My Unionization Effort

[AshleyAshes]

So I mentioned this some four months ago and some were interested in hearing how it'd go.  So I thought I'd just tell the tale here.

My workplace mainly does stereo conversion which isn't the most highly skilled of skilled trades in the film industry since the focus is pretty narrow,  It's mostly about having sufficient problem solving skills and brute forcing problems with sheer man hours.  First, no one is trained in this, so this is one employer that actually does training and readily hires people fresh out of college.  This is about the only good thing I'd argue, as those first jobs and fleshing out one's resume with anything after post-secondary is critical.  Second, the employer picks from a generally wide range of educational backgrounds.  Fine artists, CG artists, game devs students, film students and even some people from totally rando fields who did well on stereo assessments.

So the problems;

First, for most, the wages are fairly low for the film industry with one core department seeing starting wages around 16/hr and another at $18/hr with raises somewhat slowing down over the last couple of years as new management rolled in.  While this may seem like a fairly good wage to many, you need about $20 for a living wage in Toronto, one of the most expensive cities to live in (No lies, in other parts of the country you could readily mortgage a three bedroom home on that wage but not in Toronto) and these are people who worked hard through college to operate in a booming creative industry and being stuck trying to make one thing look like two slightly different things for the left and right eye.

Secondly, there's a LOT of OT and in Ontario, Canada, the film industry is exempt from typical 'maximum hours' per week laws.  In short you could legally be let go for not working 84hrs a week should the employer so demand.  This is actually a mixed bag, because one could brute force a living wage through overtime so one has to weigh 'personal time' vs 'money'.

Thirdly, the new management has a new idea on how to minimize OT wants to implement two separate shifts instead of one.  One from 7am-3:30pm and another from 4pm-12:30pm.  There would be no additional compensation if forced onto a shift that doesn't fit their needs.  Keeping in mind that Toronto see's some long commute times for those who move farther out into the Greater Toronto Area towards more affordable housing.  The night shift is particularly a problem for this.  There's also safety concerns for leaving at 12:30am.  Two shifts also meant the loss of OT opportunities which meant reduced income for many.  This is when people really started to get upset.  

So this is when I and others who were concerned contacted one of the major unions in the film industry.  We thought there was enough anger and concern to drive this forward.  We had a large union to support is and the backing of it's lawyers and near bottomless legal resources and proceeded.  I mostly took 'point' in contact for many to reduce potential risks to other employees involved in the organization effort because I'm either brave or stupid.  We figured our greatest obstetrical would be apathy.  Those who'd be most effected by this are in the same age demographic that see's the least voter turnout and would be unmotivated.  'Hey, I got a job better than the $11.45 that's minimum wage, so whatever.' right?  Wrong.  What instead happened was a massive breakout of panic and fear.  The facility layout is mostly just rows and rows of computer desks.  Mix that proximity with the age group and the place basically runs, socially, like high school.  It was a 'sky is falling' thing.  Many were convinced they could be fired for even talking about it.  Many feared that a union would immediately result in the company shuttering and move to India. (If you think that your employer will run to India if you even blink wrong, you should probably be looking for another job immediately so that you're the first rat off that sinking ship, BTW).  The FUD spread like wild fire.  I heard of one employees who championed the idea of me getting fired even.  ...That person was incidentally, part of a group who had their hours cut to about 3-5hrs a day this summer and had to quit because they couldn't afford the low wages, BTW.  Meanwhile, I'm still there making a wage above what is 'average' in Canada.

What did the employer do to stop it?  Basically, nothing.  When they caught word they sent out one very carefully worded email and made not a single violation of the law.  They did not make any threats.  They did not fire anyone.  They did not claim that a union would cost jobs (Yes, it's illegal to say that).  They didn't have to.  Because the young adults, mostly fresh out of college, who worked hard in school and are trying to build experience while trying to find a way to live in the most expensive city in the country without needing 2-3 roommates or to live with their parents just to afford to live here, did all the work for the employer.  They had a raw deal and the majority saw to it to ensure that they continued to have a raw deal.  If the majority decided, even if out of irrational panic and fear, that 'everything was fine' even while muttering under their breath how not fine everything was, who am I to continue to challenge that?

