La Bricoleuse (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
labricoleuse) wrote2008-05-04 10:27 am
labricoleuse) wrote2008-05-04 10:27 am
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Ask LaBricoleuse/Meta: Which side are you on? and other union questions
Again with the ongoing discussion in the last-lecture vein, today's topic is trade union membership in costuming careers.
One question that comes up over and over for costume professionals is, Should I join the union? As with everything, there is no across-the-board answer, but there's information to consider and weigh. It's been my experience that many, many people have little or no information about union options in general. Most people don't even know the name of their local union, how to contact them, or what it would entail to join.
Let's go over what union options there are for professional costumers. This post is going to apply to costumers in North America. I know there are equivalent unions in other nations, and if you are one of my readers overseas, i'd love to hear your take on unions in your own country in the comments!
What union applies to me?
The main union you should know about in terms of serving North American production specialists is IATSE. That acronym is short for the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employes, Moving Picture Technicians, Artists and Allied Crafts of the United States, Its Territories and Canada. IATSE is the umbrella union that covers most film and stage trades, from sound to carpenters to crews to wardrobe, even some that might surprise you like hair/makeup and box office ticketsellers in some cases. Not every person in the field is a member--depends on a lot of factors, the most applicable is whether your geographical area is predominantly unionized for your trade.
IATSE is divided up into regional unions, "locals," so the first step in learning more about the union is to track down the branch that's local to wherever you live. You can do that in the IATSE directory.
You need to find out which union in your area covers your field of expertise--many chapters only cover stagehands, some apply only to film and television, and some apply only to theatre and other live performance. Sometimes one region will have a whole bunch of branches broken down by craft--one union branch for stagehands and another for costumers, etc. Find the unions that include your area and check out their sites to see if they include Costume/Wardrobe--you'll want to look for coverage of job titles like Costumer, Key Costumer, Seamstress / Tailor, Set Costumer, Wardrobe Supervisor and the like. Page down the directory to the triple-digit numbers where the union's distribution is over a region (like New England as opposed to Boston), those are the ones that will probably include costumers.
If there's a huge job market (think LA & NYC), some chapters are uber-specific to costumers only. Here are some examples:
Local 705 - LA-area motion picture costumers only
Local 784 - theatrical, motion picture, and commercial costumers in the SF Bay Area
Local 892 - "Costume Designers Guild" for film costume designers
In addition to IATSE, another more rare union option is the institution-specific union. Sometimes large institutions will have their own union, which you may be asked to join if you work on staff for them.
An example is the Harvard Clerical and Technical Workers Union (HCTWU), of which i was a member when i was on staff at the American Repertory Theatre of Cambridge. The ART, a LORT theatre, operates in residence at Harvard University, which means that the staff of the theatre are technically employees of Harvard. (This is often the case with LORT theatres in residence at a university--the symbiotic nature of the residency often means the staff's salaries are paid by the university rather than the theatre itself.) As such, we were eligible for membership in the HCTWU. It wasn't as useful as a union specifically catering to my trade--they didn't really know how to classify us since they represented primarily administrative assistants, janitors, research lab technicians, and so forth. Still, it was nice to have access to their benefits and be part of their representation.
What does the union do for me?
IATSE membership gets you insurance (medical, dental, optical, short term disability usually), and an annuity plan. There are other perks like a membership newsletter and magazine, scholarships for your kids, etc. The union gets you a guaranteed pay scale with guaranteed overtime (usually after 40 hours), guaranteed day off after 6 days on, guaranteed 8+ hour turnaround between end of day and next-day call, per diems and housing when you shoot on location, etc. They negotiate and bargain on behalf of their members with studios and theatre companies, and when an employer signs a contract with the union, they hire only union members, or at least they prioritize union members for hiring and agree to buy into the union any non-union members they hire and employ for a given length of time.
The same goes for an institutional union--they guarantee you're paid within a given scale, negotiate with the parent institution on your behalf, etc. The HCTWU had a bunch of specific perks--help with childcare, funding of continuing education of its members, a special housing loan to apply for, subsidized public transportation passes, etc.
