What is RealityEditors.com?

This is the place for reality editors and assistant editors to discuss unionizing with the Motion Picture Editors Guild and the IATSE, and to get information about the process of union organizing and the benefits of having a union contract. We hope it will help us build a broad community in reality television, and help create strategies so that people working in reality television can get more than just a paycheck for their work.

What is the Motion Picture Editors Guild?

The Motion Picture Editors Guild (often shortened to MPEG) is a local within the IATSE. We are often referred to by our local number, 700. We represent about 6,000 post-production professionals and have jurisdiction throughout the United States. Our members include picture, sound, and music editors and assistant editors; re-recording mixers and recordists; engineers; telecine and digital intermediate colorists and their assistants; technical directors; and story analysts.

For more information, please see our website at: www.editorsguild.com

What is the IATSE?

The International Alliance of Stage Theatrical Employees (IATSE) is an international union representing people working in legitimate theater, motion picture, convention center and live entertainment industries. The IATSE has been around more than 100 years and represents about 120,000 people in the United States and Canada.

For more information, please see the IASTE website at: www.iatse-intl.org

What is organizing really about?

Aside from the legal and technical concerns, organizing a show is fundamentally about the crew consolidating and exercising the power it has as the group that makes the production possible -- and then turning that power into a union contract that protects wages and working conditions and provides health and retirement benefits.

Winning a strong contract isn't just a matter of signing authorization cards and then relying on union staff to wrangle concessions from the employer all by themselves. Winning a strong contract requires that you and your colleagues are ready to stand up and stand together to demand what you deserve.

How do reality shows organize?

Reality shows organize when a sufficient majority of the crew forms a consensus around the idea that getting a union contract covering wages and benefits is worth fighting for.

This happens when crew members talk to each other and inform one another about the benefits of union employment. Those that have had the experience of working union can explain what it was like. Organizing staff from the union can talk to crew members, too, but the most effective spokespersons for the union really are members who have already reaped the benefits.

Can we organize just post-production?

Each situation is different. On some shows, where the production is over, or it was shot out of the country, we can and sometimes do just organize post-production. When production is still going on, we try to include them because adding the production crew to the mix gives increased leverage when it comes to getting a contract. In a nutshell, there are strategic reasons to organize just post, and strategic reasons to make sure to include production – each situation is different and must be evaluated as such.

If the crew wants to unionize, what happens next?

Once a significant majority of the crew is behind the idea of unionizing, we ask them to sign Authorization Cards. The cards give legal permission to the union to bargain on behalf of the crew with the producer. Once the union has collected the signed cards, we notify the producer that we represent the majority of the crew and wish to negotiate a union contract.

The producer has several options at this point. It can agree to negotiate, which is the ideal situation. It could agree to negotiate, provided the majority status is verified. In this situation, the union submits the cards to a third-party neutral (such as a recognized arbitrator) who will verify the signatures on the cards and whether they do represent a majority. The arbitrator is ALWAYS instructed NOT to reveal the identity of the cards signed, only to determine whether a majority signed.

The employer can also refuse to negotiate. In those instances, we have a few options. One is to pressure the employer, by striking or some public protest, to sit down and negotiate.

Another is to bring the cards to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). The NLRB is run by the Federal government, and they can order a secret ballot election to be held for the purpose of determining whether the union represents a majority. If the union wins that election, the producer -- by law -- must negotiate in good faith.

We try to avoid the NLRB process whenever possible. It typically takes at least two months to get an election held and by then, many shows are already ending their season or cycle. And the process also affords employers several ways to delay coming to an agreement by legal shenanigans.

How does a contract get negotiated?

Once the union has established that it represents the majority, negotiations begin. Generally, we prefer that a committee from the show participate directly in bargaining alongside union staff. This allows the committee to see the process and have a hand in what is negotiated. It also shows the employer that the crew is resolved to get a contract, and that whatever the producers say at the table will be reported back to the rest of the employees.

Doesn’t the show have to accept the standard union deal?

No, there is no obligation for a producer to agree to the same wages and conditions as the major studios. But those terms are the goal, and we try to build up enough leverage to get them.

Doesn’t having signed cards mean that the crew is ready and willing to strike?

Not always. In any organizing campaign, employers can and do try to win the hearts and minds of the crew, and attempt to disillusion them about the prospects of getting a union contract. Support sometimes fades between the time that people sign cards and the time that the actual negotiations occur.

What’s in a typical contract?

Each contract is a unique agreement between the employer and the union, but the negotiations to reach that agreement are based upon the standards set in IATSE's basic, industry-wide contracts with Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. A contract will specify minimum wage scales, hours, duties and classifications, working conditions, and health and pension benefits for a given employer's editorial staff. Because each contract is the result of specific negotiations, the terms of those contracts vary; the more leverage editorial staff can wield in negotiations, the better the resulting contract.

Here is a broad overview of what you can expect in a union contract:

• Minimum wage scales. Pay rates will vary from employer to employer, and are set by the contract between the union and the specific employer. A union contract specifies minimum rates of pay; many employees working under a union contract will earn more than the contract's specified scale. Newly negotiated contracts generally contain a clause specifying that no individual who earns above the negotiated minimum will have his or her rate of pay reduced.

• Hours. A union contract will specify the length of employees' workdays and workweeks, daily and weekly guarantees, night premiums, overtime rates, and holiday and vacation pay. The guiding principle in contract negotiations is to create humane work schedules that will allow editorial staff to hold on to personal time for their families and themselves, and also to create structures that compensate editors and assistants fairly when hours run long.

• Working conditions. Union contracts specify a wide range of working conditions that help safeguard employees' safety, health, and the overall quality of their working environment. Working conditions address issues from meals to rest periods between shifts, from workplaces free of discrimination and harassment to the scheduling of pay days.

• Benefits. Union contracts in Los Angeles generally require the employer to make hourly contributions on an employee's behalf to the Motion Picture Industry Pension and Health Plans (MPIPHP), which provides portable benefits.

  Eligibility for participation in the health plan is based upon work hours: members qualify after they have received 600 hours in a six-month period and remain covered so long as they receive 300 hours in subsequent six month periods. The health benefits are widely recognized as some of the best in the country and allow participants to receive care from a wide range of providers.

  The pension plan consists of a traditional, defined benefit pension, providing retired members with monthly checks for life, based upon the number of years and hours employers have paid into the plan. Many contracts also provide members with an individual account plan in addition to the defined benefit plan. Individual account plans create employer-funded investment accounts, similar to 401Ks, which are disbursed after retirement.