Production Sound & Video

Summer 2018

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11 FROM THE VICE PRESIDENT Editor's note: The following is a guest column written by Jillian Arnold, Vice President of Local 695, by invitation from President Mark Ulano CAS AMPS, in response to the television and film industry's cultural change on equal pay and leadership within the work environment. The first six months as the Vice President of Local 695 have been an unexpected journey of learning and discovery. They have been filled with daily challenges that have given me new perspective and insight into the unique crafts of our members. I have striven to become intimately acquainted with the needs of all the sectors of our Local—Sound, Video, and Projection. With the rise in cultural awareness of gender discrimination and sexual harassment in our industry, I have looked to other locals and other tech- based industries to gain inspiration and guidance in building a new foundation for members within our own Local. In June, I had the privilege to attend my first District 2 Convention—an annual event where the IATSE locals from Arizona, California, Hawaii, and Nevada come together to address the needs and well-being of their members on a localized scale. In both formal and informal conversations throughout the conference, the topic of gender roles in TV and cinema came up repeatedly, specifically about the work being done by Local 871 (Script Supervisors, Coordinators, and Accountants) and their "#ReelEquity" campaign. The campaign, which seeks to end gender pay bias within the film and television industries, conducted an in-depth study into compensation trends that found strong evidence of gender-based discrimination when it comes to pay in Hollywood. The topic of gender equality has long been institutionalized within their Local, as women predominantly fill their crafts. The analysis, which can be read in the article "Script Girls, Secretaries, and Stereotypes: Gender Pay Quality on Film and Television Crews," compares compensation rates of Local 871's female-dominated roles, such as Script Supervisors, Production Coordinators, and Art Department Coordinators, with more male-dominated jobs, such as the various Assistant Director positions and Key Location Manager jobs of other union jurisdictions, and draws three main conclusions: Conclusion 1: A long history of gender segregation and stereotyping—and a current culture of gender bias and sexual harassment in film and television production—affects the work opportunities available to members of these female-dominated crafts and how the industry values their contributions. Conclusion 2: These Local 871 crafts are paid hundreds or even thousands of dollars per week less than counterparts in comparable male-dominated crafts, even though California's Fair Pay Act generally requires equal pay for men and women performing substantially similar work and federal law bars gender discrimination in pay. Conclusion 3: The industry should undertake a thorough review of pay for male- and female- dominated crafts in light of its obligations under California and federal law and correct any inequities. Upon reading this report, I began to reflect upon gender roles within our own Local and the challenges women face in our technical fields. Local 695 currently has one thousand eight hundred and eighty- five active members, with women accounting for only one hundred and forty-eight (or 7.8 percent) of them. Though Local 695's minimum wage scale does not have its roots in gender discrimination or pay

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