#ialivingwage

If you have been hearing about the IATSE negotiations and want to show some support, here is a great and easy way to do it! IATSE will be heading back into their final round of negotiations soon, and in addition to a strike authorization from their members, a clear show of support from the public will also help their standing in making their demands.

This negotiation is about a livable wage for all crew members, enforcing safe and healthy working hours on set, and eliminating the special provisions that were put in place for streaming services when they were still developing (something that is no longer necessary as streaming has in many ways eclipsed traditional broadcast tv).

The working hours thing is extremely important -- we're not talking 9-5 here. We are talking ending the practice of planned 12-hour days that end up being 15 that end up being 18. I've done 18 hour days on set before (at hour 15 they have to order you "second dinner" which they didn't budget for, so it's always just pizza! Great!), and then had to drive home, and it's scary! I've also been on set Friday overnight until noon on Saturday (this is commonly called a "Fraturday" -- so cool that it happens so often that there is just a commonly accepted slang term for it that everyone who has ever worked on a set before knows), then had to go home and try to get my sleep schedule under control so I could be back to work at 6am on Monday. We're not doctors. We're not saving lives. There's no reason that hours like this have to be the norm except that our union contracts don't say they can't. It's greedy, it's poor planning, it's unsafe, it makes it difficult for crew members to have meaningful lives outside of work, and IATSE is fighting to make sure that can't happen anymore.

Signing this petition is both a great way to show that you support these things for the people who make the movies and TV you love -- from the costumers to the hair and makeup artists to the set designers to the editors to the cinematographers to the office assistants and all of the hundreds of other people whose creativity, passion, and skill influences the stories you love in infinite ways -- and well as hopefully even averting the need for a strike at all, if the AMPTP realizes that they are fighting a losing battle.

Please sign and reblog this petition to help send a message that film crews deserve to be paid fairly for their work and have their time respected.