A Repcard By Any Other Name

What’s with all these different repcards? TAG has one, the IA has another. They look sorta the same. Now there’s an online one? Which should I sign? Why are you making this difficult?

In organization discussions, we union-types always bring up the signing of Authorization Cards (or .. repcards). These cards are an essential part of the organizing process. They are a physical manifestation of a worker’s desire to be represented by a union in their workplace. The union must have these cards in-hand when approaching the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

The trouble is, it seems a bit antiquated. The IA’s card is a postcard, which means cheaper stamps. TAG goes so far as to provide stamped envelopes, but you still have to find a mailbox. Everyone asked for an online card .. and now, there is one, but the page says its not a “real card”. What gives?

Artists Take A Stand Against Yurcor

Over a year ago, I posted about the employment relationship artists were facing when taking “freelance” work at The Mill in Santa Monica. I described about learning about Employer of Record scheme perpetrated by Yurcor, and offered my opinions based on my research on the legality of the working relationship and payment practices of Yurcor. I asked that artists who had experience get in contact with me so I could approach our lawyer with the aim of clarifying my concerns and possibly finding a legal remedy for the mistreatment of employees I thought to have taken place.

We recently received word that some of those artists were able to file a lawsuit against The Mill and Yurcor:

Recently, three Los Angeles artists filed a lawsuit in state court against The Mill and Yurcor. The Mill, a visual effects production company, employed the three artists on a temporary basis. Yurcor, which processed the paychecks of artists at The Mill, told the artists that it was their “employer of record” while they worked at The Mill. In the case, which was filed in California state court as a class action on behalf of themselves and an estimated 500 other California artists, the artists allege that The Mill and Yurcor failed to pay them the compensation that they were promised.

The lawsuit alleges that The Mill and Yurcor schemed to treat California artists as independent contractors when in fact they were employees. Under California law, the artists were employees and not independent contractors because The Mill exercised total control over the manner in which they worked, and also set their wages, hours, and other working conditions.

DD Finds New Revenue Stream .. Students!

VFX Soldier’s latest post brings to light a shrewd business tactic Digital Domain CEO, John Textor, has revealed in an IPO discussion held in November of last year. The linked audio clip on the post has Mr. Textor explaining to the crowd of would-be investors one of the ways DD has discovered to to add to its revenue stream.

Digital Domain has partnered with Florida State University and started the Digital Domain Institute. According to their own explanation, the institute “sets a new standard in digital media education through an unprecedented public-private partnership with The Florida State University“.

Mr. Textor explains it this way:

What’s interesting is the relationship between the digital studio and the college. 30% of the workforce at our digital studio down in Florida, is not only going to be free, its going to be [student] labor that’s actually paying us for the priviledge of working on our films.

I know what you’re thinking, how is that possible? There are laws that protect such things from happening, right?. Mr. Textor begins to answer that:

We were able to persuade even the academic community, if we don’t do something to dramatically reduce costs in our industry, then we’re going to lose these industries .. we’re going to lose these jobs.

So, if 30% of our labor can be free, actually paying tuition, but by [the] Junior and Senior year at the college, [students are] working on real films, as part of the professional workflow, and [they] graduate with a resume that has five major films, [their] name in the credits, and more than just an intership level of experience, then that’s the perfect kind of trade off.

Is This Legal?

DDI’s Course Catalog page has a class called Internship. Its easy to assume this will be the class that students register for to obtain the “privileged” work, even though Mr. Textor has already claimed the work to be above intership level experience. USDOL has a fact sheet that defines internship programs under the Fair Labor Standards Act. While the whole document answers the question, this paragraph punctuates it perfectly:

Similar To An Education Environment And The Primary Beneficiary Of The Activity
In general, the more an internship program is structured around a classroom or academic experience as opposed to the employer’s actual operations, the more likely the internship will be viewed as an extension of the individual’s educational experience. [...] If the interns are engaged in the operations of the employer or are performing productive work, then the fact that they may be receiving some benefits in the form of a new skill or improved work habits will not exclude them from the FLSA’s minimum wage and overtime requirements because the employer benefits from the interns’ work.

