Union Forges Pact With ‘Wired’ Crew

After a long night of picketing that led to skirmishes between union and non-union workers, the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees and Moving Picture Machine Operators succeeded in organizing workers at the independent production of the film “Wired.”

The agreement with F/M Entertainment, producer of “Wired,” is the fourth the alliance has forged this year with independent producers by picketing film locations. Picket lines, in some cases, have virtually ground production to a halt.

“We’re going to organize this town,” said Don Rohrbach, alliance international vice president. “If we cannot organize in Hollywood, we’re doomed to extinction.”

With the rise of independent film makers, roughly three-quarters of the craft workers involved on movies nationwide are non-union. Producers also say that union workers frequently take low-wage, non-union jobs for the independents when high-wage work for unionized studios isn’t available.

The alliance’s increasingly visible efforts at organizing independent films comes as negotiations begin with producers over the union’s contract, which expires July 31.

Some critics of the alliance say the union’s pickets are designed to bolster its bargaining position with producers. But at the same time, these critics say, the alliance--intent on protecting jobs for current members--continues to make it difficult for film crews to join its working ranks.

“This is no big deal,” cameraman Forrest Landreth said of the “Wired” agreement. “Why are they trying to organize during production? Why don’t they just admit new members?”

Landreth, who has organized a new workers rights group in North Hollywood called the American Motion Picture Labor Cooperative, says the roster system used by the alliance effectively bars many workers from joining.

Under that system, crafts workers must be employed a certain number of days on a unionized film to qualify for an approved work roster.

But critics like Landreth claim this is a Catch-22: Often, they can’t get work on a unionized film unless they are on the working roster. Unionized work is prized not only because of better wages and benefits, but also because it provides workers a chance to be involved on big studio productions.

But the alliance’s Rohrbach contends that the roster system protects true professionals.

“A lot of people who are transient or not serious about working in the industry throw that (argument) up as a straw man because they can’t make it,” he said. The alliance’s organizing efforts at independent films under production gives workers on those projects a shot at joining the roster.

The 55 workers on “Wired” organized by the alliance Thursday night will have at least 30 production days on their record, thereby qualifying for the roster, Rohrbach says.

“They would love to have me pay for them to join the union,” said Edward S. Feldman, producer of “Wired,” as he stood watching the alliance picket line outside the Palace nightclub in Hollywood Thursday night. Feldman earlier estimated that using union workers would add 15% to 20% to the film’s $13.5-million budget.

The film already uses a director, writer and actors who belong to Hollywood guilds.

The picketing, which was joined by workers on “Wired,” halted Thursday night and threatened further delays as the cast and crew prepared to move on to a Northern California location next week.

The film, which chronicles the life and death of comedian John Belushi, is financed by a New Zealand company. It doesn’t yet have a distributor.

Other independent productions that were organized after an alliance picket this year were “Smart Guys,” a TV pilot produced by Imagine Entertainment; “Homer & Eddie,” a Whoopi Goldberg comedy produced by Duckey Productions, and “The Warlock,” a thriller produced by New World Pictures.