Paige Jarvis for AFL-CIO Delegate and Abby Hilton for Secretary/Treasurer in IATSE Local 479
AFC Episode 359
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Intro:
Hey, and welcome to Episode 359. This week, we have more coverage of the IATSE Local 479 elections featuring Paige Jarvis, who is running for AFL CIO delegates, and Abby Hilton, who is running for Secretary Treasurer. They bring up some very interesting issues that if you work on film sets you should know about. So hope you enjoy it. And I'll see you in the intermission.
Chuck:
Paige, welcome back to the show. It's been way too long. I think the last time you're on, we talked about The Last Jedi had just come out. So we talked about that movie for a minute. So that kind of dates things. But how have you been and maybe real quick, What's something that you've learned this past crazy year since we're wrapping up 2021. What's something that you've taken from this unwanted sequel to 2020.
Paige:
Hi, Chuck. Thank you for having me back. I was just wondering when it was that we talked again, our last and, yeah, the Jedi. That sounds about right. Yeah. What have I learned? I've learned that Star Wars is never going to end. I mean, we can talk about Mandalorian now if we want to, right? There's always going to be Star Wars for us to talk about. That's what I've learned. Seriously. God, what I've learned, family is always going to be there for you, no matter how hard things get. I think it's probably a really good lesson to have taken out of all this. I mean, we all struggled so much over these last couple of years, and our close friends and family are what get us through. So just kind of stick by that. And that's probably going to be a good path to leave you out of darkness most of the time.
Chuck:
Yes. That's a good lesson. That's very true. You take people for granted, take things for granted until they're taken away. That's exactly right. Yeah. But you've got some big things going on in your life that you're here to talk about. So why don't you break it down for everybody? What are you running for? What's happening? What's going on?
Paige:
Yeah. This has been a really exciting last couple of weeks or so in my life, most recently. And what brings me here today is because I've been asked by some members of our Union, Local 479. I see Local 479 to run for the position of AFL CIO delegate. And what that is just a quick bit of information. They have an amazing website. I can tell you that from experience, the AFL CIO is the American Federation of labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations. And to narrow that down, explain what that is a little bit less detail. Excuse me. More detail. Is there a voluntary Federation of 57 national and international labor unions who represent 12 million men and women in such aspects as labor laws, better paying benefits, civil rights, corporate greed, gender equality, just to name a few. And as a member of a Union for the last 15 years, this is giving me the opportunity to learn a lot more about other unions, other labor unions that affect us directly without having much knowledge about that in the past.
Chuck:
Okay. Yeah. That seems like an extremely important position for people to have. You said you got approached by some other members. What was the argument like why they knew Page Jarvis was going to be the person for this position? What was it?
Paige:
I actually have never asked that question about what it was. Specifically, a few people reached out to ask me to run for this position. They told me that I was the best person for the job for a couple of different reasons. But as I started thinking about it, I kind of realized that myself, that I was the best person for the job, regardless of what their reasons may have been. And I think their reasons and mine probably parallel each other. I've been a Union member at four, seven, nine for 15 years, and I've always been extremely proud of that. Even more proud to represent the membership for nearly ten years as a production steward. And I think that is probably what made people think about me the most. When you're a steward, you're the liaison, basically between the production and the local. Something's going on. I'll take payroll issues, for example, something's happening with payroll issues, and you don't know who to talk to about it. Union members can come to you. You can go to your local and your local can reach out to production. Payroll is just one of many issues that might come into play. But in the ten years that I've been a steward, I've gone to great lengths to protect and represent every crew member, regardless of the local. We're not all local four, seven, nine on sets. Sometimes we're members of different unions. We all get brought together to work as one, whether you're a local 80 grip or a four seven nine costumer or a first AC in 600, I was there to take care of the members. It's been a minute since I've been a steward, but it's always been. The most important thing to me is to make sure that every voice is heard when something is happening on set. And I think that people remember me from that. Remember me walking fire lanes first thing in the morning just to make sure we all have a way to get out if something bad happens on set or even again reaching out about payroll issues and trying to make sure that all of my sister's, brothers and kin were taken care of as best they could be as best we could take care of them. Oh, man. Yeah.
Chuck:
No, that makes a lot of sense if you already have that mindset of helping take care of people, which is what unions are supposed to do. It sounds like it's a perfect fit, so that makes sense.