Calls in to the Florida Department of Education haven’t been returned yet. One can guess there are loopholes that are being exploited there as well. The FLSA documents seems to claim that in order for DDI to be compliant, all they have to do is pay their students minimum wage and overtime. Is that enough?

The Broken VFX Business Model

This isn’t the first time we’ve run into a school attempting to exploit students. In the summer in which I was hired, we discovered that Gnomon proudly boasted about their students working on feature films and popular television shows. These days, the big scam is getting tax payers to offset production costs.

Its been pointed out many times, the whole visual effects business has to be restructured. Studios have turned to visual effects as a means to get people to purchase tickets and see their movies. Since the workers aren’t unionized, it was only a matter of time before those seeking profits worked to get us where we are today.

Fixing it, will take courage and determination. Its a waste of time to vilify the entertainment producers for doing what good business does. Its time to start being accountable and use the leverage that’s inherent in the skills and talent that the artists bring to the table.

Its time, to unionize.

Animation Guild Representation Card

The VFX Union Cost Fallacy

Some time ago, I wrote a post in the TAG Blog that talked about the cost argument against unionization. Its a strange argument for me to address, because it puts the artist making the argument diametrically opposed to their own better interests. Its hard for me to understand how an artist would be so interested in the operating costs of a studio when they have little to no knowledge of the revenue or operational structure of said studio to begin with. The argument attempts to put a dollar figure on unionization and then illicit an emotional response based on that figure.

You mean to tell me the union will make the studio pay HOW MUCH for my participation in the Industry Health and Pension Plan?! That’s just INSANE!

For me, its another example of the type of mentality that makes artists proud to be working in an industry that makes commodities out of their lives/work to increase production studio profits. I’ve never been able to justify how that happens and how, at one time, I did the same thing. VFX Soldier touched on this topic in his latest post on overtime.

Please find my original post after the break ..

I … am VFX Soldier

Last night marked the 10th time the Visual Effects Society has gathered to present their awards for achievement and recognition. As I was sitting by Twitter eagerly awaiting news of results, this caught my attention:

@neonmarg

Good day for a reminder that we all need to be @VFXSoldier ‘s, fighting to improve conditions for #vfx artists

Most of my recent conversations regarding unionization of visual effects end up in a discussion of why organizing is important. Usually, this begins by discussions of the Hot-Button topic of the day (Health and Pension plans, job protection, globalization, etc) but always end up in a dialog about the purpose of collective action and why standing together and organizing should be important to all artists.

Have you been forced to deal with Yurcor? Let us know ..

Many thanks to all who have taken the time to write and keep me informed of their experiences working through the Employer of Record company, Yurcor. I have received many emails and phone calls from artists who have read my posts. Many are glad that some action is being taken against companies of this nature and are interested in retrieving the pay that was illegally withheld from them.

The Guild is interested in assisting all artists who have been effected by Yurcor’s improper wage withholdings. We have created a form on our site that is meant to give us a better understanding of how many artists have been effected and which studios are utilizing Yurcor’s services. If you have worked for a studio that has used Yurcor and would be interested in seeing your wages returned, please take the time to fill out the information on the form and submit it back to us:

Animation Guild Yurcor Form

Our goal is to help enforce labor laws and returning wages that were improperly withheld from visual effects artists. Once we receive your information, we will contact you to discuss our current progress and the next steps in retrieving your wages.

Wage Theft: What can you do?

Many thanks to all those who have contacted me to discuss their experiences with Yurcor and other EOR companies. Through the documents that have been shared with us, as well as the correspondences with representatives of these companies, we’re progressing with our plans to seek enforcement of the law and the return of wages to the effected artists. A special debt of gratitude needs to be paid to Justin Cone who exposed our efforts to the readers of his website Motionographer and brought us exposure we never would have been able to do on our own. While I am eager to update you on what has transpired so far, I can only say that we have significant progress and things are looking good.  I will continue to update our progress when I can.

I wanted to specifically address the frequent questions that have been raised about what artists can do if they wanted to act on their own to recover the wages that they lost to Yurcor. While its our intention of instigating a class action lawsuit which would cover the United States, some artists are eager to start the recovery process faster than we can initiate the claim. For them, I want to post some information that would be useful.