Short on Rights

I wonder if people saw this story where seven actors' unions, internationally, are calling on actors not to take part in The Hobbit films after management refused to recognise union workers. The non-union contracts meant the work force had no guarenteed minimum income or standards at work.

The International Federation of Actors (FIA) which brings together those working on international projects has a good track record of fighting for decent rights of workers employed by the entertainment industry in those nations with poor industrial relations laws.

The union is fighting to ensure rights to cancelation payments to workers hired and then dropped from the production and a minimum wage and rights at work. In response to these reasonable demands the makers of the film have threatened to move production to a country they say will provide less rights to the workforce.

Jackson's statement

In a sneering personal statement, which seems to state he has been giving special bonus payments to non-union actors, film maker Peter Jackson says "It's incredibly easy to wave the flag on behalf of workers and target the rich studios." Cool, let's do that then.

You will not be surprised to learn the statement includes phrases like bully boys, or raises the spectre of a political union, although it was interesting to read that Disney do not use Australia for films in order to avoid their strong unions there. For shame Bambi, for shame.

Less interesting is the way Jackson says he is pro-union then goes on to type a rambling screed on how much damage unions are doing to film making. As Jackson threatens to move production from New Zealand he says "if the Hobbit goes east (Eastern Europe in fact) -- look forward to a long dry big budget movie drought in this country."

New Zealand law

The most crucial point of all though is that Peter Jackson claims it is illegal for him to enter into collective bargaining with a union. If that were right it would mean the focus of the campaign should be against the state not the production at all, and he'd have a legitimate grievance.

So I looked up what the government had to say on this. They say "Unions have a right to represent their members in relation to any matter involving the members' collective employment interests. Unions also have the right to negotiate collective agreements."

In fact reading the Department of Labor website it appears that Peter Jackson's claims are very far from correct because trade unions do have collective bargaining rights and then some. So there we have it, a self serving uninformed whinge about how unions who represent low paid, or even unpaid workers, are bullying the timid little millionaire by asking for their members to be treated with respect.

It seems to me that they have a point, that actors working for Peter Jackson are short on rights and union members ought to boycott the making of the Hobbit until Jackson has a change of heart.