Unions cultivate a sense of fraternity among their members as well, sometimes in small ways like hosting social events and sometimes in larger ways like providing financial support for members who are rendered unable to work by health problems or family emergencies. They encourage a sort of familial clubbiness by referring to their members often as "brothers and sisters," and by creating swag like t-shirts and ball caps with union logos. In this way, they can sometimes play a role similar to that which church groups or social clubs do in the lives of their members, providing a community and support network to "plug into" in an otherwise large, anonymous metropolitan area.
What does the union expect from me?
First up, money. You will have to pay to join, several fees. Typically you'll have an a application fee, an initiation fee, quarterly dues, and assessment (that's a percentage, usually around 3 to 5%, of your gross wages). The application and initiation fees are one-time fees, whereas dues and assessments are ongoing throughout your membership.
The amounts for all these fees and dues and such will vary, depending on the chapter. Here are some sample amounts (current for the date i'm posting this):
Local 487 - VA, MD, DE, and DC film industry
Initiation fee: $1000 ($500 for VA residents working on a current VA production)
Application fee: $100
Dues: $51 per quarter
Assessment: 3.5% of gross wages on union jobs
Local 491 - Carolinas & coastal GA film industry
Initiation fee: $500
Application fee: $100 (see above)
Dues: $50 per quarter
Assessment: 3% of gross wages on union jobs
Local 492 - Tennessee and northern Mississippi film industry
Initiation fee: $409 (includes application fee and first quarter dues)
Application fee: $100 (see above)
Dues: $59 per quarter
Assessment: 3.5% of gross wages on union jobs
Local 493 - St Louis, MO film industry
Initiation fee: $350
Application fee: $100
Dues: $65 per quarter
Assessment: 5% of gross wages on union jobs
USA 829 - Designers
Initiation fee: up to $3500, depending on your status
Application fee: $300 (includes first quarter dues)
Dues: varies
Assessment: 2% of gross wages on union jobs
Institutional union costs will vary greatly. For the HCTWU, there was no initiation or application fee--if your hourly paycheck came from Harvard, you were in if you wanted. (Only hourly workers were union-eligible there; salaried workers like management and above were not part of the union.) Dues were a flat rate depending on whether you were part time or full time (full time dues were around $13/month in 2000, IIRC).
In addition to your dues and fees, the union will have another expectation of you, and that is your solidarity. As a union member, if your union decides to strike, you must participate in the strike. Strikes are drastic moves often born of the inability of employers and union heads to come to acceptable contract negotiations. If your union strikes, you don't go into work until it's resolved, and you may be asked to picket. In a worst case scenario, you and your fellow union members and leaders may even face off with the law. If you strike, your union leaders will keep you apprised of the terms of the strike, how you will be expected to handle any conflict, etc. The most recent IATSE strike that made it into the news was when Broadway stagehands of the IATSE Local One declared a strike against the League of American Theatres and shut down Broadway for nearly three weeks before an agreement was reached. Strikes are rare but you need to be prepared for them just in case, and if you don't think you can handle striking if need be (either financially or mentally/emotionally), take that into consideration when deciding whether to join a union.
In general, you'll want to research carefully which union serves your craft in your area, then contact their membership folks for more info on what they require. You may need sponsorship from an employer with whom they have a contract, or someone who is a member in good standing. Depending on how difficult it is to join the union in your area (meaning IATSE, not an institution-specific union) you may have to pass a test (exam) or be approved for membership. Designers will usually have to submit a portfolio as well. You will often need to document that you have worked for a set time (30 days is typical) in the area for which you are applying.
But do i join a union or not?
Of course there's no blanket answer to this, but i can give you a list of questions to ask yourself that will help you decide, or at least get you thinking about options. Nothing's carved in stone, either--you might not join the union where you are now, but you later might decide to relocate somewhere and join.
In addition to what i've put out here, scenographer and costuming professional Stephanie Schoelzel has a lot of interesting things to say about specifically the film and television costuming industry. Check out her pro-union essays on the following topics:
Union pay rates for costuming film
Costumers, Costume Designers, and the Union (film)
So you might want to be a film costumer?
I'd initially thought i would split the union post with information on taxes, but it got HUGE, so i'll write about that later. I think my next post though is going to be on permissions and publishing and copyright issues for costumers.
