CoProS–a group of commercial line producers, production supervisors and assistant production supervisors formed in 2004 with the prime goal of gaining employer paid-benefits, most notably health insurance–has implemented its plan, first reported in SHOOT this summer, to picket a number of TV commercial production shoots in Los Angeles.
Representing CoProS workers, the Office and Professional Employees International Union Local 174 (OPEIU) formed picket lines at several shoots during the second weekend in December (12/9-10). There was, however, no picketing this past weekend.
According to the OPEIU, more than 600 CoProS members have signed cards authorizing the union to act as their representative. These workers, however, can only officially become union members if a collective bargaining agreement with management comes to pass. The workers who signed the authorization cards want the Association of Independent Commercial Producers (AICP) to recognize the OPEIU as their collective bargaining representative.
CoProS contends that its member job categories are the only ones not to receive employer-paid benefits among commercial production crew professionals. The group has claimed that 25 percent of working assistant production supervisors and 17-plus percent of working production supervisors in Los Angeles have no health insurance. These statistics were cited in a handout distributed by CoProS members at the AICP Show on July 26, 2006, in Los Angeles. CoProS formed an informational picket line at that event; shortly thereafter SHOOT connected with freelance production manager Sean Cooley, a CoProS steering committee member, who said that the organization planned to step up its efforts to gain health coverage–and recognition for the workers’ cause–by picketing certain spot production houses and location shoots if necessary (SHOOT, 8/4). When SHOOT contacted Cooley for this article, he declined comment, referring all questions to OPEIU representative Lupe Salazar.
“We plan to continue to escalate our efforts to get the AICP to recognize us–or for that matter just talk to us,” said Salazar.
AICP Stance
The AICP continues to regard CoProS members as management, not labor, contending that they are in supervisory roles in charge of the set and are paid accordingly, making more than staff members in similar roles and more than their counterparts in features so that they can pay for their own benefits. The AICP thus claims these freelance spot production workers, who are in managerial capacities, shouldn’t qualify for labor union benefits.
“It [the AICP negotiating with the OPEIU] will not happen,” asserted AICP president/CEO Matt Miller.
As for the picketed shoots, Miller said that they all were successfully completed. To his knowledge every worker–except one–in CoProS job categories elected to perform their duties on the picketed projects.
However, Salazar said she was aware of two workers who walked off a shoot. She said that since the picketing was informational, the union did not ask anybody to walk off their jobs. The two that did, she related, did so of their own individual choosing.
Yet while the union described the picketing as informational in nature, there were some reports of disruptive activity, including the sounds of blaring horns and whistles, as well as an instance in which a laser light pointer beam was directed into a camera lens. Salazar said she hadn’t seen any such alleged behavior take place.
SHOOT connected with a couple of eyewitnesses on the production house side, though, who did see such behavior. One was David Quartararo, executive producer of Pictures in a Row, a Los Angeles-based shop that was shooting a picketed Chevy job downtown.
“As a company,” said Quartararo, “we’re sympathetic to any group fighting for a cause, and with production people who hope for benefits. However, what was billed by the CoProS leadership as informational picketing soon deteriorated into an aggressive action to disrupt our shoot. Demonstrators ignored traffic control, and I personally witnessed the use of mirrors, balloons, noisemakers and lasers. What concerns me most is that things escalated to the point where safety became an issue. To point a laser at a camera assistant’s face is dangerous. To ride your bicycle into the middle of a shot with multiple vehicles, talent and a high speed chase car endangers a lot of people.
“In the end,” continued Quartararo, “I credit the directors, Peter Lang and Jonathan Brown, and the group from Campbell-Ewald for keeping a level head and working around the disruptions to end the weekend with our shot list completed. I am also thankful that I have an excellent crew that remained focused and didn’t allow the picketers to distract them from doing their job.”
Health Insurance
According to Miller, the AICP had a scheduled meeting earlier this month–just days prior to the spot shoot picketing–with CoProS representatives. However, that meeting was cancelled. Miller said he received an email from CoProS the day the meeting was to take place that CoProS wouldn’t participate in the session and that instead the meeting should be between the AICP and the OPEIU. The AICP does not recognize the union as the representative for these workers so the meeting was cancelled.