Paige:
Well, I think I will say that people joke around a lot about the helpers. You always look for the helpers doing, Mr. Rogers says, right. When I was young, when I was in high school, I didn't have any real direction. I didn't know what I wanted to be when I grew up, so I joined the Navy. That route didn't necessarily work out for me. But what it did teach me in a short amount of time there is that the film industry parallels the military relentless hours getting yelled out for no good reason. And the chain of command, which is without the chain of command in the film industry, we're a little bit lost. So we had a saying in the Navy, and when one person was being punished, someone would yell Man overboard, and everyone would join in whatever task they were being punished with. When you watch one person suffer in a sense. And then with a simple request, hundreds of others joined in to assist that people, it lets you know that you're not alone. And that's kind of what a Union is supposed to be. I spent my early years really involved in our local, and as the years went on, the situations kind of changed. I started feeling further away from this amazing feeling of solidarity that I had recently joined, and it started feeling a little bit like an us versus them kind of thing. And I don't know why or when that happened. I just remember kind of waking up one morning and everything felt different. So I stepped away from it all. And instead of getting more involved, I walked away from it. And the more that people have been talking lately about change and wanting things to be different. I miss that feeling of us all working together. So I think that when people started reaching out about change, I've spent a lot of my life fighting change. Oh, I don't want anything to be different. I like the way things are, but not in truth, changes power, it's unity. It's inevitable. And the more people tell you it's bad, the more other people kind of crave it. Honestly, I didn't know much about my past AFLCIO delegates, with the exception of one or two of them. And I feel like the two that I knew in the past really wanted to help the membership. They wanted to be more involved. They wanted to be there to answer the questions that members have, and that's what I want to do. I kind of want to get back into that role where I am literally directly is on between the labor board and my members, our members just like a film set and our membership. So it seems like almost a normal transition to me now that I actually say it all out loud. Yeah, it's like, one of those things I talk about in the show all the time about people. I think we even talked about it when I interviewed you last, we talked about trying different positions on set just that you might not like it, but you don't know until you try. I've never tried to grip before. Let me give it a shot. Like, oh, I enjoyed this. It ticks a box that I didn't know I had. I forgot about that. Yeah, we did talk about that because I had just been spending a little bit of time in construction. Yeah, that's right. I got the job. Someone was trying to help me out with my benefits, which again, I was struggling. And a Union brother from a completely different Department said, Here, let me help you. Yeah, that's true. I'd forgotten about that.
Chuck:
How have you prepared yourself for running for an office like this? I wouldn't even know where to start. What are some things that you've done to really? Just maybe, just like, mentally prepare yourself for having to do this?
Paige:
Yeah, I didn't know where to start either. I still don't. I'm not going to sit here and say, oh, I'm so organized. I've got it all together, and I've got my campaign people out handling things. But, okay, let's look at a couple of things. I got asked, and it was while I was on a show besting right before the Christmas hiatus started. So first of all, it's really hard to do anything else when you're on a show, especially when you're a best boy group, because my job doesn't stop. I mean, I don't get to hang out and do nothing for a couple of hours a day. Not to say a lot of people do, but some positions, you have a little downtime. Yeah. And even if I did have downtime, I really have to focus on my job. So I had said to everybody, I hope you don't feel like I'm absent, but I'm focusing on my show ending. So I didn't start doing anything until my show wrapped, except for on the weekends when I ordered some stickers and I ordered some stickers, which was great. I went to a few meetings. I spoke with several people who were running in different forums, in person Zoom meetings, chat rooms. Whatnot spent a lot of time on the AFLCIO website recently registering for whatever I can right now, there's a Zoom meeting for Martin Luther King Day that I've registered for. So I'm trying to do as much as I can as quickly as I can. But again, it's also Christmas, and there are family commitments and this and that and not to say that what we're doing isn't extremely important. It is. But I also know after 20 years in the industry that taking care of your body after going for five months straight is important. So I'm doing a lot of focusing mentally by, like I said, talking with people. I was out the other day handing out stickers and Flyers and shaking babies and kissing hands. And whatnot that only goes so far with Covid you want to respect people's boundaries. So it's been a little bit challenging, but I feel like I'm doing a pretty good job. This is a big position. It's a lot bigger than I realized it was. And I'm excited about that. I'm excited that this is going to get me more involved with the labor board in general and get me back involved with my brothers and sisters and kids.
