somerville theater projectionists?

[rmd.livejournal.com]

What's the current situation between the Somerville Theater management and the projectionists? The latest Mass. AFL-CIO newsletter is from several weeks ago and describes the projectionists as "striking". This past Friday, I thought they were claiming to be locked out. I don't see anything about it in the somerville journal online, either.

Anyone know what the deal is?

Comments

[frederic.livejournal.com]

Does it really count as a strike if all but one of the protesters don't work there? I'd pretty much call that a protest. (My numbers reflect what I heard about the first round of protests a month ago or so).

[clauclauclaudia]

Well, the union claim is that something like seven? definitely a majority, of the projectionists from before May 1 were part of the strike. I don't know one way or the other myself.

Looks like they chose to strike right before the Boston Independent Film Festival, which IIRC was at 3 theaters including Somerville Theater. A nice attempted pressure tactic by the strikers, but on the other hand if I were the theater owner I'd have trained replacements, too, to make sure the festival went off smoothly! (Not being one to think of picket lines as automatically sacred.)

[frederic.livejournal.com]

I found their website (http://nefac.northernhacking.org/feature/display/389/index.php) about their reasons. I do know that the strikes were widely advertised on the anarchist and activist websites and newsletters. Many of the protesters I've seen before at several other protests and hence my doubts of how many of them actually work at the theater.

In my opinion, if they want better working conditions (like not working in a hot dungeon), they should go work for a modern Sony/Lowe's first run theater that was made after the advent of air conditioning and has no problem charging nearly double per ticket. Part of me sees the Somerville Theater as a historical landmark showing what theaters were like at the turn of the century. Second run movie theaters are unfortunatly becoming a thing of the past and the more they're forced to raise ticket prices, the less likely they are to survive.

[hyperliminal.livejournal.com]

The theater owner can more than afford it. The Somerville is absolutely not in danger of going out of business for paying a living wage.

[clauclauclaudia]

Sources?

You may be right. On the other hand, I've never been to a movie showing there that was more than a quarter full. I probably go at freakish times or something.

[frederic.livejournal.com]

This is what I'm thinking. I've seen plenty of movies with 3 or 4 other people in the theater. And I'm not talking about matinees. Any higher in prices and either people will prefer to go to the megaplexes for first run movies or will buy the DVD that's already out by the time it hits second run (keep in mind that 2x$6 tickets is almost what a DVD costs new).

Also, these theaters just went through a large renovation (all new seats) which was rather costly I'm guessing and also pay a lot for rent as Davis Square realty prices are sky rocketing.

How much are the projectionists paid now? How much are union projectionists paid? How much are union dues and would all the projectionists be willing to shell out the $600 or $800 per year to join the union (they're not free ya know)?

[hyperliminal.livejournal.com]

The theater does NOT pay rent. The theater OWNS the building it is in, and RECEIVES rent from other businessess there, such as the Someday Cafe, and offices in the upper floors.

I do not have details on the union vs nonunion pay. I am just chiming in with what I know regarding the theater.

[hyperliminal.livejournal.com]

Also, most union dues are actually not that high. I again don't know any specifics or details, but several professional folks I know who are union members pay around $400/year. The one time I personally have been a union member, our dues were ten cents an hour, which, even if one is working at a full 40 hours per week, comes out to just over $200 a year.

[hyperliminal.livejournal.com]

Source = someone whose job might be endangered. I'm sorry, I know that sounds like a lame cop-out, but it's not worth putting someone else's job at risk to make a point. Especially when given that overall, despite my support for the unionization cause, I don't think this was a particularly well-managed strike, or publicity campaign, and I don't have high hopes of it succeeding.

[frederic.livejournal.com]

This site (http://www.infoshop.org/inews/stories.php?story=03/05/25/9487203) claims that 4 of the 7 projectionists are part of the strike. It also claims that the theater has never been cited with health or safety code violations (which is one of the strikers' claims).

here's what they told me

[jadelennox]

I don't know enough about unions to know if it's legal to fire people who have started the unionizing process, and I do think that they should have contacted osha before the strike, but I don't know details.


1) Why have you been unable to unionize? What has prevented you?

A majority of projectionists have signed cards with the union stating that we are willing to join the union without an NLRB election. Mel, however, has decided he wants to 60 day window of opportunity to fire pro-union workers and hire anti-union ones. Rather than wait for the inevitable to happen (Mel has a long anti-union track record, and Ian told pro-union workers "it was nice working with you" as soon as they announced their intentions to unionize) we decided to strike to force Mel Fraiman to voluntarily recognize our union, without waiting for an NLRB election. This is an accepted labor practice, and by law we have 30 days to legally strike for union recognition.

2) Is the projectionist's room (forgive my lack of terminology) OSHA
compliant? Have you called OSHA in to look at the room? If so, what
did they say? If not, why not?

OSHA has been called. We had a 20 minute phone conversation with them earlier this week, during which the OSHA worker expressed that he was "deeply concerned" about the conditions we described. We were told by OSHA that they have faxed the theater with a preliminary list of corrections that need to be made, and the theater will have 5 days to comply, at which time a representative from OSHA will come and inspect the building.

3) The theater is owned by the same people who own the Arlington
Capitol, correct? Are the conditions at the Capitol equally bad? Have
you communicated with the projectionists there?

They do indeed own the Capitol Theater as well. None of us have worked, or even visited, the Capitol, and so we cannot speak for them. We have contacted one projectionist there, but, unfortunately, due to the nature of projection work (only one person works at a time) we have been unable to develop any meaningful dialogue with them.