Writings

Union or Guild?

Yes, Local 600 is a labor union (as a significant and respected part of the IATSE) which DOES fight for decent wages and decent and safe working conditions… to fight against killer hours and to expand health coverage and improve unemployment benefits and to work for legislation that will help bring the jobs home. And we work in conjunction with the AFL-CIO and other labor organizations for the good of all working people.

But we are ALSO a Guild… as in a family of highly skilled artists and craftsmen who freely share our knowledge with each other and take care of each other in hard times.

We make sure that our members are the most highly skilled professionals in the world so that the producers will KNOW they are getting the best when they hire us. It makes us more competitive with the cheap labor forces in other countries who don't have the benefit of our training programs and skills. We offer opportunities for our members to network with each other so that they can establish relationships which lead to jobs.

We want to increase our members’ opportunities to work… so besides making sure that we have union contracts on every possible budget and type of project, and besides making sure they have the cutting edge skills they need, we also help them learn how to make the contacts and how to promote themselves in a very competitive industry, thanks to Jessica's career coaching.

We make screenings available with our DP's present to answer questions on how they achieved the look of the film and overcame the problems and challenges it presented… and our members not only enjoy the films, they learn from them. We offer scholarships so our kids can get college educations. We have the holiday party so that our families can feel that they are also a part of our union/guild… so that we can be a FAMILY of brothers and sisters who work together for the common good… and so our children will feel connected to the union with love and pride.

We can take pride in an organization that is BOTH a UNION and a GUILD and in the dedicated people who volunteer their time and efforts on the regional and national executive boards because they want to help their brothers and sisters.