As many people know here, I am a stage hand, it's what I do for a living, and I enjoy it. Recently The Press of Atlantic City did an article on the Atlantic City Convention Center Boardway Hall and really skewed the costs to make the Unions look like they are at fault for the lack of concerts at that grand old venue.
Press Of Atlantic City
I am not sure where they got their numbers from.. but when working at Boardwalk Hall, I only make 26/hr, not 37. I can only imagine that the IBEW folks do not see 98/hr either
I also find their choices of people to interview suspect as well. Tony Rodio and Don Marrandino where two of the biggest drives to get the Stage hands in local 917 to take a 10/hr CUT in pay last year. They did this by promising more shows.. which if nothing else, there were LESS shows in Atlantic City this year than their were last year.
Once again, Management passes the buck down to the worker and blames them for all the problems.
Having had kids in the movies, TV & on Broadway I can say working in a Union setting sure changes the money flow and dynamics. The difference between union & non union shoots/plays/music is unbelievable.
At Radio City Music Hall they have to pay a man to sit in the dressing room to watch the actors dress. In this particular case he was paid to watch the Rockettes dress. In our case he was paid to watch the kids dress and scream at the parents not to help them as we were taking jobs away from union members.
I've seen people tripping over cords on the floors and not being able to move them until the proper person comes off his mandated break that is holding up the whole production. You weren't even allowed to smooth down the mat that you accidentally flipped the edge up with the toe of your shoe.
So it might not just be they misstated your pay, but possibly the number of extra employees required or the limited amount of work they can do.
My daughter is now a TV, movie, anime producer and I've seen the budget differentials. It's easily 3 times more expensive to shoot union.
There was a blog I read not too long ago (and can't find now) that compared old-school news (like the Walter Kronkite years) to modern news. The statistics were something like 98% of the news is now spoon-fed from UPI or AP directly to the news. No one does their own research anymore. Compare that to back in the day. Kronkite didn't have the internet. He got an AP wire about progress on the war in Vietnam, so he flew to Vietnam, put on a flak jacket, and investigated it. These days that's rare.
That doesn't describe your local press, but it does set a precedent for them to follow. I had a similar situation in Texas. I took my Pit Bull to a Pit Pride Parade. I was interviewed with my sweet Pitty. When the story hit the broadcast, they showed 10 seconds of Pit Parade and then launched into a diatribe about how Pit Bulls are satan's dogs and kill everything.
Don't get me wrong Mad Machine I have respect for the workers (well, at least those that do), I have zero respect for the unions and their rules.
carguy123 wrote:
Having had kids in the movies, TV & on Broadway I can say working in a Union setting sure changes the money flow and dynamics. The difference between union & non union shoots/plays/music is unbelievable.
At Radio City Music Hall they have to pay a man to sit in the dressing room to watch the actors dress. In this particular case he was paid to watch the Rockettes dress. In our case he was paid to watch the kids dress and scream at the parents not to help them as we were taking jobs away from union members.
I've seen people tripping over cords on the floors and not being able to move them until the proper person comes off his mandated break that is holding up the whole production. You weren't even allowed to smooth down the mat that you accidentally flipped the edge up with the toe of your shoe.
So it might not just be they misstated your pay, but possibly the number of extra employees required or the limited amount of work they can do.
My daughter is now a TV, movie, anime producer and I've seen the budget differentials. It's easily 3 times more expensive to shoot union.
we don't have those extra people in AC. Which is what upsets me that they can claim that producing on Broadway is cheaper.
As for the labour costs of Boardwalk Hall.. it is an old building. Built in 1929. It does not even have an easily accessable loading dock for loading shows in and out. We have to do it all from ground level with ramps and forklifts.. and some shows, like Madonna's.. can run EIGHTY trucks!
This reminds me when we first went to Austraila to run a test with our then product, and what should have been a simple 10 minute installation took most of the day. The reason was simple, their version of the union. Our people couldn't simply hook it up, it took multiple people to do the project, and all of them couldn't be there at the same time. One person had to mount the magnetics (which meant just setting it on the machine as they were installed here), another had to plug in the wire, another had to run the wire (drop it on the machine), and another had to plug it into the lighter.
Testing the next day was even more problematic....
As someone that used to work in television, I maintain that local people do all the original legwork, and then networks simple rework it to suit their angle. When it's network, it's no longer news, but an agenda to promote.
mad_machine wrote: I am not sure where they got their numbers from.. but when working at Boardwalk Hall, I only make 26/hr, not 37. I can only imagine that the IBEW folks do not see 98/hr either
Were they saying these are the hourly salaries, or total compensation including benefits? It seems like this happens often in news reporting (particularly with UAW members working in the auto industry.)
Well you know the old saying, "You know how wrong the media is about anything you're an expert on or have first-hand knowledge of? They're that wrong about everything."
