Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1488780
Local 700 stewards. The Guild's stewards comprise a network of grassroots leaders, with close ties to the members in their charge through workplace connections or professional networks. Stewards ensure that individual rank-and-f ile members know what's happening with the larger or- ganization and that the larger organization knows what's happening with rank-and-file members. When contract issues arise in the workplace, workplace stewards work with field representatives and with their co- workers to get those issues resolved. When the union has events or campaigns in which we need members participating, stewards get their coworkers involved. In short, they keep the union internally organized. The role of a steward isn't especially glamorous or glorious. Shop stewards don't get monuments erected in their honor, and their names will largely be lost to history textbooks. But, as the life-sized leaders closest to the members they marshal, they are key to building and maintaining the solidarity that can make our membership a formidable force. We will need to muster such a force for the fights ahead. L ast year, more than 50,000 IATSE members voted to invest Matt Loeb with the authority to shut down the motion picture and television industry. It was an astounding show of strength. And make no mistake, it was the membership that made that happen, from the bottom up. Even with such a display, the agreement our ne- gotiators achieved at the bargaining table — objectively the most progress the IATSE had made in a round of Basic Agreement ne- gotiations in decades — left a huge portion of the membership clamoring for still more. If we are to achieve those aims, we'll need to head into the 2024 talks with a membership fully engaged and prepared to take action. Such engagement and prepa- ration depend on not only wise leadership at the top, but also upon a strong network of member-organizers — Guild stewards — who can together wrangle thousands of individual members into a cohesive force capable of grinding the industry to a halt. The fact that ours is chiefly a union of freelancers has always made it tricky to build and maintain a solid network of shop stewards like those found in other unions representing more stable workforces. But we are working to identify workgroups where colleagues do have longer-term relationships with one another and with a common employer, because stewards can lead best when the members in their charge are also their coworkers. For those members who don't share an employer with a stable group for any length of time, we're supplementing our workgroup stewards with an infrastructure of at-large stewards whose connection to their charges is based not on shared employment but instead on a common professional or social network. It is this set of stewards, workplace stewards and at-large stewards alike, that will be the backbone of our union as we face the challenges ahead. Building this back- bone will take time; we won't recruit and cultivate a corps of rank-and-file leaders overnight. But ultimately we intend to be a stronger union for it. ■ If you' re interested in stepping into a leadership role and being part of your union's backbone, learn more about Guild stewardship on our website at www.edi- torsguild.com/Stewardship. Rob Callahan is the National Organizer for Local 700. Michael Mahern, co-chair of the negotiating committee for the Writers Guild of America, gestures during a news conference to announce an agreement with producers averting a strike, Friday, May 4, 2001, in Los Angeles. In the background, from left, is Paramount Pictures-Motion Picture Group Chairman and CEO, Sherry Lansing, Carol Lombardini, Sr. Vice President of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers and guild consultant, Bob Hadl. P H OT O : C O U R T E S Y A P We need to head into the 2024 talks with members fully engaged. 16 C I N E M O N T A G E G E T T I N G O R G A N I Z E D