crippling defeats. However, the growth of non unionized workforce creates a downward pressure that reduces unionized workers wages. Moreover, if a union local is not active it is quite possible another Union local can take over their shop, which Local 161 feared.

Another factor in pushing the union to organize was the fear that the Local lost jurisdiction because the Studio Mechanic Local was expanding in the region of  Florida and Atlanta.^[14] As a reaction, the Local 161 President, Barbara Robinson became a guest lecturer at Valencia College film Production class. She also went to site visits at the MGM Disney studios and talked with people who were interested in becoming Local 161 members in the Orlando area.^[15] To buttress their strength the local Nancy Flesher, a member, became the field rep for the Local in Orlando.^[16] In a synchronous manner, the Locals also developed a presence in Massachusetts. Ads were put in the Local newspaper and there a representative was sent to the New England Producers’ Association meetings and seminars to recruit. The local, energized by the encouragement of Mike Proscia, fearful of losing its jurisdiction from another union local, and determined to stamp out non-union shops, committed crucial resources to organizing new members in the late 1980s. The effects of these efforts saw a steady increase in the locals size, although the local’s finances were negatively impacted by the contract negotiations of the 1980s and 90s. Taking Mike Proscia’s message to heart, the local steadily expanded its membership in Florida and Massachusetts through strategic outreach. It was because of this commitment to organizing that expansion the IATSE Local 161 was able to  incorporate Production Accountants as its third craft.

The IATSE 161 Inclusion of production accountants

Production accountants on the east coast were originally affiliated with IATSE Local 717, however the next year they affiliated with Local 161 by 1999. In 1998, 110 accountants petitioned to affiliate with the west coast Local and were accepted. However, for a year, they were not able to get a proper contract or work. Some of the accountants attempted to talk to Alan Meyers, the business agent of Local 161, about the possibility of Local 161 representing their craft. Catching news of these developments, Local 717 representative Deidra Floyd, sent a letter to Local 161 asking them to cease their organizing efforts. This issue was eventually brought up to the International union. After discussion, it was decided by the board and representatives from local 717 and Local 161 that 60 production accountants were to be transferred over to Local 161. By acquiring this craft,  Local 161 from now on represented three crafts in its majors, area standards, and low budget negotiations. Even with a new local representing this group of workers, the film industry largely refused to bargain with production accountants. As a mediating step, Local 161 was able to produce sideletters, which were individual contracts, with each company. For production accountants, these sideletters provided some protection in an uneven work environment.

 The NABET 15 Merger

The Unions NABET and IATSE engaged in a 60 year struggle over labor jurisdiction that spanned the industries of television, technical radio work, and broadcasting and even affected Local 161 jurisdiction. This fight in large part had to do with the reality: winning contracts and new members could mean the life or death of many unions. Part of how one local survived was through either providing better deals for members, organizing new workplaces, or better labor management relationships with producers. The struggle for a fair contract and better working conditions then can potentially become intertwined with a union or a local’s ability to survive. Each time the entertainment industry expanded, introducing new technology represented a potential change in the jurisdictions between rival unions as categories of work changed, unleashing conflict as noted in chapter 2.  

The local also continued to grow by incorporating the National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians local 15’s (NABET 15) script department in 1990. This union local broke up in the 1990s when its charter was revoked. Based on the reports of Local 161 and local 52, the loss and merger of the charter of local 15 was not explained, but one idea that has been supported by information from the Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives is that during the 80s local 15 set up a meeting with officials of IATSE to discuss a possible merger.^[17] Soon after, the NABET international accused NABET 15 of trying to secede. The NABET International then brought charges against local 15, which local 15 denied. Both parties went to court and NABET 15 lost the case and the international union revoked its charter in 1990.^[18] 

After losing its charter the local did the only thing it could do: fully secede from NABET and align its fate with another union. On April 30, 1990 a letter was sent by the then IA president Daniel Ditolla, that NABET 15 expressed their willingness to merge with The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW). This action was opposed by Local 161’s President, Barbara Robinson. She argued that this agreement could foreseeably shut the IA out of all East Coast feature production. Instead, she suggested that the NABET 15 board members encourage their colleagues and members to merge with IA and organized a series of meetings with NABET 15’s script department to negotiate.^[19] By October 22, 1990, NABET 15’s entire script department became part of Local 161, which increased the local’s size by 51 members. More significantly the inclusion of the NABET 15’s script department also signaled the end of the internecine struggle between NABET and IATSE.  

In the 1920s -30s, many of the television studios started with built-in labor unions and radio broadcasting companies represented the nucleus of the television industry. The IBEW and NABET organized technical work in radio during the 1920s and 1930 and by the 1950s, IBEW held jurisdiction over the CBS news network engineers. NABET represented technicians and non-technical workers at the networks, NBC and ABC. Whereas IATSE formed a special radio and TV department in 1951 to fight for jurisdiction in television. Over the next two decades the three unions carved up jurisdiction over the various jobs in the rapidly expanding industry with numerous skirmishes happening in the 1970s and 1980s.^[20] 

For forty years, both unions fought over jurisdiction accusing each other of making contracts that undercut the wage standards of the industry.^[21]  Unions that perceived each other as rivals were used to their advantage: the divide encouraged IATSE to concede to flexible crew requirements and wage scales in both low and high budget productions, and NABET 15 became a "hiring hall" for lower budget features, television programs, and commercials.^[22] This is however not the complete story, even in this history of internecine labor conflict; there were notable examples of entertainment unions collaborating to organize sets.

 Despite the back and forth between NABET and IATSE,there was an attempt by NABET and IATSE to collectively unionize a TV show called Against the Law.  According to president Barbara Robinson, the unions, including IATSE locals 52,161 and NABE,  in Boston negotiated a multi-union Contract for the show, which was successful.^[23]  This victory paved the way for the show to be unionized among the various crafts. For many workers in the industry, even those who were unionized, workers had to deal with unclear work hours. At least with union protection workers could get stronger benefits, wages, and representation. Unions throughout this country’s history often fought for jurisdiction. Yet this is not the whole story and examples like this showed Unions could come together to expand labor protection like wages, benefits, and conditions for its workers.