Chuck:
Nice. Well, since we talked last, the podcast has expanded from discovering Georgia, Atlanta to basically the world now. Well, I say that just that I wonder what someone in Minnesota listening to. This is thinking like, Well, I don't know if this is a localized election, but I feel like unions are everywhere. If you work in the film industry, this is the thing that you're going to worry about. So maybe talk to that kind of person who isn't in the Local 479. Why should they pay attention not just to this election, but in general, paying attention to elections? Why is that important? Why is it important to look at your leadership and maybe look at the open positions and say, maybe I should run?.
Paige:
Any time you have a voice. Anytime someone gives you the opportunity to use your voice, you should use it. I sat back so many times on so many issues because I didn't know if it was a popular issue. I didn't know what my opinion was going to mean for how things would go for me. I was careful about the things I said, and I wasn't true to myself. But I think that you dishonor yourself when you don't speak from your heart. And I think that if you don't give up on situations, whatever your work situation may be, look at Starbucks right now. I mean, when you get together with a group of people and you all have similar feelings and beliefs, it's a lot easier to gain something. I can see how people step away from a situation. You're one person running against an incumbent and you start to feel the pressure. And, oh, you know, this is hard. I'm by myself, and this isn't worth it. It's so hard. They have so much support. And so it's easy just to walk away from it. I can see how that can happen when you feel alone. But there are so many people out there who feel the way that you do, regardless of how you feel, who you work for, what your situation is. And you're not going to find that out by sitting there quietly and keeping your opinion to yourself. Talk to people. Talk to everyone. Talk to somebody who you would never talk to before. Go talk to them. Ask them what their story is. Ask them why they're there what they want from their job. You'll find support in the strangest places. And once you find support, there's not much that you can accomplish.
Chuck:
The podcast is still focused on Atlanta and Georgia. I guess not mainly, but just I'm from here. I want to cover this kind of stuff, but I do think it's important. Like, you got to pay attention to what's going on. You got to see the issues, and it's easy to get complacent. It's easy to just sit back and go, Well, people got it. I think the past few years have shown that people don't got it.
Paige:
Maybe just in general. So if you feel like there's a solution you can offer, then you should at least put your hat in the ring. Yeah. What do you have to lose? I mean, some people might look at you strange, not agree with you, but yeah, if you sit there without saying anything, God, people are just going to keep running over you. And that's the worst feeling in the world to feel like whatever you've gained. You've lost just because you've been quiet for so long, you feel like you're starting all over again sometimes. And that's also terrifying. And again, finding a group of people that stand behind you beside you. It's empowering. Oh, yeah. And I think people like you said, not just people, specifically, I'm a woman. So I'm going to speak about women for a minute. A lot has changed for us in the last couple of years. We do have more confidence. We have more confidence. We feel stronger. We are stronger because we're standing together instead of knocking each other down like a lot of us did for so long. And I've made a mistake in my past. But the truth is, you can't do anything by yourself. Every single thing you do is easier with just one extra pair of hands. And when you have hundreds of extra pair of hands holding you up and supporting you, it's just a pretty humbling feeling. Yeah, I bet there it is. It's a lot of responsibility when somebody says, I think you can do this. So you sit back. And instead of flipping on the television to watch your favorite show, you think, gosh, maybe I should read this article, or maybe I should do something for someone else. I spend a lot of time on set telling the guys the crew rather the grips, make sure you eat, make sure you drink water and make sure you put on sunscreen. And I joke around and I go home starving. Sunburned and dehydrated.
Chuck:
Nice. Well, cool. So tell everybody where to find information about you and your campaign and any websites and social media profiles, et cetera.
Paige:
No, I don't have any websites up. Currently, a lot of it is word of mouth. My Instagram page, best Boy Girl Grip, my Facebook page. That's pretty much the route I'm going right now. I might be working on getting some Web pages up and whatnot. But again, sometimes that can be a little bit frustrating for me. The technology aspect and with the holidays, I'm trying to change my stress level a little bit. Yeah. And as soon as we get back from Christmas break, I'm looking forward to hitting it as hard as I can going out and talking to people and showing up in that straw cowboy hat that a few people might recognize and saying. So I'm the one in the cowboy hat, and I'm the one running for AFLCIO delegate. Yeah, it does make a pretty striking profile when you have something stand out like that. I always joke around when I speak at the PA Academy. Well, I don't joke, but I tell people have something that makes you stand out. I don't care what it is. Just have something that makes you look a little bit different because there are so many people on set that people need something to identify you. Then I joke. I said, I don't care if you want to wear a tie every day to work or you want to wear a cowboy hat. Of course they all laugh out loud. Yeah, that was just something that I wore one day and someone said, oh, yeah. You mean the chick and the cowboy hat. And I was like, okay, well, I guess that can't come off now.
