Hollywood South could go quiet next week as a national film crew union and the film industry seems to be at an impasse in contract negotiations. IATSE, the national film crew union with a local branch, said nearly all members have signed off for going on strike Monday should an acceptable deal not be reached over the weekend.
Should a strike start Monday thousands of workers would walk off over a dozen regional sets, halting production. That’d have a big impact on the local, film-heavy economy. UNO Economics Professor Janet Speyrer told WWL the industry and the workers who power it are a vital part of the city’s economic lifeblood, even if it does not directly employ a significant chunk of the workforce.
“It is a big player, a player, and we don’t have a real diversification of our industries and this is one that brings in money and publicity,” said Speyrer who added production shutdowns would be felt down the line in adjacent industries. “It’s not just what films themselves bring to the area, but what films do for other parts of our economy.”
Speyrer said industry revenue floats catering companies and other businesses that build things for sets. It pays for signage work, people to direct traffic, and myriad other jobs that don’t immediately pop into your head when you think about a movie set. If that Hollywood money isn’t pouring into New Orleans, especially if the strike ends up lasting for a while, it will be reflected in a loss of revenue in the city’s next budget.
“All of these things that they spend their money on have ripple effects throughout the economy,” said Speyrer. “Even though it is not the largest economy it is one that has an impact on things like hospitality.”
WWL spoke with local film crew leaders last week. They described an industry that is increasingly forcing workers to pull unsafe hours and resisting what they said are reasonable requests for raises. Another frustration voiced was that crews working on sets for many streaming service programs (like Netflix) are often paid less for the same work they would do on traditional film sets. Film industry representatives said they’ve offered the union a fair deal and are doing everything they can to prevent a shutdown.
