Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/501792
16 CINEMONTAGE / SPRING 2015 CONTRACTUAL OBLIGATIONS pension and health hours were retroactively contributed. DAMAGES TO GUILD Sometimes there are violations of the union agreements where there are not any specific individuals affected, and, in those cases, we often seek damages paid to the Guild as a remedy. For example, on one very low-budget feature, a music editor was not hired to do the music editing. During parts of post, there was not an assistant picture editor employed, only a picture editor. Because we cannot point to any specific person who should have been hired, damages were sought. In addition, on the same project, some sound editorial work was incorrectly sub-contracted out, which violated the union contract. Again, no specific individual(s) was impacted by this. That production company paid damages of $13,500 to the union. On two other low-budget features, for some periods of time there was not an assistant editor employed. Damages of $13,290 was paid on one, and $19,500 on the other. On an independent feature, damages of $11,000 were collected because it did not have an assistant editor employed, instead assigning those duties to the editor. On a TV series that was under the Independent Agreement, the company failed to employ the appropriate number of assistant editors and ended up paying the Guild $22,000. In the Eastern region, over $120,500 was collected in retroactive wages on behalf of 30 members. In addition, $78,648 in retroactive pension and health benefits were contributed on their behalf. CONCLUSION If you were doing the math as you were reading this, that is over $713,938 in recouped monies for the Guild and its members in 2014. Sometimes members step forward and let us know about violations; sometimes we discover them ourselves. Some members are reluctant to speak up, while others feel empowered to do so. Occasionally, the violations are intentional and sometimes they are errors or oversights. However we arrive at a place where something needs to be corrected, the system works. If you don't avail yourself of the help we can offer, you are missing out on one of the most essential benefits afforded to you as a union member. f CONTINUED FROM PAGE 8 GET TING ORGANIZED Raising the floor on wages is obviously good for those in low- paying jobs, but it does not only benefit those employees whose pay starts in the basement. Even if you are already earning a living wage, your bargaining power is diminished by the fact that others with similar skill sets — or in the process of developing them — are working at very low rates. That's certainly true within a given industry, but also holds true across industry lines. Conversely, increasing wages for those at the low end of the job market's spectrum of pay can only improve the negotiating position of those already earning mid-range or higher wages. Moreover, Fight for 15 — by pushing for improved terms of employment outside of the conventional collective bargaining dynamic — affords opportunities to develop and test alternative means of exercising workers' power. It is unlikely that any union will be representing large numbers of McDonald's employees in traditional contract negotiations anytime soon. Indeed, many question whether the masses of workers at the heart of the movement will ever belong to organizations that resemble conventional labor unions. But it's also true that most conventional labor unions, in the midst of a decades-long decline in the clout of organized labor, have generally found it increasingly difficult to organize non-union private-sector employers and to accomplish significant gains at the negotiating table. As the usual dynamics of collective bargaining become less and less fruitful, we need to learn alternative pathways to power, pathways that may emerge from campaigns forced to forge their ways outside of our current traditions of labor relations. Perhaps the most exciting thing about Fight for 15, though, is that it imagines the possibility of expanding the labor movement, rather than merely forestalling unions' loss of ground. If organized labor continues to direct the entirety of its energies towards defending increasingly besieged enclaves of solid, middle-class employment in the midst of a vast wasteland of McJobs, we will ultimately find ourselves on the losing side of a war of attrition. To win, we need to enlarge the fight beyond the seven percent of the private sector that is currently unionized, beyond even the portion of the workforce that could potentially be organized into existing unions anytime soon. We need to embrace a radical inclusivity if we are to expand our movement enough to make it relevant, vital and potentially victorious. Those who wish to roll back the gains we have won through decades of collective action depict union members as inhabiting islands of privilege. Such islands will prove indefensible unless we succeed in inviting many more allies to our shores. f Maximizing a Minimum Wage CONTINUED FROM PAGE 10 Why care about Fight for 15? Does the pay of a worker flipping burgers matter to an artist cutting movies? Yes, we should care. The Fight for 15 is our fight, too, regardless of the sums written on our paystubs.