Chuck:
You were branded, I guess, somewhat exactly. Well, it's always great to talk to you, and I'm glad you're able to come back on the show. And good luck with everything. Can't wait to see how it all shakes out. And yeah, exciting times and good luck in 2022 and beyond.
Paige:
Thank you so much, Chuck. It was great talking to you. I can't wait to see you for hugs.
Chuck:
Hey, welcome to the Intermission. So I hope you enjoyed the interview with Paige. Now enjoy the one with Abby. Again, if you're listening to this and you're not in IATSE 479 and you're thinking, Why should I care about this? This is stuff that affects the entire industry, whether you're paying attention to it or not. So it's important to know what the issues are, what's happening, not just for now, but in the future. Stuff to pay attention to in future contract negotiations and all that kind of fun stuff. So I hope you enjoy it. And I'll see you in 2022 as we continue to work on our stuff. Like I said, all year, working on your scripts, writing, directing, maybe acting. Maybe you're still not out there. Maybe you're still a little hesitant. I get it. It's crazy, especially with this omakron stuff, but you got to keep working. It's something you can keep doing, even if it's just in your house, wandering around in your upstairs bedroom, whatever. Just keep working towards it. And we'll get there in 2022. Right back to the show.
Chuck:
Hey, Abby, thanks for coming on the show. I really appreciate it. It's always fun to talk to other podcasters because you understand the life, difficult, crazy life of talking in the microphones that we it's just really intense, right? It's a weird experience. It is. A lot of these episodes were during the pandemic, and that's been unique for me as someone who was podcasting for several years before the pandemic, and now I can't do them in person, which is a bummer. So I want to start off by asking what's something maybe you've taken from doing shows like during the pandemic. Did it help you with that whole isolation thing and not being like, oh, I can't see other human beings. Is this a way to absolutely help with that?
Abby:
I think part of it, too, is that the people that I do the podcast with are my friends regularly just through gaming, which I think was a fantastic way during the pandemic to keep up with people. We're very lucky that my fiance and I are both a number of gaming groups, whether it be like tabletop or just sort of, like online games. And so I would record the podcast with those same people. And it also does, I think, help just the feeling of isolation, whether you know, the people in the podcast or you don't. I think there's something a little bit more personal about that feeling when you're sort of driving to and from work, because I guess unlike the radio or something like that, people who speak in a podcast understand that they're speaking to an audience and that's sort of human awareness of we're all going through this. But let's forget all of that for just a little while and talk about something like video games. Yeah. Just to let the world pass us by for just a minute.
Chuck:
But yeah, now you're back out there doing things and running for office, which I'm sure is a huge undertaking. So you're here to talk about that the Secretary Treasurer position. And you got to tell me exactly what all does that entail? It sounds like a lot of paperwork, or it sounds like a migraine to someone like me, but maybe someone like you. It sounds like, yes, I can't wait for all this paperwork. Tell me all about it.
Abby:
I mean, I won't pretend like I'm not one of those people that gets a little excited about Excel spreadsheets. Yeah. Okay. It's not the worst thing, but yeah, it's a lot of bookkeeping. It's taking the minutes. It is keeping track of a lot of the finances and stuff, most of the correspondences to and from the Union, that sort of thing, lots of note taking and presenting all of this information in reports to the rest of the Union. Okay. Well, it's super important, and it's super important for that position to exist and for people to enjoy doing that. Absolutely. I think what's also really important about this position is that it is an executive board position, which along with the position that Sarah is running for and Paige, our hope is to give the rank and file Union members more of a voice because we are those rank and file Union members. And so being on the executive board comes with a little bit more influence in decision making than your average Union member. And so we hope to be able to create some good change through those positions.
Chuck:
Nice. What made you want to run for this specific position? Was there a big trigger point that said, all right, I'm in. Let's do this.
