Understanding the Sharknado Strike

[JesseKaplan]

Can anyone explain to me what Sharknado's production has done wrong. I'm out of the loop and would love to understand it.

 

- Jesse

[Richard Ragon]

Well.. start by paying your crew about 150/day, then working a 17 hour day with an 8 (or less) hour turn around.  Ends up working for less then McDonald's pay.  Then add in a fact that Sharknado 2 still owes people money.  They take full advantage of young, newbies in the business.

Then in the short time I was there, I witnessed numerous safety problems.

- There was a PA that kept jumping from a truck.  (keep doing that until your 45, and see how your knees hold up).
- The DP took the camera to the top of a 14 foot ladder, no safety I could see.
- Several actors on top of roofs, no supports, and no safety.
- The art department had some kind of flame thrower tanks, and the property manager was looking at this 2 feet away, while smoking.
- No medics on set, and no fire.

I'm sure the violations go on and on.  These Asylum people are the worst, with a name that perceeds them.  The ongoing joke on other sets is always.. "well, it least were not working for Asylum!!"  If you hear about a death on their set, it would be sad, and it wouldn't surprise me.

[RPSharman]

Sadly, a union contract would solve very few of those issues. Pay would remain the same, with additional funds going into IATSE for benefits most of the new members will never see. Long hours will persist. Short turnarounds will persist. Minimum wage pay will persist, only this time with the blessing of the IATSE and its "Tier 0" contract.

People should just walk away from poor and unsafe conditions. The "protection" of the IATSE is simply bullshit.

[Laurence]

As a result of those concerns, the crew held a secret ballot in accordance with the rules laid out in the NLRB (National Labor Relations Board) which grants employees the right to designate a person or persons to represent them in discussions with the employer about their workplace concerns.  The outcome was 36 to 1 to appoint the IA as their representative but when informed of that, the producer simply refused to sit down and talk with them.  The response from the crew was that 90% of them walked off the set and formed a picket line.

[johnpaul215]

I don't know the specifics of this case, because the news stories have been inconsistent, but I can take a few guesses.

As someone that isn't union and has worked on low-budget films, and many of my friends have and still do, I can tell you that there are some producers out there that will lie. They will get you to sign up for a flat day rate and give you the "we don't think will even hit 12 hours most days." "We don't have the budget for overtime, but we will never go over so don't worry." Next thing you know you are doing 18 hour days with 6 hours of turn around and not getting any kind of overtime for it. Do that for 6 day weeks, and PAs that always have longer days, and people get hurt.

I have personally been in that situation when I first started out, but we sat down with production and worked out an overtime & turnaround deal. Retroactive even. Either I was working for more reasonable people, or maybe they knew that it was impossible to get a replacement crew in my town overnight. Let's be real, in a city like Los Angeles, I'm sure they at least think it's a lot easier to find some hungry young green people that will jump at the opportunity to get their foot in the door. I know I have worked on films where production has at least sort of investigated the possibility of replacing a whole department. It was always newbie producers or director and unrealistic expectations, so they never followed through, but I know they started to make the calls because that stuff gets around.

[Jim Gilchrist]

Like Laurence says above, your right to negotiate and organize is guaranteed by law. This right is one reason to decline independent contractor status, which in spite of all the independent contractor agreements used in our business doesn't apply to you if you're given a time and place and a person to report to for work.

employeerightsposter11x17_final.pdf

Best regards,

Jim

[RPSharman]

Department of labor will help in terms of OT, meal breaks and turnaround. A flat rate is illegal, and any 12 hour agreement is your daily rate divided by 14 (8 hours straight time and 4 hours 1.5 time).

Threatened with unionization, labor law compliance will be cheaper for production, and will at least serve to improve conditions, which a union contract can override.

[johnpaul215]

Department of labor will help in terms of OT, meal breaks and turnaround. A flat rate is illegal, and any 12 hour agreement is your daily rate divided by 14 (8 hours straight time and 4 hours 1.5 time).

Threatened with unionization, labor law compliance will be cheaper for production, and will at least serve to improve conditions, which a union contract can override.

 

I'm 99% sure there's a loophole for that. I once asked a producer how these below minimum wage rates happen and he explained, at least his understanding, of how they get around the law. I don't recall the specifics. I'll have to ask him again. Our conversation started with a "how can an indie film legally pay a production assistant $75/day flat?" Maybe after the Black Swan intern lawsuit. 

In the US there are a lot of state-by-state labor laws. California is probably one of the better ones in the protection of workers, especially in non-traditional jobs (like film sets).