I guess i can confirm, too, that i'll be heading up to NYC for the summer, and on the way i've got something pretty exciting to blog about, which is the Zaida Ben-Yusuf photographic retrospective at the National Portrait Gallery in DC! If you recall, about a year ago i did some research into the life of Ms. Ben-Yusuf, spurred by the work she did publishing on the millinery trade. (Her mother, Anna, authored the still-in-print 1909 resource volume, Edwardian Millinery.) I'm very excited to see this exhibition of her photographic work, and i can't wait to blog about it. I'm hoping the museum catalogue will have some more information on her and her mother's contributions to the field of millinery journalism.
One question that comes up over and over for costume professionals is, Should I join the union? As with everything, there is no across-the-board answer, but there's information to consider and weigh. It's been my experience that many, many people have little or no information about union options in general. Most people don't even know the name of their local union, how to contact them, or what it would entail to join.
Let's go over what union options there are for professional costumers. This post is going to apply to costumers in North America. I know there are equivalent unions in other nations, and if you are one of my readers overseas, i'd love to hear your take on unions in your own country in the comments!
What union applies to me?
The main union you should know about in terms of serving North American production specialists is IATSE. That acronym is short for the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employes, Moving Picture Technicians, Artists and Allied Crafts of the United States, Its Territories and Canada. IATSE is the umbrella union that covers most film and stage trades, from sound to carpenters to crews to wardrobe, even some that might surprise you like hair/makeup and box office ticketsellers in some cases. Not every person in the field is a member--depends on a lot of factors, the most applicable is whether your geographical area is predominantly unionized for your trade.
IATSE is divided up into regional unions, "locals," so the first step in learning more about the union is to track down the branch that's local to wherever you live. You can do that in the IATSE directory.
You need to find out which union in your area covers your field of expertise--many chapters only cover stagehands, some apply only to film and television, and some apply only to theatre and other live performance. Sometimes one region will have a whole bunch of branches broken down by craft--one union branch for stagehands and another for costumers, etc. Find the unions that include your area and check out their sites to see if they include Costume/Wardrobe--you'll want to look for coverage of job titles like Costumer, Key Costumer, Seamstress / Tailor, Set Costumer, Wardrobe Supervisor and the like. Page down the directory to the triple-digit numbers where the union's distribution is over a region (like New England as opposed to Boston), those are the ones that will probably include costumers.
If there's a huge job market (think LA & NYC), some chapters are uber-specific to costumers only. Here are some examples:
Local 705 - LA-area motion picture costumers only
Local 784 - theatrical, motion picture, and commercial costumers in the SF Bay Area
Local 892 - "Costume Designers Guild" for film costume designers
In addition to IATSE, another more rare union option is the institution-specific union. Sometimes large institutions will have their own union, which you may be asked to join if you work on staff for them.
An example is the Harvard Clerical and Technical Workers Union (HCTWU), of which i was a member when i was on staff at the American Repertory Theatre of Cambridge. The ART, a LORT theatre, operates in residence at Harvard University, which means that the staff of the theatre are technically employees of Harvard. (This is often the case with LORT theatres in residence at a university--the symbiotic nature of the residency often means the staff's salaries are paid by the university rather than the theatre itself.) As such, we were eligible for membership in the HCTWU. It wasn't as useful as a union specifically catering to my trade--they didn't really know how to classify us since they represented primarily administrative assistants, janitors, research lab technicians, and so forth. Still, it was nice to have access to their benefits and be part of their representation.
What does the union do for me?
IATSE membership gets you insurance (medical, dental, optical, short term disability usually), and an annuity plan. There are other perks like a membership newsletter and magazine, scholarships for your kids, etc. The union gets you a guaranteed pay scale with guaranteed overtime (usually after 40 hours), guaranteed day off after 6 days on, guaranteed 8+ hour turnaround between end of day and next-day call, per diems and housing when you shoot on location, etc. They negotiate and bargain on behalf of their members with studios and theatre companies, and when an employer signs a contract with the union, they hire only union members, or at least they prioritize union members for hiring and agree to buy into the union any non-union members they hire and employ for a given length of time.
The same goes for an institutional union--they guarantee you're paid within a given scale, negotiate with the parent institution on your behalf, etc. The HCTWU had a bunch of specific perks--help with childcare, funding of continuing education of its members, a special housing loan to apply for, subsidized public transportation passes, etc.