Abby:
You know what it was actually a small series of rather a series of smaller events kind of linking together over the course of this past year. I know you guys talked extensively about there was this the contract negotiations, right? The area agreement and the basic agreement that happened this summer. And then the strike authorization vote, where we were asked to authorize our President to strike because negotiations had completely stalled and they didn't want to give us anything. And as you know, we desperately need massive overhauls to the way that this industry works, in the way that crew are treated on set. And after the strike was authorized, we voted 98% to authorize our President to call strike. And then we got this contract that they negotiated for. And it turned out that there's not much in it. And for a lot of people, the opinion is it makes things worse, specifically because of the rules around Turnarounds weekend turnarounds. They stipulated in this contract that the weekend turnaround has to be 54 hours, I believe. But if you make your crew work six days a week, the turnaround only has to be 32 hours. And so that's a pretty big loophole. And a lot of people have already noticed that their shows have started switching to six to eight weeks. That's just how it's going to be now, because that's the contract that we got a lot of leadership, not just our local, but many of the locals were pushing for people to ratify this contract. And a lot of people felt that it's not what we needed. I felt like it wasn't what we needed. And I'll say this the contract was ratified, and it's very controversial because it was very close in the ASA local. My local 479 voted 66%. No, not in approval of the contract. And the Hollywood locals voted it down, but because they use an electoral College system, even though it lost the popular vote, it still got ratified. People are very unhappy about all of this. And in the meantime, in the background, I have been working to organize the set teachers, which is my craft. And if you don't know what a set teacher is or a studio teacher is that child actors still have to go to school when they're working. And so we provide school on set. The other half of that job is that we are also the welfare representative on set. And so we enforce child labor laws. We make sure the kids are safe, we make sure that they don't work too long. We approve rehearsals. There are a lot of things that productions may try to do with kids that are ultimately not safe and can cause an accident. And it is our job to pull them back from that and make sure the kids not overworked. And we are tasked with their physical, mental and moral. Wellbeing, right. Okay. So that's what we do. But our jobs have been impacted greatly by a number of things. And a big issue that faces set teachers is in our contract in the area standards agreement. There is a section that says that our jobs, the craft of the set teacher can be subcontracted out. And this means that there is this company that has come in and they have taken all of the Union work, all of our jobs. And there is no other craft in our Union that specifically contractually allows for subcontractors to come in and take our jobs. And I struggle with that because we pay Union dues. And we signed a collective bargaining agreement that says our leadership can bargain on our behalf and many of us. And when I started talking about this in front of other people, in front of other crafts, because we sent teachers have been siloed in for a very long time, and we've been depending on our Union leadership to fix this, and they haven't. I'm sure they've been working to do something. But frankly, the problem has not changed. It's only gotten worse. And so since I started talking openly about this issue in front of other Union members, they are absolutely shocked at the absolute trespass of the spirit of unionism that this is allowed in our contract. One of the main issues is that Union teachers were not working because this company has come in and they have taken all of the jobs. And in fact, we had one teacher, Elizabeth, this summer who has joined the Union to get away from this company. And she was working on a show. And this is another issue is that these production companies know that if you want to get away with cutting corners with kids, you hire from this company because they're just set teachers. They're not welfare workers. They're instructed they're not welfare workers. And they are on the record for having fired teachers for reporting child abuse. And so, of course, production companies love this company who will bring in teachers that don't tell you, no, you can't do that. They pay their teachers less, and they don't pay benefits because it's non Union teacher was already signed. She had a deal memo on this production Union job through the Union. And then this company came in and said, okay, you either sign this contract and work through us again or you're fired you're off this job. She contacted our leadership who basically told her like, Well, hey, if you need the money, you should take the money. And I certainly would be doing a lot more about this issue if I was in that position, so she had to sign that contract, and then she lost her Union benefits for the rest of that show for 28 days, she lost benefits, so no health care, no nothing. And then took a big cut of her pay because the pay is lower when you go through a third party company that is just sort of raking capital off of your labor that you're producing. And so that's pretty serious to have going on in our local where we are competing with this company. But our Union is not doing anything. I mean, it's literally allowing this in our contracts that our jobs can be subcontracted out. I know Sarah talked briefly about the sort of negotiations committee that happened in the Sprint. Well, I was asked to be the chairperson for the setteers of that negotiations committee. And so, like many other crafts, we met, and I compiled a very short list. It was three things of what we needed from these contracts. But the number one on the list is to remove the settler subcontractors. And there were some other issues. But that