IATSE is the union that covers nearly all of the ‘below the line’ workers in the film and TV industry, from Editors Make-Up artists to carpenters the Union’s force is absolutely essential to production. Without IATSE’s workers there are no productions. Everything stops. For the first time in its more than a century span ITASE may go on strike and we should support them.

They are currently battling for better pay and better working conditions. Here’s one example of those working conditions that are wearing down the workers.

It is not unusual for a production day to go 14 or more hours. There’s a rule, for safety, that a production must allow 12 hours between the end of a day and the start of the next workday. So, if you start on Monday at 7am and end at 9 pm, then Tuesday starts at 9am, Wednesday at 11, Thursday at 1pm and Friday at 3pm with your workday ending Saturday morning. You then get Sunday off and start it again on Monday.  Mind you this can be worse because 16 hours days are also not uncommon.

Writers, Directors, Actors, and Producers, who have spent perhaps years prepping a project see the production as something to ‘power’ through and then rest when the shoot is done. This is not the case for the production staff, they go from one pressure cooker to another, burning through their stress and bodies.

It is time, no it is far past time, for the studios and producers to treat the ‘below the line’ workers like people and not resources to be exhausted.