Eugene Oregon : Chambers Center for Media

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May 11, 2004

Strike casts uncertain light on future

By Jeff Wright
The Register-Guard

It's hard to gauge how the contract dispute between a local production company and crew members working on "The Sisters" feature film will affect future efforts to lure moviemakers to Lane County and the rest of Oregon, industry observers said Monday.

Earlier in the day, about 15 crew members shouted slogans and hoisted signs, but could do little else as replacement workers drove past the Chambers Media Center's electric gates.

The substitute workers arrived a day after 65 members of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees went on strike to protest the Chambers production company's refusal to sign a union contract.

Motion picture technicians picket outside Chambers Media Center Monday. Some technicians plan to strike until production on "The Sisters" ends.

Work on the movie, based on Anton Chekhov's classic play "The Three Sisters," began in mid-April and is expected to end this weekend with wrap-up shoots around town and at the Chambers complex in north Eugene.

Production company President Carolyn Chambers said she doesn't know if the legal dispute will hinder future efforts to attract films to her soundstages. "It's one more obstacle, but I don't know how big it is," she said. "There are certainly a lot of nonunion crews out there wanting to work."

Oregon has been home to a number of union and nonunion films in recent years, with smaller films more likely to use nonunion crews, said Veronica Rinard, executive director of the Oregon Film and Video Office. Some films smaller in scope than "The Sisters," such as director Gus Van Sant's "Elephant" filmed in Portland, have used union crews, she said.

Larger films aligned with established studios - such as the $25 million "Without Limits" movie distributed by Warner Bros. and filmed in Eugene eight years ago - use union crews as a matter of course, Rinard said. "Without Limits" depicted the college career of University of Oregon runner Steve Prefontaine.

At $5.5 million, "The Sisters" is something of a "tweener" film, neither low-budget nor blockbuster, Rinard said. "It's at a level which to my memory we've not had here for three or four years," she said.

"The Sisters" has been touted as one of several recent or impending productions that suggest a resurgence of filmmaking in the state. The outlook should brighten even more next year, Rinard said, when legislation takes effect setting up a rebate to filmmakers of 10 percent of expenses incurred in Oregon, such as labor, equipment and services. The production must spend at least $1 million and the rebate is capped at $250,000 per film.

Production on "The Sisters," meanwhile, should finish on schedule and on budget, Carolyn Chambers said. While unsure of the exact number of replacement workers, "we were able to fill everything we needed," she said.

The replacement workers - grips, gaffers, camera operators, makeup artists and other support crew - are nonunion, with about half from out of state, mostly California, Chambers said.

She said most or all of the locked-out workers were paid more than union scale, and that all signed individual contracts agreeing to work in a nonunion shop. "We made deals we felt were very honorable," she said.

Many of the movie's original crew members have already packed up and headed home, said Charlie Carlsen, business manager for IATSE Local 488 based in Portland. Those who remain, he said, will continue to walk picket lines in front of the Chambers complex and at exterior shot locations around town until the film's production comes to an end.

"We'll be where they are," he said.

Union leaders said they went on strike because they wanted Chambers to provide a "health and welfare" benefit that would help cover health insurance costs. They said production companies with budgets and actors comparable to those on "The Sisters" routinely provide such benefits.

But Chambers said that's not true. "There are movies done with much higher budgets and many more stars that are nonunion," she said.

Chambers said the union local went on strike at the insistence of international leaders "who basically don't really want to see Oregon develop a movie industry because of the competition."

Stars in "The Sisters" - including Rip Torn, Chris O'Donnell and Mary Stuart Masterson - belong to the Screen Actors Guild and operate under a contract that requires them to report to work.

However, the film's actors support IATSE's position, said guild spokesman Seth Oster in Los Angeles. The guild also issued a statement that described as "unacceptable" Chambers' decision "to use a replacement crew rather than bargain an outcome acceptable to both sides."

None of the back-and-forth provides much solace to people like Greg McMickle, a propmaster from Portland with 25 years in the business. McMickle, on the picket line Monday, said he and others who went on strike probably won't even see their names in the completed film's ending credits.

"Usually, whoever finishes the shoot gets the credit," he said.