was the most important. And I gave that to our officer and everybody else sort of did that same thing. But then our negotiations committee never met as a committee. We all just sort of met with our own craft and then handed off our asks. And then we all separately found out in September. I believe that your points never even made it to the table. They never even made it past the international, so they never even got to the negotiating table with the AMPTP. Yes. And so I was kind of at a point where I was very frustrated. And I said, what else should I have done? Because I was so on top of this. And this is something that we need. Our careers won't be here in three years if we don't drastically do something. And that's part of the other reason why I've really stepped up is because if I don't work to fix this problem, no one's going to fix it. And then I won't have a career. So that's a huge push for me to stay on top of this problem. And when I said, what more could I have done, I kind of got the answer that like, well, from the position you're in, there's nothing else you could have done because only certain people get to go to these conferences, and these negotiations pass to a certain level. And I think that's kind of where the seed was planted, if you will of okay, I got to get more like I've done everything I can do as a regular Union member who is donating weeks and weeks and weeks of my free time organizing. And then through this, I got involved with the interlocal, which is the sort of grassroots collection of people from all the different ions locals that have started meeting and this was happening during contract negotiations, and it was sort of started as a way to hear from all Union members about what do we actually need? And at this interlocal, we were asked to collaborate and really share our ideas and be heard. And I did. And I was and I was incredibly supported by the other ions members in these meetings who reached out to me with resources and people to contact and who started helping me to organize, how can we solve this set teacher issue within our own Union? It was a stark difference from the Union Hall meetings, which they are the way they are. And I understand why they are that way, but there's no space for Union members to speak to each other. You may address the board, the executive board, and then they will sort of discuss your issue and talk about that. But there is no space for Union members to speak to each other. And so I think because that has never been allowed or there is no specific Union platform for that other places sort of sprung up where that started to happen, because eventually that need was going to be met. And it is a need. And so it was a huge difference between the town hall meetings, where the board is, quote, taking questions and the interlocal meetings where we are urged to speak and make ourselves be heard. And that was so refreshing. And then through the interlocal, I got more involved with local four, seven nine members who are also committed to these changes to get more transparency to have I'll speak more about this later, but in essence, working towards the organizing model of unionism as opposed to the service model of unionism. And so we have these common goals. And we knew that there were elections coming up, and I kind of went into it with the idea of, like my friend asked me, Are you going to run? And I said, I'm going to support somebody to run, or if no one is, then I will because that's the next step. And well, I've done everything I can. Well, now there's an election, and unless I get involved with this election, I will not have done everything I can. At one of these meetings, I was urged to run for Secretary Treasurer, and over time they convinced me, and I've spent a lot of time thinking about it. Obviously, at this point, I think it's the right thing to do. And I have a lot of people putting their faith in me and their trust in me and people who donated hours of their time to make, like, campaign graphics and just general organizing and stuff. And I understand through these meetings that we've had that the set teachers are a pretty egregious example of kind of what's been happening to all of the other crafts where ultimately they feel like they have this issue and their needs are not being met.
Chuck:
Reminds me of talking to some of the other candidates about that. It seems like if it's out of sight, out of mind kind of thing, if you're not coming from that experience, like someone else could have read that contract and seen this whole subcontracting issue and just glossed over and like, oh, who cares? Because they didn't understand why that was an issue. It's not part of where you're coming from, so you just don't pay attention to it. So that's why I feel like it's important to have people from all over the spectrum of jobs in the industry to run to say, hey, let me wave my hands real quick. This is a problem, and this should not go through well.
Abby:
And I'll tell you the one thing that really solidified my position, and it actually was not an issue with the set teachers. You've heard about this? The offset crews, right. I went to school to get a degree in theater and eventually shifted to a fine arts degree with a certification in education to become a theater teacher. And through a series of my advisor, messed up and told me I needed three foreign language courses and not three foreign language of the same language. Oh, okay, yeah. And so turns out I was not ready five weeks before graduation when they called me and told me that they had messed up while I was student teaching, I was not able to stay and just take French three. So instead they told me, Well, you've actually already earned the Bachelor's of Science in education. So five weeks before graduation, I took that instead of having to do a master so I could fulfill the requirements for a Bachelor's of fine Arts, according to their board or whatever. But I do have a very strong fear background. And one of the things I really enjoyed was set painting. And when I first joined the Union, work has always been slim for the set teachers. It's an extremely niche field. And with this company coming in, I