Unions cultivate a sense of fraternity among their members as well, sometimes in small ways like hosting social events and sometimes in larger ways like providing financial support for members who are rendered unable to work by health problems or family emergencies. They encourage a sort of familial clubbiness by referring to their members often as "brothers and sisters," and by creating swag like t-shirts and ball caps with union logos. In this way, they can sometimes play a role similar to that which church groups or social clubs do in the lives of their members, providing a community and support network to "plug into" in an otherwise large, anonymous metropolitan area.
What does the union expect from me?
First up, money. You will have to pay to join, several fees. Typically you'll have an a application fee, an initiation fee, quarterly dues, and assessment (that's a percentage, usually around 3 to 5%, of your gross wages). The application and initiation fees are one-time fees, whereas dues and assessments are ongoing throughout your membership.
The amounts for all these fees and dues and such will vary, depending on the chapter. Here are some sample amounts (current for the date i'm posting this):
Local 487 - VA, MD, DE, and DC film industry
Initiation fee: $1000 ($500 for VA residents working on a current VA production)
Application fee: $100
Dues: $51 per quarter
Assessment: 3.5% of gross wages on union jobs
Local 491 - Carolinas & coastal GA film industry
Initiation fee: $500
Application fee: $100 (see above)
Dues: $50 per quarter
Assessment: 3% of gross wages on union jobs
Local 492 - Tennessee and northern Mississippi film industry
Initiation fee: $409 (includes application fee and first quarter dues)
Application fee: $100 (see above)
Dues: $59 per quarter
Assessment: 3.5% of gross wages on union jobs
Local 493 - St Louis, MO film industry
Initiation fee: $350
Application fee: $100
Dues: $65 per quarter
Assessment: 5% of gross wages on union jobs
USA 829 - Designers
Initiation fee: up to $3500, depending on your status
Application fee: $300 (includes first quarter dues)
Dues: varies
Assessment: 2% of gross wages on union jobs
Institutional union costs will vary greatly. For the HCTWU, there was no initiation or application fee--if your hourly paycheck came from Harvard, you were in if you wanted. (Only hourly workers were union-eligible there; salaried workers like management and above were not part of the union.) Dues were a flat rate depending on whether you were part time or full time (full time dues were around $13/month in 2000, IIRC).
In addition to your dues and fees, the union will have another expectation of you, and that is your solidarity. As a union member, if your union decides to strike, you must participate in the strike. Strikes are drastic moves often born of the inability of employers and union heads to come to acceptable contract negotiations. If your union strikes, you don't go into work until it's resolved, and you may be asked to picket. In a worst case scenario, you and your fellow union members and leaders may even face off with the law. If you strike, your union leaders will keep you apprised of the terms of the strike, how you will be expected to handle any conflict, etc. The most recent IATSE strike that made it into the news was when Broadway stagehands of the IATSE Local One declared a strike against the League of American Theatres and shut down Broadway for nearly three weeks before an agreement was reached. Strikes are rare but you need to be prepared for them just in case, and if you don't think you can handle striking if need be (either financially or mentally/emotionally), take that into consideration when deciding whether to join a union.
In general, you'll want to research carefully which union serves your craft in your area, then contact their membership folks for more info on what they require. You may need sponsorship from an employer with whom they have a contract, or someone who is a member in good standing. Depending on how difficult it is to join the union in your area (meaning IATSE, not an institution-specific union) you may have to pass a test (exam) or be approved for membership. Designers will usually have to submit a portfolio as well. You will often need to document that you have worked for a set time (30 days is typical) in the area for which you are applying.
But do i join a union or not?
Of course there's no blanket answer to this, but i can give you a list of questions to ask yourself that will help you decide, or at least get you thinking about options. Nothing's carved in stone, either--you might not join the union where you are now, but you later might decide to relocate somewhere and join.
Do you plan to make your living predominantly in the film costuming industry?
If you do, union membership is probably going to be pretty vital. You can work up to 30 days a year on union projects without joining, but after those 30 days, you must join the union or be let go. Film is like theatre, in that lots of people want to work in film, but lots of people making film will take advantage of how badly other people want to work in film. You'll find a lot of job postings for films where they try to save money by running with non-union crews and sure, you can always get work that pays only in "experience and connections," but if you want to pay the bills with your skills, union membership will guarantee you actually get paid in money.
Do you live somewhere that has a lot of costume work but it's predominantly union work?
