DISQUS

Film School Rejects: WGA Strike: Relive the IATSE-WGA Smack-Down

  • Jerry Monaco · 1 year ago
    No, why should this change my mind? I am not a WGA member and nor am I in the entertainment industry. I am pro-Union and I recognize the actions of a union leader who aligns himself on the side of the company, over and over again.

    President Short tried to stab his own strikers in the back when the IATSE local here in New York went on strike recently. Pres. Short never met a strike that he would take no matter how much the bosses stuffs down his throat as far as give-backs are concerned.

    What IATSE needs is a progressive democratizing movement to throw out mis-leaders like Short. Short would prefer to have a company union than a union that actually fights for what is best for his workers.

    It is good also to realize the history of IATSE in Hollywood. During the '30s and '40s, IATSE in Hollywood was controlled by mobsters and by the studios. Willie Bioff and George Brown, the leaders of IATSE at the time, both went to jail for taking money from Jack Warner and other studio bosses, so that they wouldn't fight for their membership. When the Congress of Studio Unions (painters, carpenters, & set designers) went on strike in 1946 the studios paid IATSE to break the picket lines of the CSU, and they did so with mobster goons and clubs and bats.

    The above is an old story, but it shouldn't be forgotten. IATSE rank and file have to fight for a better, more progressive union, that will actually know how to support strikes in the future.
  • vyvial · 1 year ago
    WGA has never supported a IATSE strike
  • Justin · 1 year ago
    No. I saw the letter at the time, and thought the same thing I think now. Does Tom Short understand which side of the Union line he's on? Reading this letter was the first time I've ever been ashamed to have been a part of the IATSE. I hope to God that the next time the IA has to go on strike, they don't receive the same treatment from their brother unions that Martin Short has been doling out against the WGA.

    Shame on Tom Short, and shame on the IATSE, for forgetting the meaning of Solidarity.