don't know if I'm allowed to say it. You can edit it out, I guess. But they're called on location education, and they're a problem on set. But they've always been a threat to our work. It's like, hey, if you argue too much, if you try to step in too much with the kids, you will be replaced. So it's a huge balance. And during those times, I would do set painting, and I've done art Department stuff to fill in. And I really enjoyed set painting. And I do have some medical issues. And after surgery a couple of years ago, I'm not really able to do that anymore. And by that, I mean, the most intense manual labor lifestyle you can think of, because it's not just that these crews work 1012, 14 hours days, six days a week, sometimes seven days a week, sometimes 50, 60, 70 days in a row without a day off. It's also that it's the attitude of unless it's your three Union breaks, you get in a day, which is 15 minutes and then half an hour and then another 15 minutes. So not that much other than those breaks, you better be seen working. And if there is no work to be done, you better pretend to be working. Like if there's just I was told, pick up an empty bucket and pretend to serve it. Okay. Don't ever be seen idle, because the perception that you're working very hard is more important than whether or not the work is being done. And I physically cannot keep up with that sort of lifestyle anymore. I just can't cut it. And I applaud and commend the crew members that can. And I admire you. And I hope you get a break. Seriously. And this is what got me is that we have that thing called the 8th day reset where these crews you work on your 6th day, you make time and a half, and on your 7th day, you make double time, and on your 8th day, it just resets and you go back to the normal rate of pay. Okay. It's awful. These penalties, right? Things from lunch penalties to overtime. All of that is meant to be an incentive for the company to not work you to death. All of that is meant to be a prohibitive cost. But the cost of these things have stagnated. I believe, before this contract, the cost of lunch penalties hasn't gone up since 2003 or something like that. That's probably a wrong number. But it was a very long time. And so these things have stagnated, and they become something that's no longer a they're no longer prohibitive. They're just written into the budget. And so one of the things that are these crews desperately needed for quality of life. I mean, heck, the onset crews get their turnaround requirements, these people get nothing. So what we wanted was no eight day reset. They get double time until they get a real weekend, not a day off, a real weekend. We have to change this idea in the industry that if you get a day off like that, that's it. You're good. Yeah. The rest of the world is starting to understand that we work best with four day work weeks and that we all lose massive amounts of productivity after six to 8 hours of work. But that doesn't really seem to matter much to the producers at the top, who are raking in millions and billions and not paying us enough to get by. And so what's important is that we need leadership that is going to fight tooth and nail to get these things so that they aren't going into these contracts, doing pattern bargaining and be like, okay, well, it's three years later. So we're going to ask for another X percent of this. And we're going to just sort of ask for these incremental things because that's what they've been doing since the 80s, and it has cost us everything. We've given up everything. And so what was the most shocking thing for me that made me say this isn't right is that our leadership went to the whole Union went to everybody. But specifically the paint crews. Much of Four Seven Nine is construction and paint and offset crews. And they went to these crews, and they asked them to authorize the strike. They asked them to lay down their livelihoods, to authorize our President to strike so that we could deliver them a contract that actually helps them. And then they did it. They voted to strike. They gave our leadership that power. They put their jobs and their livelihoods at risk. And then our leadership turned around and gave them this contract that gives them nothing, absolutely nothing. And I felt that they might have the same feelings that I did when I was told on the phone, hey, none of your points made it to the table. But, hey, guess what? We're fighting for benefits and short hours and this and that. And I told our officer I said, That's great. But you know what? None of that matters if we're not getting work, benefits are great. But if they continue, that's one of the other set teacher issues. But if they say, Well, technically, you're a child labor coordinator, which is the DOL's new name for welfare worker. And that's not a unique covered title, even though it's a covered craft, it's a loophole that they try to use to avoid paying us benefits. And it works. None of this means anything if we can't even access those things that you're attempting to get for us, because our issue is so dire that we're not working that this company has taken over and they're on every show and have been able to subcontract out from under us. So honestly, that was it. That learning that there was no eight day reset. I haven't done paint or any of that in years, but I know what that life is like, and it's devastating. It's absolutely devastating to hear. You've got to wait another three years for us to renegotiate and have a chance. And, frankly, the knowledge that we're all sort of coming into that our leadership didn't go into it asking what was needed. Yeah. You got to give something to get something. Okay. Yeah, I understand that. So let's go in asking for an eight hour work day, turn around my ass. Let them negotiate you down, right? Yeah. We are in a Union. Labor unions are behind the eight hour work day. Why are we starting at a 14 hours work day?
Chuck:
Man, the whole thing seemed pretty dire. How have you prepared for running for this election? Is there anything you had to, I guess, maybe learn to be able to run, like making materials and getting the word out there. How do you get the word out?
