A Toronto production assistant whose income dried up because of Hollywood strikes lost his housing and ended up living in his car. A New York set dresser slipped out of sobriety amid the stress. A New Mexico assistant director fell into deep depression and took his life.

They were among the hundreds of thousands of U.S. and Canadian film and television crew workers who were unemployed for up to 10 months because of strikes called by actors and writers, leaving a trail of evictions and family disintegration.

Crew members rallied to help one another and charities pitched in during the writers strike that began May 2 and ended in late September, and the actors strike that started in July. The actors reached a tentative agreement on Wednesday.

“The actors and writers are getting a lot of publicity but the crews are the collateral damage of the strikes,” said Lori Rubinstein, executive director of mental health charity Behind the Scenes.

Crew members lost health insurance and broke into retirement funds. They saw relationships collapse and became isolated and depressed as, month after month, they went without pay and lost the rush of 70-hour work weeks creating shows that cost hundreds of millions of dollars, according to union leaders, counselors and over a dozen crew members Reuters interviewed.

  • Hildegarde@lemmy.world
    69·
    8 months ago

    Strikes are caused by management. If the studios bargained in good faith there would be no strike. The studios could have agreed to the workers demands during initial negotiations, but instead they chose to put people out by dragging their feet for 10 months.

    Every strike can be averted by bargaining in good faith, and making reasonable concessions in a timely fashion.

  • MMNT@lemmy.ml
    641·
    8 months ago

    They’re not collateral damage of the strikers, they’re collateral of the same executives that dragged their assets thinking they would win.

  • utopianfiat@lemmy.worldEnglish
    57·
    8 months ago

    The article was written by Andrew Hay, a Reuters journalist and a likely NewsGuild member. It’s a legitimate question as to why he chose to frame the issue as the fault of strikers and not their intransigent bosses.

    The quote is from Lori Rubenstein, executive director of a charity for film crew mental health support. It’s a legitimate question as to why she believes that the people her charity serves don’t have the unqualified right to seek better treatment at work by striking.

    • girlfreddyOP
      134·
      8 months ago

      The Directors Guild of America wasn’t on strike.

      Neither was the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees.

      • SheeEttin@lemmy.worldEnglish
        351·
        8 months ago

        Maybe they should have been, in solidarity. And use their strike funds to pay bills.

      • utopianfiat@lemmy.worldEnglish
        29·
        8 months ago

        And yet these unions aren’t going to blame strikers for the strike. Framing it as collateral damage from the strike as Reuters has chosen to do is explicit union busting.

        • girlfreddyOP
          49·
          8 months ago

          Because Joe Bufalino, a first assistant director who committed suicide, was in the Directors Guild of America.

          And the unhoused Toronto production assistant who was taken in by location manager are both in the International Alliance of Stage and Theatrical Employees.

            • girlfreddyOP
              12·
              8 months ago

              I never said it was.

              You said “they” needed a stronger union, and I took that as you referencing the crew members who were affected but not part of the SAG-AFTRA union.

  • 👍Maximum Derek👍@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
    24·
    8 months ago

    The crews often are. I don’t understand why they don’t have a union with reciprocal support agreements. I rememeber during the last strike the late night shows made agreements with the WGA so that they could bring their shows back if they performed no written material. That way the rest of the crews could get paid (and the actors weren’t on strike so there was stuff to promote). It was either Colbert or Conan that literally filled time by spinning their wedding ring on their desk, just because they could pay people to film it.