The AICP had invited CoProS representatives to the meeting to update them on a health insurance plan designed to provide coverage to AICP member company nonunion staffers and nonunion freelance employees. As chronicled in SHOOT, the AICP has been working on this plan for 10 years, with Miller now noting that prospects for it finally becoming a reality are good as a commitment has recently been secured from a national carrier, UnitedHealthcare. He projected that the plan should be up and running around mid-2007. The AICP is currently gathering personal information from eligible workers to submit to UnitedHealthcare.
Salazar regards the insurance plan as “a typical anti-union tactic…Management was willing to talk to CoProS members predicated on their not joining a union.” She added that the OPEIU has had talks with several commercial production companies about individually signing a union agreement. “The AICP has advised them not to sign an agreement with us…If they sign, they have been told they will no longer be a member of AICP,” claimed Salazar.
To the latter charge, Miller said, “Nothing could be further from the truth. We’ve been asked by companies, ‘If we sign [the OPEIU agreement], would we be kicked out of the AICP?’ The answer is no. The AICP doesn’t take a position as to how individual companies run their businesses. The AICP advises them on smart business practices and on bad business practices. We clearly regard a company becoming signatory to this contract as a bad business practice. But we don’t kick people out of the AICP for being stupid. We are not in the business of telling people what to do. People are free to act on their own. We advise them on the ramifications of doing things and of potential problems.””
One fact both sides agreed on at press time was that thus far no AICP member had signed the agreement that the OPEIU has distributed to individual production companies. That agreement includes provisions for health and pension benefits. This basic agreement came with a Dec. 1, ’06 signing deadline to avoid any work actions.
The AICP has sent out an advisory to its members about what their rights are if jobs are being interfered with by picketing and other work actions. Miller said that production companies have a track record of getting work done in the face of picketing, as evidenced by AICP member shops’ performance during the six-month actors’ strike against the advertising industry in 2000.
Miller contended that picketing and efforts to disrupt shoots can prove to be counterproductive. “It all depends on the tactics. If disruptive tactics escalate to a level where production is at risk, it’s prudent to make sure you can get the job done,” he said, alluding to such options as taking the work elsewhere. If projects leave Los Angeles, that could potentially trigger lost employment opportunities for many of the people whose livelihoods depend on filming in Southern California.
Matthew Forrest Launches Commercial/Branded Content Production Company Cloud Forest
Producer Matthew Forrest has officially launched Cloud Forest, a Los Angeles-based video production company specializing in commercials and branded content, with additional capabilities in emerging formats like AI and VR.
With the mantra “Where your vision meets our production precision,” Cloud Forest aims to serve brands, agencies and networks with a blend of creativity and operational efficiency.
Forrest brings over 20 years of experience to Cloud Forest. His portfolio includes producing commercial content for Square, Aveeno, and Lyft, branded content series for KitchenAid, Pizza Hut, and Verizon, and projects like Mariah Carey’s “Keys of Christmas.” Forrest’s career highlight came at Endemol Shine, where he earned a Sports Emmy in 2018 for producing Life VR’s “Capturing Everest.”
“Leveraging my varied experiences in both traditional and digital formats, I’m excited to create content across a wide array of platforms with the partners I admire,” said Forrest. “Our focus is on delivering excellence in commercials and branded content, while also offering cutting-edge solutions in AI and VR when appropriate for our clients’ needs.”
Cloud Forest’s talent roster currently features long-time Forrest collaborators such as commercial directors Ben Pluimer, Michael Belcher, Clyde Bessey, Christopher Louie and Kevin K. Shah; director/photographer Shawn Corrigan; photographers Gabriela Oltean and Will Deleon; and creative directors Natalie Perry and Drew Grossman. The studio’s strength lies in curating the right team and accurately defining the necessary resources--budget, roles, and technology--allowing every project to meet its creative and business goals.
This approach has earned praise from industry... Read More