May 10, 2004

Set crew for movie `Sisters' on strike

By Jeff Wright
The Register-Guard

In an unexpected plot twist, the set crew for the movie "The Sisters" went on strike Sunday outside the Chambers Media Center in north Eugene - and may be locked out of work today when a replacement crew is expected to arrive.

Eugene police were called to the complex to resolve a dispute over whether crew members could claim their personal belongings at the center's soundstage, but it was settled without incident. Crew members also learned earlier that their lodging at a Springfield motel has been terminated.

The $5.5 million movie, based on Anton Chekhov's classic play "The Three Sisters," stars Rip Torn, Chris O'Donnell, Maria Bello, Mary Stuart Masterson and Erika Christensen. It's the first major commercial movie filmed in Lane County in eight years.

Actor Rip Torn, starring in the movie "The Sisters," talks with union agent Charlie Carlsen on Sunday outside the Chambers Media Center, where union members, including assistant propmaster John Pearson-Denning (below, right) were picketing.

The crux of the labor dispute appears to center on the Chambers production company's refusal to sign a contract with members of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees Local 488, said Charlie Carlsen, the union's business manager.

The set crew - about 65 camera operators, makeup artists, hair stylists, electricians, grips, gaffers and other technical workers - are union members who agreed to work on the movie without a contract while the Portland-based local negotiated one on their behalf, Carlsen said. They seek a "health and welfare" benefit that would go into individual annuity funds to help cover future health care expenses, he said.

The movie has been in production since mid-April and is about a week away from wrapping up, Carlsen said. The union decided to strike when it appeared that the film's production company, CSC Sisters LLC, planned to complete filming without agreeing to a union contract, he said.

Carolyn Chambers, the company's managing partner, and Jerrold Pierce, the movie's executive in charge of production, didn't return phone messages seeking comment.

But in a two-page memo to crew members dated Saturday and titled "Possible Work Stoppage," Chambers and Pierce said any walkout or picketing would force the company to "hire temporary replacements in order to complete this production in a timely fashion."

The memo accused the union of trying to force the company into a union contract "without the benefit of the secret ballot election process guaranteed by the federal government."

The memo said each crew member signed an individual agreement with the company at the time of hiring. "The company did not have an existing union relationship at the time such work was offered, and each of you committed to work throughout the project on the basis of the individual contracts," the memo said.

Carlsen said the individual contracts are standard agreements about salary and other work conditions and don't preclude union members from strike actions. A secret ballot election administered through the National Labor Relations Board typically takes six to 12 months, long after production on the movie would be over, he said.

Carlsen said a "great majority" of the crew members signed authorization cards giving the union local authority to negotiate a contract and, if necessary, call a strike. Most of the local's members live in Oregon, he said.

The movie's stars are members of the Screen Actors Guild and are contractually obliged to work whenever called by a production company to do so, Carlsen said. The actors didn't work Sunday for lack of a set crew, but are expected to do so today if a replacement crew is on hand, he said.

But the actors support the union, said Carlsen, who visited Sunday afternoon at the strike scene with Rip Torn. Bello and Masterson brought refreshments to the strikers earlier in the day, other crew members said.

Carlsen said the union has worked hard for years to attract film-making companies to Eugene and the Chambers center's soundstages. "We thought we had a partnership that we now think has been violated," he said.

John Pearson-Denning, a 1979 graduate of South Eugene High School hired as an assistant propmaster for the film, was among about 40 crew members lounging on the grass in front of the Chambers media complex.

Pearson-Denning said the health benefit sought amounts to about $40 a day per employee, or about $1,000 per worker for the life of the production. He said he has worked on movies with smaller budgets and less-known actors, including "Elephant" filmed in Portland, that included the benefit.

"The fact that this crew was not (unionized) from the get-go is very unusual," he said. "But the company wants to play hardball."

Eugene police were called to the scene shortly after 6 p.m. when union members complained that Chambers wouldn't allow them to retrieve personal belongings on the premises. No one was arrested.

"We were just there to help them facilitate that," police Lt. Ron Roberts said. "We were just being cautious."

The workers were later allowed to retrieve their belongings, but were videotaped and ushered by security guards, Carlsen said.