This is something you will need to ask around about, talking to working costumers in the area. Obviously in entertainment hub cities like NYC and LA, there is a lot of union work. At the same time, there's also a lot of people in the union, so getting your foot in the door may take some time and effort. In other large cities, it will vary. Speaking not from experience but from hearsay via colleagues, i gather that San Francisco and Seattle are two cities with a lot of union contracts. And, in states that are big film production states (NC and VA, for example) there are a lot of union jobs to be had, moreso than non-union jobs in the field.
Do you live somewhere that has a lot of costume work but it's not union work?
Boston used to be a good example of a place like this, and i gather (again, hearsay) Minneapolis and DC are as well. There are a lot of theatres with costume shops on-site, for-profit commercial shops, etc., but few or none of them have contracts with IATSE. Joining the union if you are based in a market like that may not be very useful; you'd be paying your dues for the ability to occasionally pick up a union gig.
Then again, remember the concept of the "swiss cheese contract"? It might be a good choice after all, if you have several intervals built into your contract, or if you are freelancing on the whole. You'd need to work out budgetarily whether the union jobs are plentiful enough to fill the holes and pay enough to justify your fees.
Does the union in your area apply to your field?
The Milwaukee Repertory Company is an example of what i think of as a "half-union" company. The scene shop is IATSE, whereas the props and costume shops are not; or at least, that was the case a couple years ago, when there was a high-profile case brought by the union against the company because the props department constructed a steamer trunk which the union argued was a set piece, and therefore the responsibility of the union carps in the scene shop. This is a common line along which unionization is drawn in "half-union" shops, usually a regional theatre demarcation.
If you want to get all fired up about labor disparity and gender discrimination, you can google around about this. There are a lot of analyses and manifestoes out there about why "half-union" shops shake down that way--the Readers Digest version of the argument is, historically straight men work in the scene shops and typically women and gays work in the costume shops, and the wage disparity and unionization disparity comes from the ingrained discrimination against women and gay men as being...whatever, easier to push around, not deserving of the same rights and pay, etc. etc. etc. This blog isn't a platform in which i typically lead those kinds of political discussions (and touching on them is a digression from my focus in this post), though certainly if talk on the subject grows in the comments i won't squelch it.
I can't say i 100% agree with the Fight the Man political analysis of scattershot unionization--in some places, it's broken down even more finely by trade, where costume professionals who work wardrobe are unionized, while costume professionals who do hair and makeup are not. Or those who work made-to-order are unionized while those who do finished costuming (i.e., rentals/alterations) are not. On a general level, i think you can make a good case for gender and orientation discrimination as an unspoken factor, but as with all generalizations, there are exceptions. Sometimes, it's just got to do with which trades have gotten together and organized, and which have not. And, more women are going into scenic and electrics and the like--half our graduate candidates in technical direction are female...but now i'm REALLY digressing.
If costume design is your field of specialization, you'll probably travel even more than most for work, and you'll need to decide what type of job is going to pay the majority of your bills. I know there are lots of freelance costume designers who work as non-union free agents, but if you aim to design for areas of performance who hold collective bargaining agreements with IATSE and USA 829 (designers' union), you'll need to join. Those areas include Broadway, regional theatres belonging to the League of Regional Theatres, network television, the Metropolitan & NY City Operas, feature films, and many regional opera and professional ballet companies.
In addition to what i've put out here, scenographer and costuming professional Stephanie Schoelzel has a lot of interesting things to say about specifically the film and television costuming industry. Check out her pro-union essays on the following topics:
Union pay rates for costuming film
Costumers, Costume Designers, and the Union (film)
So you might want to be a film costumer?
I'd initially thought i would split the union post with information on taxes, but it got HUGE, so i'll write about that later. I think my next post though is going to be on permissions and publishing and copyright issues for costumers.
I guess i can confirm, too, that i'll be heading up to NYC for the summer, and on the way i've got something pretty exciting to blog about, which is the Zaida Ben-Yusuf photographic retrospective at the National Portrait Gallery in DC! If you recall, about a year ago i did some research into the life of Ms. Ben-Yusuf, spurred by the work she did publishing on the millinery trade. (Her mother, Anna, authored the still-in-print 1909 resource volume, Edwardian Millinery.) I'm very excited to see this exhibition of her photographic work, and i can't wait to blog about it. I'm hoping the museum catalogue will have some more information on her and her mother's contributions to the field of millinery journalism.