Abby:
It's a really big group effort. Honestly, no one can do this alone, for sure. And the only reason I considered it is because I had other people behind me that were saying, you can do this. We'll help you. We're part of a group that wants this change and local. It's very important. I personally have been reading, but that's more of about how to effect change once you're elected. I actually started reading. I believe the name is so you've been elected. What now? You've been elected Union officer. What now? And see if I can find the actual name of it. But it was recommended to me. Someone in the under local group posted that and said, hey, even if you're not looking to run for office or if you're not an officer, this is a great resource about learning how unions work and how we can change them to work for us. And so I got that book. And that was once again long before I thought about running. But I started reading it, and I kept seeing my own values reflected back at me, like, be the change you want to see and all of this other stuff. And that was another sort of catalyst. That like, okay, well, this is all about how to effect change. Once you become an officer, maybe you can become an officer. Okay, that's taught me a lot about what I need to do once I get an office, because it's easy to say, well, we want more transparency. We want accountability. I'm going to represent you better than the other people. But there are some concrete values and goals that these things talked about. That I will be working towards. Like I said, I'm working towards the organizing model of unionism as opposed to the service model. And that means things like Union members feel like they are the Union as opposed to Union leadership. Is the Union, which is kind of what we have now. It means more transparency just across the board, but especially in negotiations. And it also overall means the Union is working with the labor movement as a whole. We're not just sort of stagnating and being okay. If you want to do this job, best way to do it is to get your Union card. It means educating members and keeping them involved. About what is the Atlantic Labor Council doing? What is the AFL CIO doing? What's going on with them? And it means we had a great Union member at one of the last meetings suggest, hey, all these catalogs workers are on strike. Let's not serve calogues at craft services. Right. Let's see if we can get craft services to also support this strike by buying alternative products until this is over. And it's that kind of stuff that we are a labor movement as a whole. And so that's the sort of kind of reading and preparing that I've been doing so that I can back up what I say about the changes that I want to make. And then, frankly, as far as the election stuff, it's been a while. I am a teacher and I'm not a politician, and this is very weird. And I've had to make a website and get an email service and try to figure out what's the best way to reach people. And like I said, I could not do this without all of the people helping me. I mean, I've had people make graphics for me. I had a friend come over and I realized I have no professional headshots. I don't have anything. So she came over and took some pictures, just that sort of thing. I've had somebody donate money so that I can purchase stickers because my gosh, these film people, they love their stickers. Oh, man. Apparently nothing disappears on set faster than a stack of stickers being handed out. Nice. Yeah. So I got to get the stickers.
Chuck:
Where can we find more information about you and your campaign?
Abby:
Information about me you can find at abbyhilton479.com.
Chuck:
Okay. Anything else you want to plug or throw out there as we wind down?
Abby:
I guess I would say related to that. I have been at every Department of labor meeting since I started doing what I'm doing because we realized that these people, they're legislating our jobs and it's super important. And when they do what they did with the Charlie coordinator position, they introduced a huge hazard and loophole. That's going to be a problem. And I'm not the only one. The other set teachers in the Union are often there as well. But I make it a point to be at every single one of these meetings, and we have stopped them from passing legislation that would cripple this industry. At the very least, it would make it. So you couldn't work with children, right. Because I think they're doing the best they can. But the legislators, they've never been on set before. They don't know how child exploitation happens or what it looks like or who does it. And so we do our best to try to help out with that. And so we've had a number of victories. We've done a number of things that like, okay, this is better. We've been fighting to close this loophole for years, and now we did. There's even a couple of things that the person point of pride for me that have come directly verbatim out of my mouth. At some of these hearings, and then they got codified into law the next time through it's a war of attrition. But it is important that we keep showing up and keep fighting these battles because this determines how minors are treated and how we're allowed to work with them in this state. And I hope to be able to provide our Union members with that same level of service and passion and to fight for you and how you're treated. Because I feel very strongly about how minors are treated on set and injustice does not sit well with me. And it would be my absolute pleasure to provide that same service and that same fight for all of the adult crew members working on set as well.
Chuck:
Nice. Well, good luck with everything. We'll see how it all shakes out. Ballots are out when this episode comes out and the ballots will be in people's hands. Remember to fill them out online yesterday.
Abby:
Yeah. Remember to fill them out. Follow the instructions. Don't do anything weird like scratching anything out or write your name or anything like that. And I would say for Union members who are interested in that sort of grassroots group that I was talking about, four, seven, nine membersunitedforchange.com is that other website for Union members to get involved? That's the numbers four, seven, nine members United, and then the number four. Change. Com.
Chuck:
Go check that out and submit your ballot. Be involved. But I really appreciate you coming on and talking to me about all this. Good luck again and just good luck in 2022 in general.
Abby:
Absolutely. Thank you. Thank you so much for having me on and allowing me to share the word.