2006Legal / Business Practices forum
Changes to camera operator staffing requirements in 2006 union contract negotiations
20 years old. Gear and prices may have changed since.
DisputedParticipants disagreed and reached no conclusion. Read the findings as positions, not as an answer.
What the thread found
- A new contract proposal made operator positions optional rather than mandatory, allowing producers and directors of photography to decide whether to hire an operator.
- The contract change allowed directors of photography to operate cameras on A-camera for features and B-camera for television if approved during pre-production and agreed to by the union.
- Union leadership acknowledged responsibility for accepting the change in negotiations, framing it as permitting directors of photography to operate if they requested permission from the union.
- Some participants observed that when optional provisions become standard practice, they are rarely restored in future contracts, and predicted this would lead to widespread job loss for camera operators.
- Operators occasionally waive certain benefits on individual productions in good faith, but making those benefits discretionary rather than mandatory fundamentally changes their protective value.
- The concern was raised that producers would screen directors of photography during hiring specifically to find those willing to operate cameras themselves, effectively eliminating operator positions.
- Union members questioned why making operator positions optional would not also make union dues optional.
- At least one instance was reported where a director of photography operated without an assigned camera operator, which was reported to union representatives who then required the production to hire an operator.
Depends on
- The discussion is specific to the 2006 contract for a particular local union in the United States.
- One participant noted that the situation reflected practices already common in other countries and in most parts of the world.
- No final vote outcome is provided in this thread, only that membership voting was planned.
- The extent to which other union locals were affected by similar contract changes is unclear from the discussion.
- Some claims about director of photography behavior and intentions are based on assumption rather than confirmed data.