What append to us most actively involved?  Most of us quit for better jobs.  If you're smart enough to want to start a fight at your workplace to make things better for yourself, you're also smart enough to know when to jump ship and find something better elsewhere.  As for me?  I got like a 25% raise just before the employer caught on.  I got fast tracked into the better paying, much more creative, much better looking on my resume VFX department and I even have another employer actively trying to poach me.  I'm $1300 away from being debt free (Fuck, YEAH) and my resume is filling with years of valuable experience.  If the employer had retaliated against me, they would have had to deal with an army of lawyers and lobbyist descending on the company and the government, so I'm safe.  I am however looking for a new place to work since I'm obviously pretty unsatisfied with management as a whole and knowing that some other companies are eyeing me right now, it makes sense to look at those opportunities.  And honestly... A lot of those kids I work with?  I can't look them in the eyes anymore, it makes me feel kinda sick.

Who's killing good jobs for millennials?  The millennials themselves.

[WileyWarWeasel]

1 hour ago, AshleyAshes said:

and these are people who worked hard through college to operate in a booming creative industry

Doesn't sound like a booming industry if it doesn't pay much.

1 hour ago, AshleyAshes said:

This is actually a mixed bag, because one could brute force a living wage through overtime so one has to weigh 'personal time' vs 'money'.

Sounds like indentured servitude to me. Might as well just put the employees in pens when they're not in use, that will save a lot of money on housing.

1 hour ago, AshleyAshes said:

(If you think that your employer will run to India if you even blink wrong, you should probably be looking for another job immediately so that you're the first rat off that sinking ship, BTW).

Good idea, trust ratties to be the smart ones ;333

1 hour ago, AshleyAshes said:

Who's killing good jobs for millennials?  The millennials themselves.

Sounds like there's a lot of fear going around, some justified and some unjustified.

[AshleyAshes]

5 hours ago, WileyWarWeasel said:

Doesn't sound like a booming industry if it doesn't pay much.

When I say 'The Industry' I mean the film industry as a whole.  I trained in school for VFX, I did it before I worked at this company, it gave me a leg up in doing stereo conversion at this company, it let me move to the much better paying VFX dept at this company, and it's what has me being looked at by other employees.  However stereo conversion itself is only done by a few companies and as I said, is somewhat lower skill for a lot of the work outside of those very experienced people who get the most batshit crazy complicated shots.

That said, through this summer for a lot of reasons, the company has been experiencing lot of brain drain as those who are more experienced and more 'active' in improving their situations are moving elsewhere.  They're being replaced with massive hires of kids who graduated just this past spring.  Meanwhile, a tonne of work has been flowing in for those stereo departments and there's a shortage of skilled people both to do the work and to train new people to do the work.

[WileyWarWeasel]

7 hours ago, AshleyAshes said:

When I say 'The Industry' I mean the film industry as a whole.  I trained in school for VFX, I did it before I worked at this company, it gave me a leg up in doing stereo conversion at this company, it let me move to the much better paying VFX dept at this company, and it's what has me being looked at by other employees.  However stereo conversion itself is only done by a few companies and as I said, is somewhat lower skill for a lot of the work outside of those very experienced people who get the most batshit crazy complicated shots.

That said, through this summer for a lot of reasons, the company has been experiencing lot of brain drain as those who are more experienced and more 'active' in improving their situations are moving elsewhere.  They're being replaced with massive hires of kids who graduated just this past spring.  Meanwhile, a tonne of work has been flowing in for those stereo departments and there's a shortage of skilled people both to do the work and to train new people to do the work.

I wonder where these people are going.

Since there's a shortage of people there's not going to be a better time to get better conditions for yourself and others